FOR A SUITABLE UNDERSTANDING OF SOME PASSAGES OF THE GEORGIAN CHRONICLES (KARTVELTA TSKHOVREBA)

Abstract

A remarkable monument of medieval Georgian historiography, The Life of Georgians, the same as The Georgian Chronicles (‘Kartlis Tskhovreba’), which narrates the history of Georgia from ancient times to the end of the 17th century, has always been the subject of unremitting attention of Kartvelologists. Textual research is one of the problems of scientific study of ‘Kartlis Tskhovreba’, which, from the beginning of the XVIII century to present, has had several important stages, each celebrated by academic editions of the text. The studies in this context are continuing.
We offer the reader our opinion about the restoration or correction of some parts of old Life of Georgians (a word, a phrase, a sentence or a longer passages), based on the results of a comparison of differences in reading the manuscripts, as well as analysis of historical realities and content analysis of the text. Thus, the suitability of some restorations made in earlier editions, which were never used in later editions, was confirmed; More than one passage, distorted in the manuscripts and not quite correct in the later publications (for example, information about the borders of Kukheti, one of the historical regions of Georgia, or territorial boundaries of the divided parts of the Kingdom of Kartli, etc.), has been corrected.