Asian Geographic 3 - 2016 SG

BLACK SEA CASPIAN SEA

The Georgian

Kingdom's Zenith

Under King Tamar's leadership,

the Kingdom of Georgia was at

its height of power and influence

during the Middle Ages. This map

shows the extent of her empire

during 1184–1230.

learning. The most famous poets of the age, Shota

Rustaveli, took inspiration from her life and work. She

was eulogised in folk songs and myths were evolved,

suggesting that Tamar conceived her son from a

sunbeam passing through the window, that she was the

goddess of fertility and healing, and like the pagan deity

Pirimze before her, she was able to control the weather.

Even during her lifetime, Tamar was thought of in

almost divine terms. A Graeco-Georgian colophon and

late 12th-century Vani Gospels, thought to have been

composed at the Romani Monastery in Constantinople

at Tamar’s behest, named her as a saint.

Tamar died most likely in 1213, near to Tbilisi. Her

body was taken first to Mtskheta Cathedral then to

the royal necropolis at the Gelati Monastery. But after

that the story runs cold. A 13th-century letter from the

French knight Guillaume de Bois would suggest that

he met Tamar’s son, King Giorgi-Lasha in the Holy

Land, transporting his mother’s remains for burial near

to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

SHAH ARMEN

TREBIZOND

ERZINCAN

AZERBAIJAN

KINGDOM

OF

GEORGIA

LEKETI

KHUNDZETI

DURDZUKETI

OSSETIA-ALANIA

heritage