The Abazasdze was a noble family in medieval Georgia

Georgia (country)

Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...

, probably an offshoot of the Georgian feudal house of Tbeli. A purported founder of the Abazasdze dynasty, Tbeli Abazay, is recorded in the 11th century inscription from Bortsvisjvari. The family had attained to the high dignity of eristavi

Eristavi

Eristavi was a Georgian feudal office, roughly equivalent to the Byzantine strategos and normally translated into English as "duke". In the Georgian aristocratic hierarchy, it was the title of the third rank of prince and governor of a large province...

 (i.e., a hereditary governor) of Kartli

Kartli

Kartli is a historical region in central-to-eastern Georgia traversed by the river Mtkvari , on which Georgia's capital, Tbilisi, is situated. Known to the Classical authors as Iberia, Kartli played a crucial role in ethnic and political consolidation of the Georgians in the Middle Ages...

 by the first half of the 11th century.

Ivane Abazasdze

Ivane Abazasdze

Ivane Abazasdze was a 11th-century Georgian feudal lord who functioned as an eristavi of Kartli under King Bagrat IV of Georgia . During the king’s minority, he assumed an important place in the country’s aristocratic regency government...

, the most prominent member of this dynasty, grew powerful enough to challenge the authority of King Bagrat IV of Georgia

Bagrat IV of Georgia

Bagrat IV , of the Bagrationi dynasty, was the King of Georgia from 1027 to 1072. During his long and eventful reign, Bagrat sought to repress the great nobility and to secure Georgia's sovereignty from the Byzantine and Seljuqid empires...

 (reigned 1027-1072), who tried to eliminate or at least restrict the powers of great nobles. This confrontation with the Bagratid

Bagrationi Dynasty

The Bagrationi dynasty was the ruling family of Georgia. Their ascendency lasted from the early Middle Ages until the early 19th century. In modern usage, this royal line is frequently referred to as the Georgian Bagratids, a Hellenized form of their dynastic name.The origin of the Bagrationi...

 crown resulted in the defeat and eventual decline of the Abazasdzes of whom we hear rarely throughout the following centuries.

A branch of the dynasty had been enfeoffed, by 1405, of the former possessions of the Abuletisdze

Abuletisdze

Abuletisdze was a Georgian noble family – eristavs – with its most prominent members in the 12th and 13th century. The family held appanages in the valleys of Aragvi and Tedzami in the eastern province of Kakheti....

 family in Kakheti

Kakheti

Kakheti is a historical province in Eastern Georgia inhabited by Kakhetians who speak a local dialect of Georgian. It is bordered by the small mountainous province of Tusheti and the Greater Caucasus mountain range to the north, Russian Federation to the Northeast, Azerbaijan to the Southeast, and...

; another survived into the 18th century as gentry (aznauri

Aznauri

Aznauri was a class of Georgian nobility; the term that was first applied to all nobles, but in the later Middle Ages narrowed to designate the petty nobles....

) in Upper Kartli, but played no significant role in the country’s political life.

Sources

• Georgia in the XI-XII centuries by Mariam Lordkiphanidze (George B. Hewitt, ed., 1967), pg 52. Tbilisi
  Tbilisi
  Tbilisi is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Mt'k'vari River. The name is derived from an early Georgian form T'pilisi and it was officially known as Tiflis until 1936...
  
  : Ganatleba.