Andro Gogoladze
PhD in History
The University of Georgia
Tamaz Beradze Institute of Georgian Studies
Senior Research Fellow
Tbilisi, Georgia
Andro Gogoladze
PhD in History
The University of Georgia
Tamaz Beradze Institute of Georgian Studies
Senior Research Fellow
Tbilisi, Georgia
Apocryphal writings in Life of Kartli: History of Gymnosophists
and Geographical Image of the World
In the Georgian writings from the Middle Ages, the Historical Geographical knowledge and classification of people is found in various literary sources. Among the original literary sources, it is worth mentioning that In the 17th century by the Order of Queen Mariam the Life of Kartli was renewed. In this version of Life of Kartli, the history of our country proceeded with two apocryphal writings: „Apocryphal writings in Life of Kartli – History of Gymnosophists and Geographical Image of the World“.
In the other copies of Life of Kartli, there existed a tradition of having an opening text about world history. This tradition gives us information on what the Georgian society knew about the geography of the world during the Middle Ages. Due to the evidence, we think that this tradition existed since the beginning of Life of Kartli and Leonti Mroveli wrote this apocrypha in the Life of Kartli as an introduction. With this Leonti Mroveli added History of the world and Geography as an introduction to the history of his own country.
The basis of this apocrypha is "Expositio totius mundi et gentium" compiled by an unknown author of the 4th century in 350-362. The original Greek writing has been lost as today we only have a Latin translation and according to scientists, the Georgian translation must have been made in the IX-XI centuries. The purpose of the author of this apocrypha was to convey a geographical description of the world from the eastern "Eden" to the western borders of Gaul and Pyrenees.
In This essay, other than historical-geographical toponyms mentioned in this Apocrypha, and definitions of distance measurements between countries and different locations, we also have a comparative analysis of other historical-geographical works. These comparative analyses are connected to European and Eastern writings and cartographical works. Even though we do not have any Georgian cartographical works from the Middle Ages. This Apocrypha points to the fact that Georgian intellectual society had a good knowledge of the world’s Geographical image.
Keywords: Apocryphal writings, Life of Kartli, Geographical Image of the World