Hunara: Journal of Ancient Iranian Arts and History

“Persian King” of Georgian Chronicles and Shahanshah Hormizd I

Document Type : Original Research

Author

Mariam Chkhartishvili

Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University

https://doi.org/10.22034/hunara.2024.210739
Abstract
In Late Antiquity, the political and cultural influence of Sasanian Iran on Kartli (the pre-modern Georgian state known to classical and Byzantine authors as Iberia) was considerable. Hence, it is not astonishing at all that Georgian sources preserve a great amount of evidence concerning Iran and the Iranians. Though this body of evidence has long been a topic of lively interest among scholars, many aspects have yet to be studied in depth.
This paper investigates the data provided by the 11th-century Georgian historian Leonti Mroveli, whose work, The Life of Georgian Kings and Their Progeny, serves as a primary source within the principal compendium of medieval Georgian historiography, Kartlis Tskhovreba (Life of Kartli), which is conventionally referred to in English as the Georgian Royal Annals or Georgian Chronicles.
According to Leonti Mroveli, the first Christian king of Kartli, Mirian, was the illegitimate son of a Sasanian shahanshah, identified by name as Ardashir. Some researchers, however, reject this claim, arguing that Leonti Mroveli fabricated this information to glorify the kings of Kartli.
In this paper, I will argue that the “Persian king” Ardashir mentioned by Leonti Mroveli should be identified with Hormizd I, the third ruler of the Sasanian dynasty, who is also referred to as Hormizd-Ardashir.

Keywords

Sasanians
Hormizd I
Mirian III
Georgian Chronicles
Leonti Mroveli

This file was updated on December 13, 2024.

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