Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
Part I
By Natela B. POPKHADZE
P
Tbilisi in Sakartuelo//Georgia
20010
Educated as a Marine Zoologist, Fridtiof Nansen was lost in the labyrinth of
the misinformation supplied to him concerning the indigenous population of
the Caucasus area//Kavkasia//Kavkaz/Kafkas. This made impact on his
activity on the refugees issues during his work at the League of the Nations.
I nawili
q. Tbilisi saqarTvelo//georgia
by Natela B. Popkhadze
F. Nansen was the High Commissioner for the Refugees for years at the League of
the Nations that was the predecessor of the modern United Nations Organization.
The latter obtained the buildings and all other property and the obligations of the
former. He with a group of experts travelled in the Caucasus and adjacent areas
several times. Their aim was to bring alien refugees to this area. This was done
during several years. The area already had enforced aliens brought during the wars
raging elsewhere in XIX c. and the first decades of XX c. F. Nansen published his
several books describing what he saw in the Caucasus. One of those books is
entitled “Armenia and the Middle East”. It has 325 pages. It was written in
Norwegian//Norse, was published in 1925 and soon was translated into several
languages: English, French, German, Russian afterwards. These books were
republished in 1994-ies and 2004-ies in the USA, in Russia and in several other
countries. Modern diplomats read them and are influenced by their content when
they make decisions on the international problems. F. Nansen’s activity and
publications have not been analyzed by any Kartu/Kartueli/Georgian author to this
day. His books are not in Tbilisi. Only a photocopy of his above-mentioned book
sent from the British Museum is kept in the Ilia Tchavtchavadze National
Parliamentary Library in Tbilisi. The equipment used to read photocopies is
damaged there; one bobbin is broken. Hence I turned the reel of the photocopy
manually, by hand. It slipped through the fingers from one side to another. The
focus was unachievable; what I saw was often blurred spoiling my vision. Hence it
was very difficult to read that book for me. No other person has ever taken interest
to read that copy, as much as I found out. Unfortunately the author based his views
concerning the ethnology of the Kartu/Kardu/Georgian nation and the neighbors on
Ferdinand Fridrih Carl Lehman-Haupt’s publications, despite the fact that he had
the possibility to use better publications written by other authors. C. Lehman-
Haupt was a historian and a linguist. He published several books concerning texts
written in the so-called Cuneiform Script in the language that the native people
called Emegir in the ancient tablets made of clay. That very Emegir literature was
given arbitrarily the name “Acadian” in 1867, and later, “Sumerian” by Jules
Oppert – the founder of the International Jewish Society in 1880-ies – as he
himself wrote and published. He was born and raised in Prussia, was a student
when caught in the anti-government activity, was banished from that country. After
moving to Paris to his uncle’s home and later becoming a scholar of the written
sources carved in the Cuneiform script he was granted the French citizenship. The
Emegir/Sumerian, as well as the Acadian have many common words with several
modern languages and dialects. Some of these ancient words are part of the
modern Kartuli language variants, especially with words used in the written
sources up to XIX c. C.E. and in modern colloquial speech of the Suans, the
Margals/Megrels. Words: Aia, Lil/Lile, Utu, Ki, An,Kolkhiti, Karduniash, Mare,
Ugula, Qheli, Shakiki, Kakali, Kaba, Kakabi, Opopi, Gish-Erin/Gish-eri, Kuptar
and many others are used actively today in Kartuli. These words have the
meanings that they had in texts written in the Cuneiform script and kept now in
many museums in various countries. Some of them are in the S. Janashia National
Museum of Sakartvelo/Georgia in Tbilisi, including one brick marked with the
stamp of the famous king Nabu-kudurri-ussuri II (604-556 BCE). “A brick” is an
English word for what is “Kirpich” in Russian. In Kartuli/Georgian it is “Aguri”-
just like it is in the Cuneiform texts. The word “Ugula” written in the Cuneiform
texts and meaning “a supervisor” is retained in the surname of the modern
Head/“the supervisor”/”ugula” of the city Tbilisi; he is Gigi Ugula/Ugula-va. A
rare coincidence of the word denoting a person’s activity (ugula) and his surname
(Ugula) is evident in this case. C. Lehman-Haupt had consultations in Tbilisi with
the historian Mose Janashvili (1854-1934). The latter learned several languages
including the Emegir written in the Cuneiform script. His handbook written for the
public at large, entitled “Sakartvelos Istoria” (The History of the Country of the
Kartu Nation//Sa-kartu-elo) published a century ago is still one of the best books
ever written on the topic. This highly competent scientist passed away in 1934 and
has found the eternal abode in the holy earth in the yard of the famous
Kartuli/Georgian Orthodox Christian church in Tbilisi -at the Mtatsminda
Mountain Pantheon for the Salient Public figures. There are topics in the ethnology
that C. Lehmann-Haupt dealt in his own publications erroneously despite the fact
that M. Janashvili informed him accurately on them. C. Lehman-Haupt ignored the
consultations. He had promised to send M. Janashvili a book that he would soon
publish and use M. Janashvili’s comments in them correcting his own mistakes on
the ethnicity problems. M. Janashvili published a complaint later that C. Lehman-
Haupt even did not answer his two telegrams with a question concerning the
publication of the latter person’s new book; hence M. Janashvili failed to analyze
the book at the time. It is the very book that unfortunately F. Nansen based his
attitude, his views on the ethnology of the Caucasus and the adjacent areas. F.
