Kakhaber Gurieli ( ka, კახაბერ გურიელი, ) was a member of the

House of Dadiani The House of Dadiani ( ka, დადიანი ), later known as the House of Dadiani-Chikovani, was a Georgia (country), Georgian family of nobles, dukes and princes, and a ruling dynasty of the western Georgian province of Principality of Ming ...

and ''

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 ...

'' ("duke") of

Guria Guria ( ka, გურია) is a region (''mkhare'') in Georgia (country), Georgia, in the western part of the country, bordered by the eastern end of the Black Sea. The region has a population of 104,338 (2023), with Ozurgeti as the regional cap ...

in western

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 ...

in the latter half of the 14th century. He is the first known ruler of Guria to be styled as

Gurieli The House of Gurieli () was a Georgia (country), Georgian princely (''mtavari'') family and a ruling dynasty (dukes) of the southwestern Georgian province of Guria, which was autonomous and later, for a few centuries, independent. A few ducal ru ...

. Kakhaber was a younger son of Giorgi II Dadiani (died 1384), ''eristavi'' of

Odishi Odishi ( ka, ოდიში ) was a historical district in western Georgia, the core fiefdom of the former Principality of Mingrelia, with which the name "Odishi" was frequently coterminous. Since the early 19th century, this toponym has been ...

, and brother to Giorgi's successor Vameq I Dadiani. Kakhaber, as the first Gurieli, was identified by the Georgian historian

Dimitri Bakradze Dimitri Bakradze ( ka, დიმიტრი ბაქრაძე) (26 October 1826 – 10 February 1890) was a Georgian scholar who authored several influential works in the history, archaeology and ethnography of Georgia and the Caucasus. He ...

based on a now-lost icon inscription from 1352, which credited him, along with his wife Anna, with building the Likhauri Church in Guria. Thus, at that time, Guria appears to have been a fief of the

secundogeniture A secundogeniture (from 'following, second', and 'born') was a dependent territory given to a younger son of a princely house and his descendants, creating a cadet branch.Luard, Evan. The Balance of Power: The System of International Relations, ...

of the Dadiani. Kakhaber is also mentioned as ''

'' of the

Svans , native_name = , native_name_lang = , image = File:Kartvelian languages.svg , caption = Distribution of the Svan language in relation to other Kartvelian (South Caucasian) languages. , population = –80,000 ...

, whence the Vardanisdze, forefathers of the Dadiani-Gurieli dynasts, stemmed. Kakhaber can be the unnamed Vardanisdze of

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 chronicle, who was deprived of his Svan lands by King

Bagrat V of Georgia Bagrat V the Great (, , died 1393) of the Bagrationi dynasty, was co-king from 1355 and became king (''mepe'') of the Kingdom of Georgia from 1360 until his death in 1393. Life Bagrat was the son of David IX and his wife Sindukhtar Jaqeli. ...

and recompensed with Guria after the Svans had attacked and burned down the royal city of

Kutaisi Kutaisi ( ; ka, ქუთაისი ) is a city in the Imereti region of the Georgia (country), Republic of Georgia. One of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, it is the List o ...

in 1361. It is also possible that Kakhaber is the "

archon ''Archon'' (, plural: , ''árchontes'') is a Greek word that means "ruler", frequently used as the title of a specific public office. It is the masculine present participle of the verb stem , meaning "to be first, to rule", derived from the same ...

" of Guria, whom the contemporaneous Trapezuntine chronicler

Michael Panaretos Michael Panaretos (; ) was an official of the Trapezuntine empire and a Greek historian. His sole surviving work is a chronicle of the Trapezuntine empire of Alexios I Komnenos and his successors. This chronicle not only provides a chronological f ...

witnessed, on 6 August 1372, offering a

proskynesis Proskynesis (), also called proscynesis () or proskinesis (; ; ), was a solemn gesture of respect towards gods and people in many societies. Among the Persians, it referred to a man prostrating himself and kissing the land or the limbs of a r ...

to his royal suzerain during the meeting of

Alexios III of Trebizond Alexios III Megas Komnenos (; 5 October 1338 – 20 March 1390), or Alexius III, was Emperor of Trebizond from December 1349 until his death. He is perhaps the best-documented ruler of that country, and his reign is distinguished by a number of ...

with Bagrat V of Georgia at the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bound ...

town of

Batumi Batumi (; ka, ბათუმი ), historically Batum or Batoum, is the List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), second-largest city of Georgia (country), Georgia and the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara, located on the coast ...

. Kakhaber's son and possible successor was Giorgi Gurieli, who is known, along with his wife Elene, from an inscription from the Likhauri church dated to 1422, as well as undated inscriptions mentioning his sons—Mamia, his possible successor as Duke of Guria, and Kaikubad.

References

{{s-end 14th-century people from Georgia (country) House of Gurieli