Adarnase III ( ka, ადარნასე III), of the Nersianid Dynasty, was a presiding prince of

Iberia The Iberian Peninsula ( ), also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in south-western Europe. Mostly separated from the rest of the European landmass by the Pyrenees, it includes the territories of peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal, compri ...

(

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 South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

) from c. 748 to 760. Adarnase was a son of Prince Nerse I Nersiani by his wife, third daughter of Mirian of Kakheti. The name Adarnase derives from

Middle Persian Middle Persian, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg ( Inscriptional Pahlavi script: , Manichaean script: , Avestan script: ) in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasania ...

''Ādurnarsēh'', with the second component of the word (''Nase'') being the Georgian attestation of the Middle Persian name ''Narseh'', which ultimately derives from

Avestan Avestan ( ) is the liturgical language of Zoroastrianism. It belongs to the Iranian languages, Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family and was First language, originally spoken during the Avestan period, Old ...

''nairyō.saŋya-''. The Middle Persian name ''Narseh'' also exists in Georgian as ''Nerse''. The name ''Ādurnarsēh'' appears in the

Armenian language Armenian (endonym: , , ) is an Indo-European languages, Indo-European language and the sole member of the independent branch of the Armenian language family. It is the native language of the Armenians, Armenian people and the official language of ...

as ''Atrnerseh''. Originally a hereditary duke (

eristavi ''Eristavi'' (; literally, "head of the nation") was a Georgia (country), Georgian feudal office, roughly equivalent to the Byzantine Empire, Byzantine ''strategos'' and normally translated into English language, English as "prince" or less comm ...

) of Inner Iberia, he seems to have succeeded the Guaramid ruler Guaram III, whose son,

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 he ...

was married to Adarnase's daughter. He was succeeded by his son, Nerse. Adarnase's title of testifies to the degree of

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

influence in Georgia even though Iberia continued under the suzerainty of the

Abbasid Caliphate The Abbasid Caliphate or Abbasid Empire (; ) was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib (566–653 CE), from whom the dynasty takes ...

. Suny, Ronald Grigor (1994), ''The Making of the Georgian Nation: 2nd edition'', p. 27.

Indiana University Press Indiana University Press, also known as IU Press, is an academic publisher founded in 1950 at Indiana University that specializes in the humanities and social sciences. Its headquarters are located in Bloomington, Indiana. IU Press publishes ...

References

Princes of Iberia 8th-century monarchs in Asia Kouropalatai Vassal rulers of the Abbasid Caliphate Nersianid dynasty {{Georgia-royal-stub