Nansen was educated as a Marine zoologist and investigated various fishes,
penguins, seals etc. Despite this reality, he became Head of the Commission for the
Refugees at the League of the Nations and held that office for many years. F.
Nansen wrote the book in order to attract the attention of the international society,
especially of the rulers of the various countries, of the people at large, to the
problem that the Armenians suffered much for many centuries, that they did not
have their own political unit since XIV c. CE when their short-lived political unit
was formed and soon overrun by the Mongols and crushed in the so-called Cilicia.
He started the book with the explanation that he was approached incessantly during
many years by ethnic Armenian persons that lived some in the USA, others in
Greece ; they urged him to start the propaganda at the League of the Nations on the
appropriate nature and decency of the creation of the country Armenia in and
around the town Julfa; Julfa being the centre of the concentration of ethnic
Armenians at the dawn of XX c. It ought to be remembered that that population
was a refugee in Julfa itself: rulers and the clergy of France, Spain, England
insisted and urged shah Abbas II to relocate the Armenians from India, Spain,
France, Istanbul to Julfa so that they would live as a Christian congregation. This
activity was witnessed by the Italian traveler sent by the Pope of Rome himself.
The travellar was Patrizio della Valle. He described this in his books of travels
written in Italian. The book has been translated into English and published several
times. F. Nansen consented after years of refusal to the entreats of the Armenian
persons. He travelled several times to Greece defeated by the Turks in war in those
years and having undesired alien population and many refugees of various
nationalities. With a group of persons including a hydro geologist apt to plan water
pipes for watering/irrigating fields to make them habitable and applicable for the
agricultural activity he visited an asylum for the refugees at
Constantinople//Istanbul. He was visited by a group of the Greek Armenians there
with a bunch of flowers for him and apparently precious presents; they repeated to
him their wish concerning the resettlement of the Armenian refugees; from
Constantinople he and his companions chose to follow the way taken more than
three millennia before - by the hero Iasoni (Jason) to Colchis//Kolkheti//Georgia
along the coast of the sea in a French steamer. That book was published to raise the
compassion towards the “small Armenian people that underwent many misfortunes
in recent centuries”-as the author wrote. F. Nansen overviewed the entire history of
the area situated from Athens in Greece - to Tbilisi and the Crimea since the dawn
of the civilization, mentioned queen Semiramis and her devotion to his ungrateful
son, analyzed the cuneiform text devoted to that queen basing his views on C.
Lehman-Haupt’s publications that have great flaws - in my view, - mentioned Aieti
(Aeetes) King of Colchis/Kolkheti and his daughter Medeia; F. Nansen called her
the sorceress-it being calumny and misinformation. He was of the opinion that
Jason was an ethnic Hellene. My comment on this is that Prof. Gizo Tchelidze has
published a book “The Kartuels” (“Kartuelebi”) in 2004 where he analized written
sources and traditional stories concerning Aieti and his daughter Medeia/Medea.
