David IV

"David IV" redirects here. For other people of this name, see David IV (disambiguation).

David IV the Builder დავით IV აღმაშენებელი
King of Kings of Georgia
David IV on 12th century icon at Saint Catherine's Monastery
King of Georgia
Reign	1089–1125
Predecessor	George II
Successor	Demetrius I
Born	1073 Kutaisi
Died	1125(1125-00-00) (aged 51–52) Tbilisi
Burial	Gelati Monastery
Spouse	Rusudan of Armenia Gurandukht
Issue	Demetrius I Tamar Kata Vakhtang
Dynasty	Bagrationi
Father	George II of Georgia
Mother	Elene
Religion	Georgian Orthodox Church
Khelrtva

David IV, also known as David IV the Builder (Georgian: დავით IV აღმაშენებელი, romanized: davit IV aghmashenebeli) (1073–1125), of the Bagrationi dynasty, was the 5th king (mepe) of Georgia from 1089 until his death in 1125.

Popularly considered to be the greatest and most successful Georgian ruler in history and an original architect of the Georgian Golden Age, he succeeded in driving the Seljuk Turks out of the country, winning the Battle of Didgori in 1121. His reforms of the army and administration enabled him to reunite the country and bring most of the lands of the Caucasus under Georgia's control. A friend of the Church and a notable promoter of Christian culture, he was canonized by the Georgian Orthodox Church.

Sobriquet and regnal ordinal

The epithet aghmashenebeli (აღმაშენებელი), which is translated as "the Builder" (in the sense of "built completely"), "the Rebuilder", or "the Restorer", first appears as the sobriquet of David in the charter issued in the name of "King of Kings Bagrat" in 1452 and becomes firmly affixed to him in the works of the 17th- and 18th-century historians such as Parsadan Gorgijanidze, Beri Egnatashvili and Prince Vakhushti. Epigraphic data also provide evidence for the early use of David's other epithet, "the Great" (დიდი, didi).

Retrospectively, David the Builder has been variously referred to as David II, III, and IV, reflecting substantial variation in the ordinals assigned to the Georgian Bagratids, especially in the early period of their history, owing to the fact that the numbering of successive rulers moves between the many branches of the family. Scholars in Georgia favor David IV, his namesake predecessors being: David I Kouropalates (died 881), David II Magistros (died 937), and David III Kuropalates (died 1001), all members of the principal line of the Bagrationi dynasty.

Family background and early life

David IV with his court. Le Roman de Troie by Benoît de Sainte-Maure. David shown on the right dressed in a robe, wearing a crown.

Main article: Family of David IV of Georgia

The year of David's birth can be calculated from the date of his accession to the throne recorded in the Life of King of Kings David (ცხორებაჲ მეფეთ-მეფისა დავითისი), written c. 1123–1126, as k'oronikon (Paschal cycle) 309, that is, 1089, when he was 16 years old. Thus, he would have been born in k'oronikon 293 or 294, that is, c. 1073. According to the same source, he died in k'oronikon 345, when he would have been in his 52nd or 53rd year. Professor Cyril Toumanoff gives 1070 and 24 January 1125 as the dates for David. The earliest known document that makes mention of David is the royal charter of his father, George II of Georgia (r. 1072–1089), granted to the Mghvime monastery and dated to 1073.

According to the Life of King of Kings David (ცხორებაჲ მეფეთ-მეფისა დავითისი), written c. 1123–1126, David was the only son of King George II (r. 1072–1089). The contemporaneous Armenian chronicler Matthew of Edessa mentions David's brother Totorme. The latter, according to the modern historian Robert W. Thomson, was his sister. The name of David's mother, Elene, is recorded in a margin note in the Gospel of Matthew from the Tskarostavi monastery; she is otherwise unattested. David bore the name of the biblical king-prophet, whose 78th descendant he was claimed to be.

Through his father, David had ancestors among the most prominent dynasties of the Caucasus. David's grandfather was King Bagrat IV of Georgia and his grandmother was an Alan princess Borena. Besides he had in-law relations in Constantinople. David's paternal aunt Marta-Maria was a consort of the successive Byzantine Emperors Michael VII Doukas and Nikephoros III Botaneiates.

