ABSTRACT
For historians, however, the great achievement of the era of Davit Aghmashenebeli and Tamar is that the chronicles were now based on political judgements and facts, not merely on philosophy, religion, and legend. Each successive reign brings a new layer of increasingly informative documentation to The Life of Kartli [Georgia] (ქართლის ცხოვრება) By the end of the twelfth century the chronicles had already acquired the name of The Life of Georgia: Arsen Beri is the first writer recorded as using the term. Despite the flattery, the Bagrations being traced back to Christ and David the Psalmist, we can consider Sumbat Davitisdze’s colourless The Life and Known Facts about the Bagratid Kings (ცხოვრება და უწყება ბაგრატონიანთა მეფეთა) as recognizable historiography. They were followed by an anonymous account The Life of King of Kings Davit (მეფეთა მეფის ცხოვრება), which also deals with Davit’s father, Giorgi. The reign of Davit’s son King Demetre I is dealt with in a slight and uninformative work by Ioane Chimchimeli (იოანე ჭიმჭიმელი), but Tamar’s reign has two anonymous chronicles, a euphuistic tribute devoted to her father, Giorgi, and herself, known as The Histories and Praises of the Crowned Monarchs (ისტორიანი და აზმანი შარავანდედთანი), and a plain-spoken court history of Tamar unjustifiably attributed to Basil Ezosmodzghvari (ეზოსმოძღვარი) ‘court chamberlain’). The chronicles then conclude in the fourteenth century with one of the most moving, if dry, accounts of a disaster ever composed, the 40,000-word Chronicles of Mongol Times (მონღოლთადროინდელი მატიანე) by the anonymous zhamtaaghmtsereli (ჟამთააღმწერელი) ‘recorder of the times’).