G. Tchelidze has revealed and proved that the hero Jason was an ethnic Pelazgi/
Colchian//Kartvelian according to the written sources of the Greeks themselves;
the same is evident from the Colchian historical tradition. The princess Medeia
married not a foreigner Jason but a Pelazgi/Colchian Jason in fact, a person of her
own nationality. Thus she did not marry a Hellene/Greek person, as readers have
been misinformed by alien interpolators later – those that modified texts and
falsified the events. I agree with those modern authors that are of the opinion that
the Hellenes were created later and were not contemporary to king Aieti and king
Medeia. Written sources mention that Medeia was the hereditary ruler of the vast
area; her son Medes succeeded her on the throne. There is a term “Medeia’s Oil”
used by the Greek authors in VII c. CE for the crude oil of Medeia’s kingdom ( the
kingdom was called Media in memory of this most famous ruler of all times of
human history). Herodotus wrote that the population of the area that lived near the
Caspian Sea still praised her, remembered her, loved, esteemed her in Herodotus’
days, when he visited the area in V c. BCE. The Norwegian zoologist F. Nansen
wrote that since X c. CE the Norwegians known by the name the Verengi (in the
Moscow principality/Moskovskoe kniajhestvo they were called “Variagi”) often
fought for the Byzantines; that, in his own words, “our brothers the Armenians
were often fighting beside us the Norwegians for the Byzantines”. In this phrase
the purpose of writing and propagating this book is conveyed. This was written to
provoke compassion for the Armenians in readers at large and raise great sums of
money for the Armenians that lived scattered in the vast Ottoman Empire,as well
as in Italy, in France, in the USA and elsewhere and desired to create a small
country for their nation somewhere in the world. F. Nansen wrote that “ Queen
Tamara” of the Kartvels in XIII c. had an Armenian husband David Soslan; that is
a gross misinformation. He was not an Armenian person at all and never had any
Armenian person among his ancestors in his genealogical tree. He was an
orphanKartueli/Georgian boy raised in the Kartvelian noble family Bagrationi. It
was the family of king of kings/ ‘mepet mepe’ Tamar’s father’s sister. The lady
lived in Kardu/Sakartuelo/Georgia with her family. F. Nansen’s text that several
heroes at the court of this queen Tamar- were an Armenian Sarkis and his several
Armenian relations - is another gross misinformation. F. Nansen mentioned that
Georgia//Sakartuelo was often devastated by the invaders, by the Orthodox
Christian Byzantine emperors among them, but, nevertheless, at times the Christian
Georgia participated in wars helping Christian Byzantine Empire against the
latter’s foes. F. Nansen wrote that the Georgian princesses married the Byzantine
emperors and princes. He mentioned the most famous among those-the daughter of
the king of Sakartuelo /Georgia Bagrat IV in XI c. that was considered to be the
most beautiful lady in the world at the time. F. Nansen wrote about the war of the
nobles against their Byzantine emperor Basil II and blamed that very emperor for
cruelty against defeated Bulgarians when thousands of the defeated warriors were
blinded and sent home in the wretched condition. “The uncivilized barbarian king
of the Bulgars died at their sight”-he wrote. F. Nansen was a zoologist by
education and a monarchist in his character. The fact that the Kartvels//the
Georgians rejected the rule of the Kartvelian kings that they had for two millennia
(he wrote this; in fact the Kartvels had their monarchy even much longer), and
chose a republican rule in 1917, was unwelcome with him. He wrote that king of
Georgia Giorgi XIII died in 1801 and handed his kingdom to the Russian emperor
to rule in peace in order to protect this country Georgia against the Muslim
invaders. This was not so. The truth concerning the ethnic territory of the Kartveli
nation is diminished in F. Nansen’s and C. Lehman-Haupt’s books. The entire
ethnic territory of the Kartveli nation is very truthfully conveyed in Mose
Janashvili’s later-time publications. Authors are advised by me to dwell on them.
In his first publications M. Janashvili followed the distorted information published
by others concerning the ethnology of the Kartveli nation and the immigrant aliens.
This also ought to be taken into consideration by modern scholars. Later he
criticized his teachers for distorted representation, diminution of the entire
historical territory of ‘the Entire Sakartvelo’/ ‘Entire Aia’/’Entire Iveria’/ ‘Entire
Kolkheti’. The earliest name of this country is Aia, the youngest name is Georgia
(used in texts since I c.for the Kartuelian area situated in the Aia peninsula/ called
later by aliens ‘the peninsula Kru-metopon, hence shortened to ‘Krim’/Crimea), in
the Northern Caucasia and Norhern coast of the Hurkanian/Caspian Lake (“Sea” as
alluded this lrge lake). Both the oldest and the youngest names of this country
ought to be included in the modern name of this country in every language.
