The Ratishvili ( ka, რატიშვილი) are a

noble family Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy (class), aristocracy. It is normally ranked immediately below Royal family, royalty. Nobility has often been an Estates of the realm, estate of the realm with many e ...

from

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

. They had the status of

prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. Th ...

(''

tavadi ''Tavadi'' ( ka, თავადი, "prince", lit. "head/chief" an from ka, თავი ''tavi'', "head", with the prefix of agent ''-di'') was a feudal title in Georgia (country), Georgia first applied in the Late Middle Ages usually trans ...

'') in the

kingdom of Kartli The Kingdom of Kartli ( ka, ქართლის სამეფო, tr) was a late medieval/ early modern monarchy in eastern Georgia, centred on the province of Kartli, with its capital at Tbilisi. It emerged in the process of a triparti ...

and they were confirmed in their rank in the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

as princes (''

knyaz , or ( Old Church Slavonic: Кнѧзь) is a historical Slavic title, used both as a royal and noble title in different times of history and different ancient Slavic lands. It is usually translated into English as prince or duke, dependi ...

'') Ratiev (russian: Ратиев, ''Ratiyev'') in 1825.

Toumanoff, Cyril Cyril Leo Toumanoff (russian: Кирилл Львович Туманов; 13 October 1913 – 4 February 1997) was a Russian-born Georgian historian and genealogist who mostly specialized in the history and genealogies of medieval Georgia, Armenia, ...

(1963). ''Studies in Christian Caucasian history'', p. 270.

Georgetown University Press Georgetown University Press is a university press affiliated with Georgetown University that publishes about forty new books a year. The press's major subject areas include bioethics, international affairs, languages and linguistics, political sc ...

Origin

According to the list of Georgian noble families compiled by Prince

Ioann of Georgia Ioane ( ka, იოანე ბაგრატიონი) (16 May 1768 in Tbilisi, Georgia – 15 February 1830 in Saint Petersburg, Russia) was a Georgian prince (batonishvili), writer and encyclopaedist. Life A son of George XII, the la ...

in the early 19th century, the Ratishvili sprang off the ducal dynasty (''

eristavi ''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 hierarchy, i ...

'') of

Ksani The Ksani (, , ''Ĉysandon'') is a river in central Georgia, which rises on the southern slopes of the Greater Caucasus Mountain Range in South Ossetia and flows into the Kura (''Mtkvari''). It is long, and has a drainage basin of .

. Grebelsky, P. Kh., Dumin, S.V., Lapin, V.V. (1993), Дворянские роды Российской империи. Том 4: Князья Царства Грузинского. (''Noble families of the Russian Empire. Vol. 4: Princes of the Kingdom of Georgia''), p. 188. Vesti. This view was further developed by the modern genealogist

Cyril Toumanoff Cyril Leo Toumanoff (russian: Кирилл Львович Туманов; 13 October 1913 – 4 February 1997) was a Russian-born Georgian historian and genealogist who mostly specialized in the history and genealogies of medieval Georgia, Armenia, ...

, who identified Rati Tsirkvaleli Glonis-Tavadze, the

prothonotary The word prothonotary is recorded in English since 1447, as "principal clerk of a court," from L.L. ''prothonotarius'' ( c. 400), from Greek ''protonotarios'' "first scribe," originally the chief of the college of recorders of the court of the B ...

of Georgia (1458/68) and a son of Duke Kvenipnevel II of Ksani, as the forefather of the Ratishvili. An alternative hypothesis makes the Ratishvili a branch of the

Baratashvili Baratashvili ( ka, ბარათაშვილი) is a Georgian noble family, appearing at the end of the 15th century as a continuation of the Kachibadze (ქაჩიბაძე), which were possibly related to the Liparitids-Orbeli. The s ...

- Orbeliani dynasty; yet another has it that both these genealogies are correct and there were, in fact, two Ratishvili families of different origin.

History

The first documented mention of the Ratishvili, in the person of Kaikhosro and his sons—Jesse, Bezhan, and Zurab—as princes occurs in the 1688 charter of Prince Royal Bagrat. A branch of the family was established in Russia in 1724 with the emigration of Prince Zurab Ratishvili (Igor Ratiev) in the suite of

Vakhtang VI of Kartli Vakhtang VI ( ka, ვახტანგ VI), also known as Vakhtang the Scholar, Vakhtang the Lawgiver and Ḥosaynqolī Khan ( fa, حسین‌قلی خان, translit=Hoseyn-Qoli Xān) (September 15, 1675 – March 26, 1737), was a Georgian m ...

. Those remaining in Georgia had their estate in Ksovrisi near the ancient capital of

Mtskheta Mtskheta ( ka, მცხეთა, tr ) is a city in Mtskheta-Mtianeti province of Georgia. It is one of the oldest cities in Georgia as well as one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the World. Itis located approximately north of T ...

and were listed among the princes of Kartli in a document attached to the Russo–Georgian

treaty of Georgievsk The Treaty of Georgievsk (russian: Георгиевский трактат, Georgievskiy traktat; ka, გეორგიევსკის ტრაქტატი, tr) was a bilateral treaty concluded between the Russian Empire and the east Ge ...

in 1783. After the

Russian annexation of Georgia The country of Georgia became part of the Russian Empire in the 19th century. Throughout the early modern period, the Muslim Ottoman and Persian empires had fought over various fragmented Georgian kingdoms and principalities; by the 18th centu ...

, the family was accepted among the princely nobility of the Russian Empire in 1825, with their members confirmed in a series of decrees from 1849 to 1858. The Ratishvili had no officially confirmed

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central ele ...

, but two versions of it are known, one found in Tsikhinsky's unpublished catalogue ''The Caucasian Armorial'' (1922), and the other given by Mikhail Vadbolsky in his book on the Georgian heraldry (1980).თავადი რატიშვილი (''Prince Ratishvili'')
. State Council of Heraldry. Accessed October 3, 2012.

References

{{Reflist Noble families of Georgia (country) Russian noble families Georgian-language surnames

Origin

History

See also

References