Georgians
The Georgians, or Kartvelians, are a nation and Caucasian ethnic group native to present-day Georgia and surrounding areas historically associated with the Georgian kingdoms. Significant Georgian diaspora communities are also present throughout Russia, Turkey, Greece, Iran, Ukraine, the United States, and the European Union.
Georgians are ethno-linguistically separate from all of their neighboring nations and primarily speak Georgian, a Kartvelian language with no known relation to any other language family in the world. Georgians arose from Colchian and Iberian civilizations of classical antiquity; Colchis was interconnected with the Hellenic world, whereas Iberia was influenced by the Achaemenid Empire until Alexander the Great conquered it. In the early 4th century, the Georgians became one of the first to embrace Christianity. Currently, the majority of Georgians are Orthodox Christians, with most following their national Georgian Orthodox Church; there are also small Georgian Catholic and Muslim communities as well as a significant number of irreligious Georgians. Located in the Caucasus, on the continental crossroads of Europe and Asia, the High Middle Ages saw Georgian people form a unified Kingdom of Georgia in 1008 AD, later inaugurating the Georgian Golden Age. This lasted until the kingdom was weakened and later disintegrated as the result of the 13th–15th-century invasions of the Mongols and Timur, the Black Death, the Fall of Constantinople, as well as internal divisions following the death of George V the Brilliant in 1346, the last of the great kings of Georgia.
Thereafter and throughout the early modern period, Georgians became politically fractured and were locked in conflict with much larger Muslim empires to its south, like the Ottoman Empire and successive dynasties of Iran. Georgians started looking for allies and found the Russians on the political horizon as a possible replacement for the lost Byzantine Empire "for the sake of the Christian faith". The Georgian kings and Russian tsars exchanged no less than 17 embassies, culminating in 1783 when Heraclius II of the eastern Georgian kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti forged an alliance with the Russian Empire. However, the Russo-Georgian alliance backfired as Russia was unwilling to fulfill the terms of the treaty, proceeding to annex Georgia in a piecemeal manner throughout the 1800s. Georgians reasserted their independence from Russia under the First Georgian Republic from 1918 to 1921 and finally in 1991 from the Soviet Union.
The Georgian nation was formed out of a diverse set of geographic subgroups, each with its characteristic traditions, manners, dialects and, in the case of Svans and Mingrelians, own regional languages. The Georgian language has its own unique writing system and extensive written tradition dating back to the 5th century. According to unofficial estimates from the State Ministry on Diaspora Issues of Georgia, there are about 5 million Georgians in the world.
Etymology
Georgians call themselves Kartveli, their land Sakartvelo, and their language Kartuli. According to The Georgian Chronicles, the ancestor of the Kartvelian people was Kartlos, the great-grandson of the Biblical Japheth. However, scholars agree that the word is derived from the Karts, the latter being one of the proto-Georgian tribes that emerged as a dominant group in ancient times. Kart probably is cognate with Indo-European gard and denotes people who live in a "fortified citadel". Ancient Greeks and Romans referred to western Georgians as Colchians and eastern Georgians as Iberians.The term "Georgians" is derived from the country of Georgia. In the past, lore-based theories were given by the medieval French traveller Jacques de Vitry, who explained the name's origin by the popularity of St. George amongst Georgians, while traveller Jean Chardin thought that "Georgia" came from Greek γεωργός, as when the Greeks came into the region they encountered a developed agricultural society.
However, as Alexander Mikaberidze adds, these explanations for the word Georgians/Georgia are rejected by the scholarly community, who point to the Persian word gurğ/gurğān as the root of the word. Starting with the Persian word gurğ/gurğān, the word was later adopted in numerous other languages, including Slavic and West European languages. This term itself might have been established through the ancient Iranian appellation of the near-Caspian region, which was referred to as Gorgan.
History
Antiquity
Most historians, as well as anthropologists, archaeologists, and linguists, agree that the ancestors of modern Georgians inhabited the southern Caucasus and northern Anatolia since the Neolithic period. These peoples are usually referred to as Proto-Kartvelian tribes, including early groups such as Colchians and Iberians.In antiquity, the ancient Greeks and Romans knew the Georgian peoples as Colchians and Iberians. Eastern Georgian tribes formed their kingdom in the 7th century BCE, while western Georgian tribes established the kingdom of Colchis, predating the foundation of Kingdom of Iberia in the east.
