E.G. Jordania The country and the World in  Medieval Georgia

Abstract: The article examines the formation and development of the Medieval Georgian society’s perception of its surrounding world and outside areas, of Georgia itself and its frontiers, of contiguous countries and other geographical regions. The author takes into close consideration the questions of the formation in the Early Middle Ages of the idea of Georgian statehood and its later development. The basis for this research are the Georgian, Greek, Latin, eastern narrative sources and documents (medieval hagiographical, historical and geographical sources, and also the writings of Georgian travelers of the Later Middle Ages), and linguistic and ethnographic information. The author’s research methodology is founded on a complex critical analysis of the terms used to designate settlements, and of the ethnographical and political nomenclature. The comparative historical method is also used. The author comes to the conclusion that the main factor in the formation and development process of the Medieval Georgian society’s worldview was Christianity. The confessional affiliation of the population, and not its real geographic location, defined its definition of the characteristics of other regions and countries. The author notes a change in terms denoting various ethnic elements, from narrow ethnic to wider ethnopolitical and ethnoconfessional notions. The concept of statehood was also associated with the Christian worldview: the state of Georgia (“all of Kartli”) was understood to be a country where divine service was read in the Georgian language. This took place at the same time as the merging process of identifying the ethnogeographical frontiers of the spreading Kartvelic ethnic element with the ecclesiastical-administrative frontiers of the Georgian Church, and with the political-administrative boundaries of the Georgian government.

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