Conversion of Kartli
Encyclopedia
The Conversion of Kartli is the earliest surviving 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...

 historical compendium, independent from The Georgian Chronicles
The Georgian Chronicles
The Georgian Chronicles is a conventional English name for the principal compendium of medieval Georgian historical texts Kartlis Tskhovreba , literally "life of Kartli", Kartli being a core region of ancient and medieval Georgia, known to the Classical and Byzantine authors as Iberia...

, the major corpus historicum of medieval Georgia. Written in the 7th and 9th centuries, this chronicle follows the history 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...

 (a core Georgian region known to the Classical
Classical antiquity
Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ancient Greece and ancient Rome, collectively known as the Greco-Roman world...

 authors as Iberia
Caucasian Iberia
Iberia , also known as Iveria , was a name given by the ancient Greeks and Romans to the ancient Georgian kingdom of Kartli , corresponding roughly to the eastern and southern parts of the present day Georgia...

; sometimes archaically referred to all of Georgia) from the earliest times to the 7th century, making a particular focus on Christianization
Christianization
The historical phenomenon of Christianization is the conversion of individuals to Christianity or the conversion of entire peoples at once...

 of Georgians
Georgians
The Georgians are an ethnic group that have originated in Georgia, where they constitute a majority of the population. Large Georgian communities are also present throughout Russia, European Union, United States, and South America....

 by Saint Nino
Saint Nino
Saint Nino , ), Equal to the Apostles in and the Enlightener of Georgia, was a woman who preached Christianity in Georgia....

 early in the 4th century.

Codices

The autograph of The Conversion of Kartli (CoK) has not survived and until recently there were only two manuscripts which have been extensively studied. These are the codices of Shatberdi and Chelishi.

The Shatberdi Codex, the oldest of the extant CoK manuscripts, was copied in 973 under the supervision of the monk John at the Georgian monastery of Shatberdi in what is now northeastern Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

. It was discovered in 1888 and published in 1890 by the Georgian scholar Ekvtime Taqaishvili. The second variant, Chelishi Codex, so named after a monastery in Georgia where it was found in 1903, was copied in the 14th or 15th century. Following the 1975 fire at St. Catherine’s monastery
Saint Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai
Saint Catherine's Monastery lies on the Sinai Peninsula, at the mouth of a gorge at the foot of Mount Sinai in the city of Saint Catherine in Egypt's South Sinai Governorate. The monastery is Orthodox and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site...

 on Mount Sinai
Mount Sinai
Mount Sinai , also known as Mount Horeb, Mount Musa, Gabal Musa , Jabal Musa meaning "Moses' Mountain", is a mountain near Saint Catherine in the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt. A mountain called Mount Sinai is mentioned many times in the Book of Exodus in the Torah and the Bible as well as the Quran...

, at least two hitherto unknown variants of CoK were discovered among a large number of Georgian manuscripts mainly dated to the 9th/10th century. They have not yet been completely studied, though.

The Shatberdi and Chelishi codices are basically linguistically similar and nearly contemporaneous. The latter, however, contains substantial variations including a number of elaborated passages. Its narrative is longer, but somewhat disfigured orthographically and phonetically by an anonymous copyist. Many passages of the Shatberdi Codex are more informative, but these details are probably later insertions as suggested by the occurrence of the word 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...

, a post-8th century toponym.

The Shatberdi codex cites some of its sources (such as "a brief account of the conversion of Kartli" by Grigol the Deacon) most of which did not survive and are otherwise unknown. Modern specialists have also proposed Pseudo-Callisthenes’ apocryphal Alexander romance
Alexander Romance
Alexander romance is any of several collections of legends concerning the mythical exploits of Alexander the Great. The earliest version is in Greek, dating to the 3rd century. Several late manuscripts attribute the work to Alexander's court historian Callisthenes, but the historical figure died...

 and Alexander of Cyprus
Alexander of Cyprus
Alexander of Cyprus or Alexander Cyprius, perhaps also known as Alexander the Monk or Alexander Monachus, was apparently a 6th-century Cypriot monk active in the cloister near the sanctuary of St. Barnabas in Salaminia or Constantina. He also had as one of his aims the authentication of the...

Chronica as possible sources used by the authors of CoK. The work itself was exploited and some of its components were reworked by the later Georgian authors such as Leontius of Ruisi
Leonti Mroveli
Leonti Mroveli was the 11th-century Georgian chronicler, presumably an ecclesiastic. Mroveli is not his last name, but the adjective for the diocese of Ruisi, whose bishop he probably was...

 (11th century) and Arsenius the Metaphrast (12th century).

For all its contradictions – the elements of folklore, and religious reminiscences – The Conversion of Kartli is an essential historical source. It further possesses a detailed relative and absolute chronology, unparallel in hagiographic and patristic literature of Georgia. The noticeable influence of CoK on subsequent Georgian historical works proves the crucial role this work played in establishing a sense of Christian identity of medieval Georgia.

Component texts

The Conversion of Kartli consists of two major components. The first one is conventionally known as The Chronicle (ქრონიკა, k’ronika), a brief history of Kartli from the mythic expedition by Alexander the Great into Georgian lands down to the 7th century. Its core text, The Conversion of Kartli, from which the corpus derives its title, relates the story of proselytizing mission by St. Nino, who is also the subject of the last component of CoK, the hagiographic Life of Nino (ცხოვრება წმიდა ნინოსი, ts’xovreba ts’mida ninosi). The basic text is accompanied by the lists of the kings, presiding princes
Principate of Iberia
The Principate of Iberia is a conventional term applied to an aristocratic regime in early medieval Caucasian Georgia that flourished in the period of interregnum between the sixth and ninth centuries, when the leading political authority was exercised by a succession of princes...

 and prelates of Kartli.

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