The Guaramid dynasty or Guaramiani ( ka, გუარამიანი)The dynastic name "Guaramids" is a modern designation introduced by Professor

Cyril Toumanoff Cyril Leo Toumanoff (russian: Кирилл Львович Туманов; 13 October 1913 – 4 February 1997) was a Russian-born Georgian historian and genealogist who mostly specialized in the history and genealogies of medieval Georgia, Armenia, ...

based on

Prince Vakhushti Vakhushti ( ka, ვახუშტი, tr) (1696–1757) was a Georgian royal prince (''batonishvili''), geographer, historian and cartographer. His principal historical and geographic works, '' Description of the Kingdom of Georgia'' and the ''G ...

's reference to the dynasty as ''Guaramiani''. It is not universally accepted among the Georgian historians, but is commonly used in the

English-language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the i ...

literature. was the younger branch of the Chosroid royal house of

Iberia The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese language, Aragonese and Occitan language, Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a pe ...

(

Kartli Kartli ( ka, ქართლი ) is a historical region in central-to-eastern Georgia traversed by the river Mtkvari (Kura), on which Georgia's capital, Tbilisi, is situated. Known to the Classical authors as Iberia, Kartli played a crucial rol ...

, eastern

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

). They ruled Iberia as

Grand dukes Grand duke (feminine: grand duchess) is a European hereditary title, used either by certain monarchs or by members of certain monarchs' families. In status, a grand duke traditionally ranks in order of precedence below an emperor, as an approxi ...

( erismtavari) in the periods of 588–627, 684–748, and 779/780–786, and three of them were bestowed with the dignity of

curopalates ''Kouropalatēs'', Latinized as ''curopalates'' or ''curopalata'' ( el, κουροπαλάτης, from lat, cura palatii " he one incharge of the palace"). and Anglicized as curopalate, was a Byzantine court title, one of the highest from the ti ...

by the

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

imperial court.

History

This branch descended from Leo, son of the Iberian King Vakhtang I and his second wife, Helena, a relative of the Byzantine emperor (485/6). Leo and his brother Mihrdat were given the western portion of the Kingdom of Iberia, composed of the duchies of

Klarjeti Klarjeti ( ka, კლარჯეთი ) was a province of ancient and medieval Georgia, which is now part of Turkey's Artvin Province. Klarjeti, the neighboring province of Tao and several other smaller districts, constituted a larger region wi ...

Odzrkhe Odzrkhe or Odzrakhe ( ka, ოძრხე or ) was a historic fortified town and the surrounding area in what is now Abastumani, Adigeni Municipality in Samtskhe-Javakheti region, southern Georgia. History According to medieval Georgian his ...

, and the western half of that of

Tsunda Tsunda ( ka, წუნდა) is an ancient city, administrative and religious center of the historical province Javakheti in Georgia. The city is mentioned in the chronicles. Tsunda served as the summer residence of kings and was the seat of the ...

, of which, however, they were soon deprived by the elder Chosroid line and left as Princes of Klarjeti and

Javakheti Javakheti ( ka, ჯავახეთი ) or Javakhk ( hy, Ջավախք, ''Javakhk'') is a historical province in southern Georgia, corresponding to the modern municipalities of Akhalkalaki, Aspindza (partly), Ninotsminda, and partly to the Turk ...

. Beginning with Leo's son Guaram I (r. 588–c. 590), members of this house were Presiding Princes of Iberia in the years 588–627, 684–748, and 779/780–786. Three of them were bestowed with the dignity of

by the

imperial court, a common honorific for friendly foreign rulers. The Guaramids were related through marriage with the leading princely houses of Georgia – the Chosroids, Nersianids, and the Bagratids. In the latter case, the marriage of Guaram III (r. 779/780–786)'s daughter with the fugitive Bagratuni prince Vasak produced the new Bagrationi dynasty, which would later become the last and the most long-lasting ruling family of Georgia. The extinction of Guaramid line by the late 8th century allowed their Bagratid cousins to gather their inheritance in the former Guaramid estates once they themselves had come to power. The tenth-century Georgian chronicler

Sumbat Davitis-Dze Sumbat Davitis Dze ( ka, სუმბატ დავითის ძე), or Sumbat, son of David, in modern English transliteration, was the 11th-century Georgian chronicler who described in his ''The Life and Tale of the Bagratids'' the history ...

in his ''History of the Bagratids'' erroneously (or purposefully) identified the Guaramids as essentially Bagratids who allegedly came from the

Holy Land The Holy Land; Arabic: or is an area roughly located between the Mediterranean Sea and the Eastern Bank of the Jordan River, traditionally synonymous both with the biblical Land of Israel and with the region of Palestine. The term "Holy ...

to settle in the Georgian lands; this version allowed Georgian Bagratids to claim descent from the biblical

King David David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

Guaramid rulers of Iberia

* Guaram I (588–c. 590) * Stephanus I (c. 590–627) * Guaram II (684–c. 693) * Guaram III (c. 693–c. 748) *

Guaram IV Guaram IV ( ka, გუარამ IV), sometimes known as Gurgen, of the Guaramid dynasty, was a presiding prince of Iberia ( Kartli, eastern Georgia) in 748. Son of Guaram III of Iberia. Guaram IV succeeded his father Guaram III in 748 only as ...

(748) * Stephanus III (779/780–786)

References

*Toumanoff, Cyril. Introduction to Christian Caucasian History, II: States and Dynasties of the Formative Period. ''Traditio'' 17 (1961). *Rapp, Stephen H. (2003), ''Studies In Medieval Georgian Historiography: Early Texts And Eurasian Contexts.'' Peeters Bvba *Rapp, Stephen H., Sumbat Davitis-dze and the Vocabulary of Political Authority in the Era of Georgian Unification. ''Journal of the American Oriental Society'', Vol. 120, No. 4 (Oct.-Dec., 2000), pp. 570–576. {{DEFAULTSORT:Guaramid Dynasty Guaramid dynasty