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IV
CHAPTERS IN THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA *
The country of the Georgians is situated on the southern side
of the great Caucasus range, and its northern boundary approxi
mately follows the highest ridge of these mountains. On
the east it is bounded by the mountainous country of
Daghestan and the plains of Azerbaijan, on the south by
Armenia and the Kars region, which is now Turkish, and on
the west by the Black Sea. It consists in the main of the two
broad and fertile valleys of the Kura and Rion rivers, and
of the mountain slopes, with numerous narrower valleys
running down to them from the Caucasus in the north and
the Little Caucasus and the Armenian highlands in the south.
The republic is about 73,000 square kilometres in area, and
has a population of about three millions.
The land inhabited by the Georgian tribes was divided
in early times into a number of separate parts. The most
important were : Kakhetia, farthest to the east towards the
southern slopes of the Caucasus, celebrated for its wine ;
Karthalinia, the heart of the country, with the Kura Valley
and Tiflis, and Aragva, comprising the Aragva Valley, in the
north ; Imeretia, west of the Suram ridge, with Kutais on
the river Rion as its capital ; Mingrelia to the north of the
Rion, between Imeretia and the Black Sea ; Svanetia, north
of this, up among the Caucasus mountains ; and farthest to
the west Abkhazia facing the Black Sea. By the sea south of
the Rion was Guria, and in the mountains behind were Meshia
and Samzkhe.
It is a land of striking contrasts, with wide fertile valleys,
1 A good survey of the history of Georgia will be found in Arthur Leist,
Das georgische Volk, Dresden, 1903. See further, W. E. D. Allen, The Caucasus,
in " The Nations of To-day " series (edited by John Buchan), in the volume
entitled The Baltte and Caucasian States, London, 1923. Compare also the
article on "Georgia" in the Encydopædia Britannica, uth edit., 1910 ; M. F.
Brosset, Histoire de la Georg/e, St. Petersburg, 1849—1858 ; O. G. v. Wesendonck,
Ueber georgisches Heidentum, Leipzig, 1924.
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