- Ashot I Kuropalates
Ashot I Kuropalates (Georgian: აშოტ I კურაპალატი, "Ashot I Kurapalati"), presiding prince of Iberia for the
Caliph and the Byzantine Emperor(end of the 8th cent. - 830). In traditional Georgian history writing, based on the works of PrinceVakhushti Bagrationi andMarie-Félicité Brosset , Ashot I Kuropalates, also known as Ashot the Great, is regarded as the founder of the GeorgianBagrationi dynasty. His reign is assumed to have begun in 786 or even in 780; Ashot would thus have been the direct successor of St Archil, the last member of the old royal house of the Iberian Chosroids. However, the real date of Ashot's accession must have been later, since the last acquisitions of lands by his father Adarnase which are mentioned in the sources could only have taken place after the death of Archil.The claim put forward in traditional Georgian genealogy, that Ashot I was a descendant of the 6th-century prince Guaram I (c.570-c.595), the alleged first Bagratid ruler of Iberia, cannot be sustained since Ashot’s father Adarnase was the grandson of
Ashot III Bagratuni (732-748), presiding prince ofArmenia for theCaliph .Ashot I initially presided as an "erismtavari" in the area around
Tbilisi and ruled over a territory that comprised most of the lands fromKvemo Kartli (“Lower Kartli”) in the south toShida Kartli (“Inner Kartli”) in the north. Waging an incessant war against theArabs , he at first succeeded in driving them from his dominions, but the Arabs soon took revenge, forcing him to flee from centralKartli to his south-western possessions inTao-Klarjeti . Recognised as the presiding prince of Iberia and bestowed with the highest Byzantine court title of a "kuropalates", he established himself in the deserted province ofKlarjeti , where he restored the castle of Artanuji (nowArdanuç , northeastTurkey ) said to have been built by the Iberian king Vakhtang I Gorgasal in the 5th century. To revive the country devastated by the Arabs and cholera epidemics, he patronized the local monastic community established byGrigol Khandzteli , and encouraged the settlement of the Georgians in the region. As a result, the political and religious centres of Iberia/Georgia were effectively transferred from centralKartli to the south-western provinces ofTao-Klarjeti .From his base in
Klarjeti , Ashot fought hard to recover more Georgian lands from the Arab occupation and, though not always successful, succeeded in taking much of the adjoining lands from Tao in the southwest to Shida Kartli in the northeast. Towards the late 810s, he allied withTheodosius II of Abkhazia (810/811-836/837) in order to stop the advancingKakheti an prince/"chorepiscopus" Grigol who had occupied part of Ashot’s territories in Shida Kartli. Even though Grigol was aided by both the Arabemir of Tbilisi, and the Caucasian mountain tribes of theMtiulians and theTsanars , he was defeated by Ashot in the battle on theKsani river , and the outcome of the battle was that Ashot could restore his authority in the region.In 827/828, Khalid b. Yazid, the Arab viceroy of "Armīniya", began a major onslaught against Ashot’s principality. Ashot I must have been still alive at that time, and the information provided by the Georgian chronicler Sumbat, according to which Ashot I should have been murdered in 826, is doubtful. It is more likely that the event took place four years later, in 830. Ashot was buried in the church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul which he had built in Artanuji. He is canonized by the
Georgian Orthodox Church , which celebrates his memory on the day of his martyrdom, January 29.References
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Cyril Toumanoff , Date of the death of the Curopalates Ashot, "Le Museon", LХ1Х, 1 — 2, 1956, pp. 83—85.
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