Ioane Shavteli ( ka, იოანე შავთელი) was a

Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group **Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three script ...

poet of the late 12th and early 13th centuries credited to have written the encomiastic poem traditionally, and unsuitably, known as ''Abdulmesiani'' (აბდულმესიანი), i.e., "Slave of the

Messiah In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; , ; , ; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of '' mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach ...

" (from

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walte ...

عبد المسيح, Abdul Masīh). A reference to Shavteli and his work is made in a postscript of

Shota Rustaveli Shota Rustaveli ( ka, შოთა რუსთაველი, c. 1160 – after c. 1220), Mononymous person, mononymously known simply as Rustaveli, was a medieval Georgia (country), Georgian poet. He is considered to be the pre-eminent poet of ...

’s ''

The Knight in the Panther's Skin ''The Knight in the Panther's Skin'' ( ka, ვეფხისტყაოსანი, tr literally "the one with the skin of a tiger") is a Georgian medieval epic poem, written in the 12th or 13th century by Georgia's national poet Shota Rus ...

'' (ვეფხისტყაოსანი), which is the source of the poem's incongruous title. Shavteli's ode is, in fact, a eulogy to the two greatest monarchs of medieval Georgia, David "the Builder" (r. 1089-1125) and the poet's contemporary Queen Tamar (r. 1184-1213). Little is known about the author's biography himself. "Shavteli" seems to be a territorial epithet, meaning "of/from Shavsheti" (modern

Şavşat Şavşat ( ka, შავშეთი, tr) is a town and district of Artvin Province in the Black Sea region, between the cities of Artvin and Kars on the border with Georgia at the far eastern end of Turkey. History According to Rayfield, in 790 ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

). Shavteli's style includes a strong patristic discourse and his language is to a considerable extent artificial and archaically bookish. Possibly a cleric, he is reported by the medieval chronicles to have been a famous poet and philosopher and to have accompanied Tamar in several of her travels and military campaigns.Kveselava, M. (2002), ''Anthology of Georgian Poetry'', pp. 16-17. The Minerva Group, Inc., . Shavteli's panegyric focuses on praising the Christian virtues of David and Tamar, without naming either however. The references to Tamar are coded by praise of her beauty, her love of "doing good by stealth", also praised in similar phrases by the queen's chronicler as well as by the two contemporary poets - Rustaveli and

Chakhrukhadze Chakhrukhadze ( ka, ჩახრუხაძე) was a Georgian poet of the late 12th/early 13th century traditionally credited to have written ''Tamariani'' (თამარიანი), a collection of twenty two odes and one elegy praising, oft ...

. David can be recognized by allusions to his

biblical The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...

namesake A namesake is a person, geographic location, or other entity bearing the name of another. History The word is first attested around 1635, and probably comes from the phrase "for one's name's sake", which originates in English Bible translations ...

(from whom the Georgian dynasty of Bagrationi claimed descent) as well as by interweaving words and phrases from the king's own religious lyrics, ''the Hymns of Penitence'' (გალობანი სინანულისანი).

Rayfield, Donald Patrick Donald Rayfield OBE (born 12 February 1942, Oxford) is an English academic and Emeritus Professor of Russian and Georgian at Queen Mary University of London. He is an author of books about Russian and Georgian literature, and about ...

(2000), '' The Literature of Georgia: A History'', pp. 84-86.

Routledge Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law, ...

, .

References

Male poets from Georgia (country) 12th-century poets from Georgia (country) 13th-century poets from Georgia (country) {{Georgia-poet-stub