Aiageorgia, Aiakartiiberiageorgia – these are more appropriate names for this
country, than only modern words Sakartvelo, Georgia, Gurjistan. F. Nansen’s book
is read to this day and impresses millions. Hence the misinformation and blemishes
concerning the indigenous Aian/ Kartvelian// Colchian land and her national
heroes make this book faulty. If both C. Lehman-Haupt and F. Nansen had based
their books and other writings when dealing the above-mentioned topics - on Mose
Janashvili’s book “Sakartvelos Istoria uudzvelesi droidan 1801 tslamde”, published
in 1906 in Tbilisi, themisinformations might have been avoided. This is the first
attempt of investigating F. Nansen’s activity by an ethnic Kartveli person. A
detailed analysis of this book is necessary. I continue the investigation of this book
and of the archive of M. Janashvili. The latter is the lore of the truthful information
concerning the ethnology of the Aia//Kartveli//Colchian//Georgian multi-
millennia-old nation. Scholars have concluded that calling Sakartvelo “Gruzia” or
“Georgia” has blemishes. Anzor Shonia dedicated to this problem an entire book
and published in Tbilisi. When were the Kartvels called “the Georgians” and on
what territory? Having investigated this subject, I concluded that “Georgia” is the
youngest denomination of Sakartvelo/Iveria/Aia/Kolkheti. The denomination of
the land called ‘Georgia’ is ascertained in the written form only since I c. To
compare, Aia, Kardu/Kardunia, Iberia/Iveria, Kolkheti (Kolikhiti in the Cuneiform
texts) are attested in millennia before the I c. and are more ancient ethnic and sub-
ethnic names of this nation. This subject is brilliantly investigated in M.
Janashvili’s book “History of the Most Ancient Sakartvelo”, mentioned above. The
name Georgia is not treated there in detail. Travelers from France: Chevalier
Chardin, G. Tournefour and others in XVII-XIX centuries started their
descriptions of Sakartvelo simply: wrote that in the I century part of the Kartvels
were called by the names ‘the Georgians and the Albanians’; that the word Albania
was a Latin translation of the local word for the Mountainous Region(Mtianeti
N.P.) - and that this nation under the name ‘the Georgians’ lived in the Northern
Caucasia, at the Northern Caspian shore, in the Crimea and elsewhere. I will add
there – in the Hupanis/Hubani river basin as well, that being the modern river
Dniepr with her affluent river Bug. I base this my view on Latin and Hellenic
authors: Strabo (I c.), Pliny the Elder (I c.), Tacitus (I c.), Pomponius Mela (I c.).
Ilia Abuladze, Akaki Shanidze, Zaza Alexidze started in the XX century backing
the falsified “evidence” of the hypothetical existence of the Albanian writing,
basing the hypotheses on false Armenian fabricated comment of an author that was
apparently fictitious. This caused the distortion of the reality and ethnic history of
the area, the renaming of the Georgian churches into so-called “Albanian
churches”, the discrimination of the local indigenous Georgian/Kartveli
population. Reports have been published; documentary films were produced on
this topic. F. Nansen did not mention the Azebaijanian nation. The term was
coined after F. Nansen’s death, only in 1940-ies in Moscow. The Tatars, the
Tartars –this was what the persons that later were registered in the Censes as ‘the
Azerbaijanians’ were called in the USSR and elsewhere. When Georgia had the
Georgian kings and regional rulers until 1870, they mentioned ‘Adribezhani’ – an
area in what is the southern Iran nowadays. The Republic of Adribezhani, later
called Azerbaijani, was created in 1918 in the wrong area, in the wrong place.
Indigenous Kartuels//the Georgians in that republic are the descendents of the
Kartu/Kardu/Aia-Kolkhians that created the first kingdom in the area. The rulers of
the League of the Nations of that period are to be blamed for allowing the Kartu
nation much less territory than it needed and was entitled to by the decent
International standards. The topic of the name Georgia for Sakartuelo is treated in
my other investigation in detail both in Kartuli and in English.
