Town · Kingdom of Georgia · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Bichvinta

Coastal town with the great cathedral built by Bagrat III at the end of the 10th century, seat of the Catholicos of Abkhazia, head of the church of western Georgia.

The Genoese trading post here (Pezonda) is a late 13th-century thing (later).

Who holds it

Name
The Catholicos of Abkhazia (not pinned)
Title
Lord
Since
Not pinned
Confidence
low

Lord in 1200

The Catholicos of Abkhazia (western Georgia) holds the cathedral and its lands, under the eristavi of Tskhumi and the crown; name not pinned.

How things stand that morning

The Catholicos of Abkhazia (western Georgia) holds the cathedral and its lands, under the eristavi of Tskhumi and the crown; name not pinned.

Charter

None recorded.

Council

None recorded.

Communities

Georgians and Abkhaz; clergy.

Fairs and markets

None recorded.

Militia

None recorded.

Walls and castle

Old Roman and Byzantine fort walls.

Trade and crafts

Coastal trade.

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

  1. 1200No dated event recorded.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: General accounts; no source pins the place's state on 1 January 1200.

Primary sources for Georgia

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

  • The Chronicle of Michael the Syrian (Michael the Great), Michael the Syrian, patriarch of Antioch 1166 to 1199 (about 1180 to 1195). The Jacobite patriarch's world chronicle, in parallel columns of church, secular and miscellaneous events, ending four years before 1200 and shortly before his own death on 7 November 1199, which left the Syrian Orthodox church with a disputed succession in 1200. Read online
  • The History of Derbent and Shirvan, as preserved in Munejjim-bashi's Jami al-duwal, Anonymous (an 11th-century author of Derbent, excerpted by Munejjim-bashi, died 1702) (about 1075; preserved in an Ottoman compilation of the 1670s). The only local history of the Shirvanshahs and the emirs of Derbent, surviving as extracts in a 17th-century Ottoman compilation.
  • The Complete History, Izz al-Din Ibn al-Athir (about 1200 to 1231, at Mosul). The widest Muslim narrative for the years 596 to 597 AH (1199 to 1201): al-Adil's entry into Cairo and his taking of the sultanate from his nephew al-Mansur Muhammad early in 1200, the quarrels of the Ayyubid princes at Damascus, Aleppo and Hama, the Nile failure and the great famine of Egypt, Mosul under Nur al-Din Arslan Shah and the Jazira under Gokbori and the Artuqids, Baghdad under the caliph al-Nasir, the Khwarazmshah Tekish's death in 1200 and Muhammad's accession, the Ghurid wars in Khurasan, the Eldiguzids and Georgia, the Almohads in the west, and the Seljuks of Rum in passing. Read online
  • History of the Armenians, Kirakos Gandzaketsi (1241 to 1265). Written at Getik and Gandzak in the Zakarid lands of Georgian Armenia. Read online
  • The Georgian Chronicles: the Histories and Eulogies of the Sovereigns, and the Life of Queen Tamar, Anonymous, attributed to the chancellor Theodore of Chqondidi and to Basili, master of the court (about 1210 to 1225). Two court histories of Queen Tamar written within a generation. Read online
  • The Historical Compilation of Vardan Areveltsi, Vardan Areveltsi (about 1267 to 1271). A short universal history that for the 12th and 13th centuries follows Samuel of Ani, Michael the Syrian (which Vardan helped translate into Armenian in 1248) and Kirakos. Read online
  • The History of the Seljuks of Rum, Ibn Bibi (Nasir al-Din Husayn ibn Muhammad) (about 1281 to 1285, at Konya). The main Seljuk narrative for Rum begins with Kilij Arslan II's partition of the sultanate among his sons and his death (1192), Kaykhusraw I's first reign at Konya, his deposition in 1196 to 1197 by Rukn al-Din Sulayman II, Kaykhusraw's wanderings to Cilician Armenia, Aleppo and Constantinople, Sulayman's reduction of his brothers' towns (Tokat, Malatya, Amasya, and Ankara by 1204) and his Erzurum and Georgian campaigns. Read online

Sources and studies

  1. Pitsunda (Wikipedia)

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.