The Kartvelologist

The Kartvelologist” is a bilingual (Georgian and English) peer-reviewed, academic journal, covering all spheres of Kartvelological scholarship. Along with introducing scholarly novelties in Georgian Studies, it aims at popularization of essays of Georgian researchers on the international level and diffusion of foreign Kartvelological scholarship in Georgian scholarly circles.


“The Kartvelologist” issues both in printed and electronic form. In 1993-2009 it came out only in printed form (#1-15). The publisher is the “Centre for Kartvelian Studies” (TSU), financially supported by the “Fund of the Kartvelological School”. In 2011-2013 the journal is financed by Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation.





New Russian Translation of “The Life of Grigol Khandzteli”

 

grigThe first editor of The Life of Grigol Khandzteli Nicholas Marr accompanied work with an entire volume of Russian translations along with researches and the diary about the journey in Tao-Klarjeti and Shavsheti. It was the start of the Giorgi Merchule’s story narrated in a foreign language. Very soon in 1917-1919 the Latin translation of the Life of Grigol Khandzteli was performed by Paul Peeters and in 1922-1923 along with other important Georgian works was published (Vie de St. Gregoire de Khandztha). Later, in 1956, „Lives and Legends of the Georgian Saints“ by David Marshall Lang with English translation of the Life of Grigol Khadzteli performed by Lang was published. (“The Life of St. Gregory of Khandzta”: Lives and Legends of the Georgian Saints, London 1956, pp. 155-65); in 2015 an American scholar of Norwegian origin Theophane-Erik Halvorson introduced a new English translation of The Life accompanied with the pictures captured in Nikozi. Before it in the December 1999 the 42nd  edition of Russian journal Symbol located in Paris published new Russian translation of The Life of Grigol Khandzteli [9, pp. 245-341] made by Jozeph Zeteishvili. In 2008 Moscow publishing house CRITERIUM re-edited this masterpiece of Georgian Hagiog­raphy in the series named „mother of the Saints”. The present work is dedicated to the Russian translation  made by Archpriest Ioseb Zeteishvili.

 


keywords:Giorgi Merchule, Grigol Khandzteli, Gregory from Khandzta, Georgian Hagiography, Ioseb Zeteishvili, Joseph Zeteishvili Category: SCHOLARLY STUDIES Authors: Sophio Guliashvili
Theological Meaning of the Paintings of Matskhvarishi Archangel’s Church

 

ghagThis article discusses the fresco paintings of Zemo Svaneti Latali Matskvarishi Church of the Archangels and their ideological-theological designation. In these paintings the iconography of the scenes of the Christological cycle, their compositional structure are noticeably complicated. The subjects are not arranged in either historical or chronological order and various iconographic schemes are employed. Concepts of the Resurrection and Sacrifice, which are presented in the sanctuary and the western wall decor, are further developed on the walls of the church. The scenes placed in different registers echo each other ideologically and make up the image of Christ’s glory in the arch. Specific sections present the scenes that are unified within a theological concept, related to each other in a semantic way that clearly shows deep theological thoughts distinguished by including different scenarios: annunciation, revelation, victim, resurrection and salvation of conceptual accents are distributed on the wall- arch. Announcement concerning the embodiment of the Lord, his wordly eminence (“Annunciation,” “Nativity”), manifestation of the divine nature of Christ Redeemer (“Candlemas,” “Transfiguration,” “The raising of Lazarus”, “Descent of the Holy Spirit,” “Dormition of the Mother of God”), sacrifice offered by him (“The crucifixion”), resurrection – arrival with glory, (“Resurrection”, “Christ of Old Days”) The above-mentioned ensemble of paintings is associated with the salvation of the soul and the concept of the resurrection.

 


keywords:Zemo Svaneti, Church, Mural painting, Iconography, Theological thought Category: SCHOLARLY STUDIES Authors: Ketevan Gongadze
Marjory Wardrop and Guria

 

marjori

One of the most famous English women in the Republic of Georgia is Marjory Wardrop (1869-1909), who translated the Georgian national epic poem, “The man in the panther’s skin” into English. This article describes her visit to the region of Guria, in the West of Georgia, in 1895. Marjory Wardrop visited Georgia only twice in her life. Her first visit was in 1894-5. She travelled with her mother from England, by train and boat, arriving at Batumi in December 1894. Her brother Oliver was already in Georgia. This is how Marjory described her arrival: “One morning, about the middle of December 1894, after a voyage of thirteen days from Marseilles, I awoke to find our steamer lying outside the port of Batum. The day had just dawned, and the town was veiled in a chilling mist, but from time to time a glimpse might be caught of the high mountains beyond. It was my first glimpse of the land which I had so often pictured to myself, in visions of night as well as in my waking dreams. Since first my interest had been aroused in the Ancient Kingdom of Georgia, in its beautiful scenery, in its brave and handsome inhabitants, in its rich literature and, above all, in its sad yet glorious history, I had longed for the day when I should myself visit those places of which I had read and thought, when I should perhaps meet those poets in whose works I had found so much delight”


keywords:Marjory Wardrop, Nino Gurieli, Ozurgeti Category: CHRONICLE OF EVENTS Authors: Anthony Stobart
On publishing Twenty-Five Years in the Caucasus, 1842-1867, by Arnold L. Zisserman

 

201The English-language reader interested in life and events in the Caucasus and Georgia during the Russian-Muslim wars of the 1820s-1860s will find that comprehensive resources are relatively few. John Baddeley, Moshe Gammer and the collaborative trio of Thomas Sanders, Ernest Tucker and Gary Hamburg (see bibliography) have provided sub­stantive accounts of military operations, with the above-named trio also providing valuable excerpts from the Muslim-viewpoint account of Muhammad Tahir al-Qarakhi. A few senior officers, notably General Tornau and the commanders-in-chief Vorontsov and Bariatinski, wrote memoirs which addressed the conflict, while Tolstoy’s The Cossacks and Hadji Murad skillfully present the war environment, participants and scenes of action. Finally, Lesley Blanch provides a far-ranging account of Shamil and the war in her book, The Sabres of Paradise. However, what are noticeably lacking are any English translations of long-span memoirs by civilians and military men who lived through the war years. Thus, it is hoped that publication in English of Arnold L. Zisserman’s Russian-language Twenty-Five Years in the Caucasus, 1842-1867 will prove to be a positive step in improving the situation. 


keywords:Zisserman, Twenty-Five Years in the Caucasus Category: CHRONICLE OF EVENTS Authors: PETER SCINNER
On the Monograph “Medieval Georgian Romance The Man in a Panther-Skin and Shakespeare’s Late Plays” by Elguja Khintibidze

MonographProfessor Elguja Khintibidze’s extraordinary studies establish, for the first time, a fascinating connection between English Elizabethan theatre and the great Georgian national 12th century epic by Shota Rustaveli, The Knight in the Panther Skin. Based on the most rigorous textual analysis, he demon­strates, seemingly incontro­vertib­ly, that remarkable similarities in theme, setting, plot, action and character – way beyond any mere coincidence of archetypes – show the clear influence of the Georgian epic upon both Shakespeare and Beaumont&Fletcher, particularly in Cymbeline, and Philaster and A King No King with the last actually set in Iberia, the classical name for Georgia.

 


keywords:monograph, Rustaveli, Shakespeare Category: CHRONICLE OF EVENTS Authors: Anthony Anderson