Amiran-Darejaniani
Encyclopedia
Amiran-Darejaniani translated into English
as "The story of Amiran, son of Darejan", is a medieval Georgian
romance
, dating probably from the early or middle decades of the twelfth century. It is one of those literary works which heralded the emergence of native secular literature after several centuries of domination by patristic tradition. It is a prose tale of battling knights in twelve episodes attributed to Moses of Khoni (Mose Khoneli; მოსე ხონელი). This attribution is found in the epilogue
of Vep’khis-tqaosani
, an epic poem by Shota Rustaveli
, the greatest classic of medieval Georgian literature, and is otherwise unknown. A tradition holds it that Moses came from the town of Khoni
in western Georgia, and, like Rustaveli, served at the court of Queen Tamar (r.
1184-1213), who presided over the Georgian "Golden Age"
.
Amiran-Darejaniani was first published by the self-educated Georgian literary critic and bibliophile Zakaria Chichinadze in 1896, followed by several critical editions in the 20th century. The epos was first introduced to the English-speaking world through a translation by Robert Horne Stevenson in 1958. Next appeared a Russian
translation by Bidzina Abuladze in 1965.
which Georgian authors admired and translated; Visramiani
, a free Georgian rendition of Vis o Ramin, being the closest to the period in question. Moses of Khoni's composition gave rise to a whole cycle of legends, handed down by the village story-teller. So involved has the interrelation of the literary and folk variants become that some leading experts have suggested that the folk variants, stemming from the legends about Amirani
, preceded the literary Amiran-Darejaniani, rather than being derived from it. The Persian and Arabic names and the lack of specific Georgian references in the text have led to a hypothesis, suggested by Marie-Félicité Brosset
and Nicholas Marr, but now largely discredited, that Amiran-Darejaniani is a translation of a lost Persian text. Yet, the influence of Persian epic tradition, particularly Ferdowsi
’s Shahnameh
, is strongly felt.
Over the five following centuries Amiran-Darejaniani was also versified several times. Beyond this, the reflections of Amiran-Darejaniani are also noticeable in Shota Rustaveli’s work. Yet, Amiran-Darejaniani has a flavor somewhat different from that of Visramiani and Vep’khis-tqaosani. Its narrative is less elaborate and adorned, but rather pure and simple – an account of endless battles and joustings, with a strong fairy-tale elements such as dragons, evil spirits, mythic monsters devi, magic men of copper, miraculous elixirs, and other supernatural phenomena.
Amiran-Darejaniani is composed of twelve prose sections or "gates", whose order is often transposed in manuscripts which date to the 17th and 18th century. Set in the Orient
al-themed fictional world, the narrative evolves around Amiran, son of Darejan (Amiran Darejanisdze), whose heroic exploits and adventures are related in five sections. The remaining sections are dedicated to other heroes and have no strong connection with each other. Soviet
critics have attempted to see in Amiran-Darejaniani a mirror of the society of feudal Georgia, but neither national nor religious pathos plays a role in the tale, its primary focus being on the praise of chivalric ideals of fearlessness and male solidarity as well as vivid description of battle scenes. Its heroes are typically of enormous physical strength, fearless, warlike, merciful toward their defeated human enemies, generous and chivalrous. Yet, courtly love
praised by Rustaveli is absent in this story and female interest is minimal. For the heroes of Amiran-Darejaniani, a woman’s love is won by a sword and is no more than a pretext for even greater battles.
ns, is haunted by a mysterious portrait of knights with a short message relating that a daughter of the King of the Seas was delivered by these men from captivity of the kaji, a tribe of evil sorcerers. Abesalom eventually seeks out the last survivor depicted, Savarsamidze, who then becomes one of the main narrators of the romance. Thus the painting, which turns out to illustrate Amiran son of Darejan and his associates, is expanded into a series of tales told to King Abesalom about Amiran and his followers Savarsamidze, Nosar and Badri on their violent missions.
