Ioane Shavteli ( ka, იოანე შავთელი) was a
Georgian 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 Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...
عبد المسيح, Abdul Masīh).
A reference to Shavteli and his work is made in a postscript of
Shota Rustaveli
Shota Rustaveli ( ka, შოთა რუსთაველი, – after c. 1220), mononymously known simply as Rustaveli, was a medieval Georgian poet. He is considered to be the pre-eminent poet of the Georgian Golden Age and one of the g ...
’s ''
The Knight in the Panther's Skin
''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...
'' (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 in 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. It is the seat of Şavşat District. ,
Turkey
Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...
). 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. David can be recognized by allusions to his
biblical
The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) biblical languages ...
namesake
A namesake is a person, place, or thing bearing the name of another. Most commonly, it refers to an individual who is purposely named after another (e.g. John F. Kennedy Jr would be the namesake of John F. Kennedy). In common parlance, it may ...
(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 Jose ...
(2000), '' The Literature of Georgia: A History'', pp. 84-86. Routledge
Routledge ( ) is a British multinational corporation, multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, academic journals, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanit ...
, .
References
Male poets from Georgia (country)
12th-century poets from Georgia (country)
13th-century poets from Georgia (country)
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