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

Cyril Toumanoff Cyril Leo Toumanoff ( ka, კირილ თუმანოვი; ; 10 October 1913 – 4 February 1997) was a Georgian-American historian, and academic genealogist who mostly specialized in the history and genealogies of medieval Georgia, Armen ...

based on

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

'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 that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

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

). 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. The title is used in some current and former independent monarchies in Europe, particularly: * in ...

(

erismtavari ''Eristavi'' (; literally, "head of the nation") was a Georgian feudal office, roughly equivalent to the Byzantine ''strategos'' and normally translated into English as "prince" or less commonly as "duke". In the Georgian aristocratic hierarch ...

) 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'' (, from " he one incharge of the palace"). and anglicized as curopalate, was a Byzantine court title, one of the highest from the time of Emperor Justinian I to the Komnenian peri ...

by the

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 ...

imperial court.

History

This branch descended from Leo, son of the Iberian King

Vakhtang I Vakhtang I Gorgasali ( ka, ვახტანგ I გორგასალი, tr; or 443 – 502 or 522), of the Chosroid dynasty, was a king (''mepe'') of Iberia, natively known as Kartli (eastern Georgia) in the second half of the 5th and firs ...

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 ...

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 hi ...

, 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 (, ''Javakhk'')' is a historical province in southern Georgia, corresponding to the modern municipalities of Akhalkalaki, Aspindza (partly), Ninotsminda, and partly to the Turkey's Ardahan ...

. 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 term "Holy Land" is used to collectively denote areas of the Southern Levant that hold great significance in the Abrahamic religions, primarily because of their association with people and events featured in the Bible. It is traditionall ...

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

King David David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Damas ...

Guaramid rulers of Iberia

* Guaram I (588–c. 590) *

Stephanus I Stephanus is a masculine given name. Notable people with the name include: * Stephanus I of Antioch, Patriarch of Antioch 342–344 * Stephanus of Byzantium, 6th century author of an important geographical dictionary * Stephanus of Alexandria, 7th ...

(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 he ...

(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