The formation of these early kingdoms contributed to the consolidation of the Georgian nation. The Jewish historian Josephus mentions Georgians as Iberes, also called Thobel. David Marshall Lang argued that the root Tibar gave rise to Iber, leading the Greeks to use the term Iberian for eastern Georgians.
Tribes such as Diauehi and Taochi lived in northeastern Anatolia and are considered ancestors of the Georgians. Modern Georgians still refer to this region as Tao-Klarjeti, part of present-day Turkey, where some Georgian-speaking communities persist.
Colchians, first mentioned in the annals of Tiglath-Pileser I and Urartian king Sarduri II, included western Georgian tribes such as the Meskhetians, while Iberians lived in eastern Georgia. Both played a crucial role in the ethnic and cultural formation of the Georgian nation. According to the scholar of the Caucasian studies Cyril Toumanoff:
In eastern Georgia, during the 6th–4th centuries BCE, Kartlian tribes consolidated power around Mtskheta, founding the Kingdom of Kartli under Pharnavaz I and establishing the Parnavazid dynasty.
Colchis later became the Roman province of Lazicum under Roman legati, while Iberia accepted Roman protection. By the 3rd century CE, the Laz people established the kingdom of Lazica, lasting until 562 CE.
The Kingdom of Iberia adopted Christianity under King Mirian III, with St. Nino credited for the conversion. By the mid-4th century, both Lazica and Iberia were officially Christian, aligning with Byzantine Empire culture. Persian rule later introduced Zoroastrianism alongside Christianity in some regions.
King Vakhtang I Gorgasali restored Iberian statehood and promoted independence, though subsequent rulers were sometimes Persian vassals, and the kingdom was occasionally governed by Marzban. By the late 7th century, Byzantine-Persian rivalry declined, paving the way for Arab conquest.
Middle Ages
In 645, Arabs invaded southeastern Georgia, initiating an extended period of Muslim domination that led to the emergence of semi-independent feudal states such as the Emirate of Tbilisi and the Principality of Kakheti. In contrast, western Georgia largely remained under the protection of the Byzantine Empire following the Lazic War.The decline of centralized authority created conditions for the rise of the Bagrationi dynasty in the 9th century. Ashot I consolidated power in Tao-Klarjeti and extended his influence over Iberia, earning recognition from both the Abbasid Caliphate and the Byzantine Empire. Later, Adarnase IV succeeded in unifying most Georgian territories and was crowned King of the Iberians in 888.
In western Georgia, the Kingdom of Abkhazia gradually unified local tribes during the 8th century and expanded into Iberia in the 9th–10th centuries. However, persistent dynastic disputes, rival noble factions, and internal instability gradually weakened the Abkhazian monarchy.
Meanwhile, in southern Georgia, David III of Tao emerged as a dominant regional ruler, advocating for the political unification of Georgian territories. Recognizing the potential for consolidation, he supported the young Bagrat III, who held hereditary claims to multiple Georgian thrones. Through a combination of military campaigns, diplomatic alliances, and dynastic legitimacy, Bagrat III successfully unified the principal Georgian polities. In 1008, he was crowned as the first king of a unified Georgia, marking the establishment of a consolidated Georgian state that would later achieve significant cultural and political prominence.
During the 11th century, Georgia faced internal noble conflicts and Byzantine interference, but both the Georgian and Byzantine states opposed the expansion of the Seljuk Empire. After the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, Georgia assumed control over eastern Anatolia and led military campaigns against Turkish forces throughout the 1080s.
Georgia reached its political and cultural zenith in the 12th and early 13th centuries under the reigns of David IV and Tamar, a period commonly referred to as the Georgian Golden Age.
David IV centralized royal authority, defeated Turkish forces at the Battle of Didgori in 1121, and abolished the Emirate of Tbilisi.
Tamar further strengthened the Georgian state, earning the title of "king of kings". She neutralized internal opposition, expanded Georgian territories into present-day Azerbaijan, Armenia, eastern Turkey, and northern Iran, and established the Empire of Trebizond as a vassal state.
The decline of the Georgian kingdom began after Jalal ad-Din captured Tbilisi in 1226, followed by the Mongol invasions. George V the Brilliant later restored political unity and revitalized Christian culture. However, subsequent Timurid invasions and persistent internal conflicts hindered full consolidation of the kingdom, ultimately contributing to its fragmentation in the 15th century.