ABSTRACT
The genesis of medieval Georgian historical literature is inextricably tied to three crucial historical 'moments'. First, written Georgian literature was enabled by the Christianization of the region and particularly by the conversion of the king of the core eastern Georgian region of K'art'li (Iberia) around the year 337. Because contemporary Christianity was a faith based upon the written word, a crucial component of the process of conversion was the invention of a local script so that ecclesiastical texts could be transmitted to the various Georgian peoples. Second, as Zoroastrianism and Sasanid Persia increasingly posed a danger in the late sixth and early seventh century, the K'art'velian Crown actively sought an alliance with Christian Byzantium. At the same time, the Armenians, who generally distrusted the Byzantines, openly questioned the ortho doxy of the K'art'velian prelate and in 608/9 the Armenians set in motion an ecclesiastical schism with their northern neighbours. The K'art'velians were consequently compelled to re-evaluate their Christian past. Thus, later in the seventh century appeared the first (extant) local written narra tive describing the conversion of K'art'li, a text having a distinctly K'art'velian perspective that denied Armenian involvement. The third impulse leading the K'art'velians to compose history was the hegemonic rivalry for Caucasia between great Eurasian powers of Persia and Byzantium. In the sixth century, probably around the year 580, Sasanid Persia dissolved K'art'velian kingship, eliminating K'art'velian indepen dence. It was during this lengthy interregnum stretching to 888 that Georgian historiography first appeared. The earliest K'art'velian histori ans do not identify themselves, nor do they reveal their motives for writing history, though their works were clearly a tool to celebrate the independence of bygone years and even a call for indigenous kingship to
From Eastern Approaches to Byzantium, ed. Antony Eastmond. Copyright © 2001 by the Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies. Published by Ashgate Publishing Ltd, Gower House, Croft Road, Aldershot, Hampshire, GU11 3HR, Great Britain.