Literature Cited:
Popkhadze Natela
A Pair of Notes from Greek Texts(the Iberian Chalibs, the
Apsils)
In a report I will draw public attention to the Iberian Chalibs/
Ibero Khalibs attested as the main population in the Hypanis
valley at the Northern coast of the Colchian Sea/the Pontos by
several Greek authors in the I-III cc. Their interpretation seems
easy as several ancient Greek politicians in those centuries attest
the population near that Hypanis as ‘the Georgians’/the Georgoi.
Corresponding maps accompany modern publications with the
Georgoi at the Hypanis. The identity of the Iberian Chalibs with
the Georgians/the Kartvels is apparent; The Greek text on the
Iberian Chalibs at the Hypanis became available to me in two
publications of the excerpts from Greek authors: one was a huge
five-volume work entitled ‘Memorie” where Greek texts were
accompanied with their Latin translations made in XIXc. published
in Snt.-Petersburgh in XIX c. Another was a book of Greek
excerpts published in Schtutttgardt in 1912. Both publications
were available at the Illia Chavchavadze Public Parliamentary
Library in Tbilisi. The corresponding publications printed
elsewhere in Russian, and, apparently, from that into Kartuli, do
not contain that important excerpt. The translation of those
words ‘Ibero Chalibes’into our language gives ‘Karti eri’. The word
pronounced ‘Eri’-and meaning ‘a nation’-is used nowadays; it is
worth mentioning that it has been attested as that very ‘eri’ with
that very meaning in cuneiform texts in I, II, III millennia B.C.
Another word in cuneiform- ‘Apsin’, meaning the ploughed area,
‘xnuli’ in modern Kartuli(from ‘khani’=an ox, hence
khanva/dakhanva/xvna- ploughing with the ox’s help), seems to
be the basis for the later Kartuli, Greek and Latin ‘Apsili’, Apsilai,
Apsilae. Apsin is derived from ‘Apin’( an ox), hence a ploughing
ox’s ‘Apeurebi’ in Kartuli. Several other hitherto unaccountable
Kartuli and Greek terms may also be interpreted with the help of
the cuneiform texts and cuneiform dictionaries. In special
literature, e.g. in ‘the European Ethnohistory’published on the
Web since 1996(publication in book format is suspended due to
the work being going on), attention is paid to the aforesaid
Iberian Chalibs in III c. at the Hypanis. The author of that
publication, a US-American scholar, seems to be unaware that
the Iberian is a synonym of Kartveli. He associates the Iberian
Chalibs living at the Hypanis/Dniepr according to the Greek text,
with the Iberians of the Iberian peninsula at the Atlantic, telling
that modern Spanish nation is apparently related to those Iberian
Chalibs. The Georgoi in the Chersoness (Qhirimi in Kartuli, the
Crimea in English) in Strabo’s Geography in the I c. were, of
course, the Kartveli nation. The Georgoi in the peninsula called
Qhirimi in Kartuli, the Crimea in English nowadays, are attested
at the map made by Frederic Dubois in 1845 in his ‘Atlas of the
Travels’ published in Neuchatel; besides, in Strabo’s Geography-
the Loaeb edition. The tradition that Aiette king of
Colchis/Georgia/Karti had cities there, spent several months of
the year there, needs to be remembered. The attestation of the
Tsirtseian/Tsiratsaian/Kirkeian regional kingdom at the western
region of the Aeaea(the land called Crimea now) in Greek texts is
also very important. The indigenous Northern
Karti/Colkheti/Georgia/Iberia in the view-point of our royal family
is represented in King Davit Giorgis-dze’s books( Giorgi was the
son of King Iracli Bagrationi-the national hero of the Kartvels;
Giorgi succeeded Iracli on the throne) . His brother-Mepis
Dze(Tsarevitsh in Russian) Teimuraz was also the author of
several books and the member of the Russian, French and Dutch
Academies of Science. He was among the founders of the Moscow
University. That was acknowledged on the marble stella placed in
the entrance to that university. The royal families of two kings of
Karti(Kartli-Kakheti and Imereti kingdoms) and the ruling princes
of one region of Kartvels (Apkhazeti) appeared to live at the
Russian various towns in XIX c.against their desire; they were all
exiled, forcefully removed to Voronezh, Moscow, Petersburgh etc.