We then hear of Amiran meeting a black-clad and weeping stranger who relates a story of his patron, the knight Badri, son of Iaman (Badri Iamanisdze), who is seized by the monster Baqbaq-Devi on his way back from an extremely dangerous but ultimately successful mission to free and marry the daughter of the King of the Seas. Another valiant knight, Nosar Nosreli, sent by the King of the Seas to deliver Badri, shares the same fate. Amiran, accompanied by his servant Savarsimisdze and the black-clad man, sets out on a campaign to free the captured knights. After a wild sequence of battles, encounters with monsters and other adventures, Amiran relieves Badri and Nosar, and murders Baqbaq-Devi. Victorious, Amiran departs to seek a jousting with the renowned Arab warrior Ambri from the Yemen
who has gained fame, among other things, for his defeat of three Turkish
giants and liberation of Arabia, but finds Ambri dead. Amiran then travels, following to the request of Amir Mumli of Baghdad
, to the Land of the Stars where he defeats all knights seeking hands of the seven beautiful daughters of King Aspan and brings three of these maidens as brides to the sons of Mumli. After this, Amiran departs, inspired by a dream, to the Land of Talismans and marries a local beauty Khvareshan, having overcome numerous obstacles on his way. Next comes a tale of the famed warrior Sepedavle, son of Darispan (Sepedavle Darispanisdze), whose deeds intrigues Amiran into challenging him into a single combat
which does not reveal a victor and the two men become friends. They together move to Ghazna where they kill five local giants and massacre the entire populace, avenging a treacherous murder of the noble knight Mzechabuki ("sun-like youth"). In the last chapter Amiran saves Balkh
from a demon that devastates the city and marries a daughter of the local king, returning home with fame and glory.
.
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
as "The story of Amiran, son of Darejan", is a medieval Georgian
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...
romance
Romance (genre)
As a literary genre of high culture, romance or chivalric romance is a style of heroic prose and verse narrative that was popular in the aristocratic circles of High Medieval and Early Modern Europe. They were fantastic stories about marvel-filled adventures, often of a knight errant portrayed as...
, dating probably from the early or middle decades of the twelfth century. It is one of those literary works which heralded the emergence of native secular literature after several centuries of domination by patristic tradition. It is a prose tale of battling knights in twelve episodes attributed to Moses of Khoni (Mose Khoneli; მოსე ხონელი). This attribution is found in the epilogue
Epilogue
An epilogue, epilog or afterword is a piece of writing at the end of a work of literature or drama, usually used to bring closure to the work...
of Vep’khis-tqaosani
The Knight in the Panther's Skin
The Knight in the Panther's Skin is an epic poem, consisting of over 1600 shairi quatrains, was written in the 12th century by the Georgian epic-poet Shota Rustaveli, who was a Prince and Treasurer at the royal court of Queen Tamar of Georgia. The Knight in the Panther's Skin is often seen as...
, an epic poem by Shota Rustaveli
Shota Rustaveli
Shota Rustaveli was a Georgian poet of the 12th century, and one of the greatest contributors to Georgian literature. He is author of "The Knight in the Panther's Skin" , the Georgian national epic poem....
, the greatest classic of medieval Georgian literature, and is otherwise unknown. A tradition holds it that Moses came from the town of Khoni
Khoni
Khoni is a town in the Western Georgian region of Imereti with the population of 11,300 . It is situated on the left bank of the Tskhenistkali River in the north-west of Imereti, close to the border with the region of Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti and 266 km west of Georgia's capital Tbilisi. The town...
in western Georgia, and, like Rustaveli, served at the court of Queen Tamar (r.
Reign
A reign is the term used to describe the period of a person's or dynasty's occupation of the office of monarch of a nation or of a people . In most hereditary monarchies and some elective monarchies A reign is the term used to describe the period of a person's or dynasty's occupation of the office...
1184-1213), who presided over the Georgian "Golden Age"
Golden Age (metaphor)
A golden age is a period in a field of endeavour when great tasks were accomplished. The term originated from early Greek and Roman poets who used to refer to a time when mankind lived in a better time and was pure .-Golden Age in society:...
