Somkhiti ( ka, სომხითი ) was an ambiguous geographic term used in medieval and early modern Georgian historical sources to refer to Armenia on one hand and to the Armeno-Georgian marchlands along the river valleys of Debed and Khrami on the other hand. In the 18th century, "Somkhiti" was largely replaced with "Somkheti" (სომხეთი, ) as a Georgian exonym for Armenia, but it continued, for some time, to denote the frontier region which is currently divided between

Lori Lori may refer to: *Lori (given name) *Lori Province, Armenia *Lori Fortress, a fortress in Armenia *Lori Berd, a village in Armenia *Kingdom of Tashir-Dzoraget, a historical Armenian kingdom from c. 980 to 1240, sometimes known as the Kingdom of L ...

, Armenia, and Kvemo Kartli, Georgia. This patch of land was sometimes referred to as "Georgian Armenia" in the 19th-century European sources."Georgia", in '' Encyclopædia Metropolitana'', ed. by

Edward Smedley Edward Smedley (1788–1836) was an English clergyman known as a miscellaneous writer. Life The second son of the Rev. Edward Smedley by his wife Hannah, fourth daughter of George Bellas of Willey, Surrey, was born in the Sanctuary, Westminster, ...

Hugh James Rose Hugh James Rose (1795–1838) was an English Anglican priest and theologian who served as the second Principal of King's College, London. Life Rose was born at Little Horsted in Sussex on 9 June 1795 and educated at Uckfield School, where his fat ...

and Henry John Rose (1845), p. 538.

Etymology

The term "Somkhiti"/"Somkheti" is presumed by modern scholars to have been derived from "Sukhmi" or "Sokhmi", the name of an ancient land located by the Assyrian and Urartian records along the upper

Euphrates The Euphrates () is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Tigris–Euphrates river system, Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia ( ''the land between the rivers'') ...

. G. Melikishvili, ''Nairi-Urartu'' (Tbilisi, 1954), pp. 418-19, cited in Suny, Ronald Grigor (1994), ''The Making of the Georgian Nation'', p. 344, n. 20.

Indiana University Press Indiana University Press, also known as IU Press, is an academic publisher founded in 1950 at Indiana University that specializes in the humanities and social sciences. Its headquarters are located in Bloomington, Indiana. IU Press publishes 140 ...

, . According to Professor David Marshall Lang,

References

Geographic history of Armenia Geographic history of Georgia (country) {{Georgia-hist-stub

Etymology

See also

References