They continued the political and literary work in exile. Later in
1918, forced to abdicate from his throne, King Nicholas II of
Russia is quoted to have regretfully said that the misfortune of
the Russian royal family was God’s vengeans on it for the
devastation and annihilation of the millennia-old kingship in
Karti/Sakartuelo. The view of the members of the Royal families
of Karti/Sakartvelo on the subject that indigenous Karti/Georgia
stretches to the river Doni/the Don is backed by Strabo telling
that in Ic. B.C.E.- Assander’s( king in Northern Colkheti in the
Crimea/ Cherson) kingdom embraced the Don and that he built a
long wall against the Northern aliens in what was later called
Olbia. That wall was uncovered in 1970-ies by Tatiana Samoilova-
an archaeologist, a former film star. Formerly the Don has been
in Karti/Iberia/Colcheti/Gruzia/Gurjustan- the Russian scientist,
the Metropolitan of Kiev, Rector of the Christian Orthodox
Academy at Moscow- Evgenii Bolkhovitdinov published in 1802 in
Russian in Snt.-Peterburgh. That book – ‘Izobrazhenie
Iverii/Gruzii’- ‘the Short Review of the History of
Iveria/Iberia/Gruzia/Karti/Georgia’ was translated into German
and published both in Leipzig and Riga in 1804. It has a nice
review of the Greek historical notes concerning the patriotic
aspirations of the Colchian/Kartveli nation. That book is
reproduced entirely in G. Sharadze’s monograph -Evgenii
Bolkhovitdinov-the First Rustvelologist from Russia’-published in
Tbilisi in Russian. At the International Conference in Byzantine
Studies in Moscow in 1990 where I delivered two papers, a
speaker from Moscow delivered a paper at the first plenary
session about the Chalibs in Greek texts in I-III cc. He reasoned
against historical evidence and declared that the Chalibs in Greek
texts living at the Hypanis were the Russians. That paper is
published in the Proceedings of that conference. Modern
publications revive the obsolete term ‘Khazar’ and promote the
idea of the reestablishment of Khazaria. The ethniciry of the
Khazars being of dubious nature, their successors in modern
times hardly available, that would be a dangerous initiative. I
ought to remark that the view-point of Vakhushti Bagrationi in his
Geographic Atlas of Karti/Sakartuelo and neighboring regions
published only in 1997 in Tbilisi, has misinformation on one map
having an inscription that the Khazars were the Russians and the
Russian alphabet is the Khazar alphabet. He lived in Northern
Russia as an exile from Karti/Sakartuelo in those days, hence that
misinformation might be imposed, forced on him by the Russian
officials. At the International TV canals and videos at YouTube,
modern persecuted Christians in Iraq are shown singing their
national anthem and demanding the re-establishment , the
revival of the Assyrian Empire on the area it had two and a half
millennia ago. That is the direct effect of the founding of the
Republic of Israel for the Jews in 1948; several other nations also
demand reestablishment of nation-states that were annihilated
two and more millennia ago. ‘The past history is not past at all,
we live with it, it has great impact upon our lives’-quoting a
recent speech of a prominent scholar at the Oriental Institute
Museum at the Chicago University in the USA.
ფოფხაძე ნათელა
ორი ცნობა ბერძნული წყაროდან და მათი ინტერპრეტაცია (იბერო-
ხალიბები, აფსილები)
Lliteratura:
1. http://upenn.edu/gazette/0103frith4.html 08.06.2006
2. Strabo. Geography. Greek text with the English translation. Loaeb Classical
Library. Book 5. 186. 1936. London;
3. Sulgi (text B). A Praise to Sulgi. ETCSL(Electronic Text Corpus of the Sumerian
Literature. Oxford University. Oriental Institute. 01.02. 2008
4. Sumerian Wisdom Literature. ETCSL. Ibidum.
5. Woolley, Leonard. The Forgotten Kingdom. London. 1956;
6. ratiani, zurab. wyaroTa RaRadi anu piriqiTa//CrdiloeT saqarTvelo. Tbilisi.
1993;
7. fofxaZe, naTela. Cveno saqarTvelo. Tbilisi. gamomcemloba “samSoblo”.
2000. 23-27.
literatura
"საქართველო "
# 14 (1802)