.
Amiran-Darejaniani was first published by the self-educated Georgian literary critic and bibliophile Zakaria Chichinadze in 1896, followed by several critical editions in the 20th century. The epos was first introduced to the English-speaking world through a translation by Robert Horne Stevenson in 1958. Next appeared a Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
translation by Bidzina Abuladze in 1965.
Origin and context
Amiran-Darejaniani is the oldest survived original Georgian romance, but its roots can be traced both in Georgian folk tradition and Persian eposPersian literature
Persian literature spans two-and-a-half millennia, though much of the pre-Islamic material has been lost. Its sources have been within historical Persia including present-day Iran as well as regions of Central Asia where the Persian language has historically been the national language...
which Georgian authors admired and translated; Visramiani
Visramiani
Visramiani is a medieval Georgian version of the old Iranian love story Vīs and Rāmīn, traditionally taken to have been rendered in prose by Sargis of T'mogvi, a 12th/13th-century statesman and writer active during the reign of Queen Tamar Visramiani is a medieval Georgian version of the old...
, a free Georgian rendition of Vis o Ramin, being the closest to the period in question. Moses of Khoni's composition gave rise to a whole cycle of legends, handed down by the village story-teller. So involved has the interrelation of the literary and folk variants become that some leading experts have suggested that the folk variants, stemming from the legends about Amirani
Amirani
Amirani is the name of a culture hero of a Georgian epic who resembles the Classical Prometheus. Various versions of the myth reveal a process through which the myth was transformed over time, but the legend itself is traced between 3,000 and 2,000 years BC at the beginning of the first Iron Age,...
, preceded the literary Amiran-Darejaniani, rather than being derived from it. The Persian and Arabic names and the lack of specific Georgian references in the text have led to a hypothesis, suggested by Marie-Félicité Brosset
Marie-Félicité Brosset
Marie-Félicité Brosset was a French orientalist who specialized in Georgian and Armenian studies.He was born in Paris into the family of a poor merchant who died the same year that Brosset was born...
and Nicholas Marr, but now largely discredited, that Amiran-Darejaniani is a translation of a lost Persian text. Yet, the influence of Persian epic tradition, particularly Ferdowsi
Ferdowsi
Ferdowsi was a highly revered Persian poet. He was the author of the Shahnameh, the national epic of Iran and related societies.The Shahnameh was originally composed by Ferdowsi for the princes of the Samanid dynasty, who were responsible for a revival of Persian cultural traditions after the...
’s Shahnameh
Shahnameh
The Shahnameh or Shah-nama is a long epic poem written by the Persian poet Ferdowsi between c.977 and 1010 AD and is the national epic of Iran and related societies...
, is strongly felt.
Over the five following centuries Amiran-Darejaniani was also versified several times. Beyond this, the reflections of Amiran-Darejaniani are also noticeable in Shota Rustaveli’s work. Yet, Amiran-Darejaniani has a flavor somewhat different from that of Visramiani and Vep’khis-tqaosani. Its narrative is less elaborate and adorned, but rather pure and simple – an account of endless battles and joustings, with a strong fairy-tale elements such as dragons, evil spirits, mythic monsters devi, magic men of copper, miraculous elixirs, and other supernatural phenomena.
Amiran-Darejaniani is composed of twelve prose sections or "gates", whose order is often transposed in manuscripts which date to the 17th and 18th century. Set in the Orient
Orient
The Orient means "the East." It is a traditional designation for anything that belongs to the Eastern world or the Far East, in relation to Europe. In English it is a metonym that means various parts of Asia.- Derivation :...
al-themed fictional world, the narrative evolves around Amiran, son of Darejan (Amiran Darejanisdze), whose heroic exploits and adventures are related in five sections. The remaining sections are dedicated to other heroes and have no strong connection with each other. Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
critics have attempted to see in Amiran-Darejaniani a mirror of the society of feudal Georgia, but neither national nor religious pathos plays a role in the tale, its primary focus being on the praise of chivalric ideals of fearlessness and male solidarity as well as vivid description of battle scenes. Its heroes are typically of enormous physical strength, fearless, warlike, merciful toward their defeated human enemies, generous and chivalrous. Yet, courtly love
Courtly love
Courtly love was a medieval European conception of nobly and chivalrously expressing love and admiration. Generally, courtly love was secret and between members of the nobility. It was also generally not practiced between husband and wife....
praised by Rustaveli is absent in this story and female interest is minimal. For the heroes of Amiran-Darejaniani, a woman’s love is won by a sword and is no more than a pretext for even greater battles.
Synopsis
The cycle begins with an introduction in which Abesalom, king of the IndiaIndia
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
ns, is haunted by a mysterious portrait of knights with a short message relating that a daughter of the King of the Seas was delivered by these men from captivity of the kaji, a tribe of evil sorcerers. Abesalom eventually seeks out the last survivor depicted, Savarsamidze, who then becomes one of the main narrators of the romance. Thus the painting, which turns out to illustrate Amiran son of Darejan and his associates, is expanded into a series of tales told to King Abesalom about Amiran and his followers Savarsamidze, Nosar and Badri on their violent missions.
We then hear of Amiran meeting a black-clad and weeping stranger who relates a story of his patron, the knight Badri, son of Iaman (Badri Iamanisdze), who is seized by the monster Baqbaq-Devi on his way back from an extremely dangerous but ultimately successful mission to free and marry the daughter of the King of the Seas. Another valiant knight, Nosar Nosreli, sent by the King of the Seas to deliver Badri, shares the same fate. Amiran, accompanied by his servant Savarsimisdze and the black-clad man, sets out on a campaign to free the captured knights. After a wild sequence of battles, encounters with monsters and other adventures, Amiran relieves Badri and Nosar, and murders Baqbaq-Devi. Victorious, Amiran departs to seek a jousting with the renowned Arab warrior Ambri from the Yemen
Yemen
The Republic of Yemen , commonly known as Yemen , is a country located in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east....
who has gained fame, among other things, for his defeat of three Turkish
Turkish people
Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...
giants and liberation of Arabia, but finds Ambri dead. Amiran then travels, following to the request of Amir Mumli of Baghdad
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
, to the Land of the Stars where he defeats all knights seeking hands of the seven beautiful daughters of King Aspan and brings three of these maidens as brides to the sons of Mumli. After this, Amiran departs, inspired by a dream, to the Land of Talismans and marries a local beauty Khvareshan, having overcome numerous obstacles on his way. Next comes a tale of the famed warrior Sepedavle, son of Darispan (Sepedavle Darispanisdze), whose deeds intrigues Amiran into challenging him into a single combat
Single combat
Single combat is a fight between two single warriors which takes place in the context of a battle between two armies, with the two often considered the champions of their respective sides...
which does not reveal a victor and the two men become friends. They together move to Ghazna where they kill five local giants and massacre the entire populace, avenging a treacherous murder of the noble knight Mzechabuki ("sun-like youth"). In the last chapter Amiran saves Balkh
Balkh
Balkh , was an ancient city and centre of Zoroastrianism in what is now northern Afghanistan. Today it is a small town in the province of Balkh, about 20 kilometers northwest of the provincial capital, Mazar-e Sharif, and some south of the Amu Darya. It was one of the major cities of Khorasan...
from a demon that devastates the city and marries a daughter of the local king, returning home with fame and glory.
External links
მოსე ხონელი, "ამირანდარეჯანიანი" (Mose Khoneli, Amiran-Darejaniani - a full text). Georgian ebooks, National Parliamentary Library of GeorgiaNational Parliamentary Library of Georgia
The National Parliamentary Library of Georgia is a governmental organization under the Parliament of Georgia. It is the main book depository of Georgia, as well as the most important cultural, educational, scientific, informational and methodological centre....
.