David's father, George II, was confronted by a major threat to the kingdom of Georgia. The country was invaded by the Seljuk Turks, which were part of the same wave which had overrun Anatolia, defeating the Byzantine Empire and taking captive the emperor Romanos IV Diogenes at the battle of Manzikert in 1071. In what the medieval Georgian chronicle refers to as didi turkoba, "the Great Turkish Invasion", several provinces of Georgia became depopulated and George was forced to sue for peace, becoming a tributary of the sultan Malik-Shah I in 1083 when David was 10. The great noble houses of Georgia, capitalizing on the vacillating character of the king, sought to assert more autonomy for themselves; Tbilisi, the ancient capital of Kartli, remained in the hands of its Muslim rulers, and a local dynasty, for a time suppressed by George's energetic father Bagrat IV, maintained its precarious independence in the eastern region of Kakheti under the Seljuq suzerainty.

Accession to the throne

Reconstruction of David the Builder's personal banner

Watching his kingdom slip into chaos, George II ceded the crown to his 16-year-old son David in 1089. Although the historical tradition founded by Prince Vakhushti in the 18th century and followed by Marie-Félicité Brosset in the 19th states that David succeeded George upon his death, a number of surviving documents suggest that George died around 1112, and that although he retained the royal title until his death, he played no significant political role, real power having passed on to David. Moreover, David himself had been a co-ruler with his father sometime before his becoming a king-regnant in 1089; a document of 1085 mentions David as "king and sebastos", the latter being a Byzantine title, frequently held, like other imperial dignities, by the members of the Georgian royal family. David's formal cooption into government may have occurred even earlier, in 1083, when George II left Georgia for the negotiations at the court of the Seljuk sultan Malik-Shah I.

Revival of the Georgian State

King David IV by Mikhail Sabinin

Despite his young age, he was actively involved in Georgia's political life. Backed by his tutor and an influential churchman George of Chqondidi, David IV pursued a purposeful policy, taking no unconsidered step. He was determined to bring order to the land, bridle the unsubmissive secular and ecclesiastic feudal lords, centralize the state administration, form a new type of army that would stand up better to the Seljuk Turkish military organization, and then go over to a methodical offensive with the aim of expelling the Seljuks first from Georgia and then from the whole Caucasus. Between 1089 and 1100, King David organized small detachments of his loyal troops to restore order and destroy isolated enemy troops. He began the resettlement of devastated regions and helped to revive major cities. Encouraged by his success, but more importantly the beginning of the Crusades in Palestine, he ceased payment of the annual contribution to the Seljuks and put an end to their seasonal migration to Georgia.

A copper coin of King David IV of Georgia

He slowly pushed the Seljuk Turks out of the country, recovering more and more land from them as they were now forced to focus not only on the Georgians but the newly begun Crusades in the eastern Mediterranean. By 1099 David IV's power was considerable enough that he was able to refuse paying tribute to the Turks. By that time, he also rejected a Byzantine title of panhypersebastos thus indicating that Georgia would deal with the Byzantine Empire only on a parity basis.

In 1103 a major ecclesiastical congress known as the Ruis-Urbnisi Synod was held at the monasteries of Ruisi and Urbnisi. David succeeded in removing oppositionist bishops, and combined two offices: courtier's (Mtsignobartukhutsesi, i.e. Chief Secretary) and clerical (Bishop of Tchqondidi) into a single institution of Tchqondidel-Mtzignobartukhutsesi corresponding roughly to the post of prime minister.

David IV and nobles

After putting an end to Turkish incursions and reestablishing the traditional feudal system, David IV decided to strengthen central power before embarking on more important projects. Indeed, just after the recovery of the Georgian economy, a large part of the nobility, including duke Liparit V of Kldekari and Prince Niania Cakhaberisdze, pledged allegiance to the king. This act then represents a remarkable change in the face of the reactions of noble society towards previous kings, but remains ephemeral.

In 1093, Liparit V, possibly converted to Islam, organized a plot against David. He was informed of this and reacted by imprisoning the eristavi to make him a “wise man”, according to the Georgian Chronicles. Two years later, he was released on bond and resettled in his estates of Trialeti and Kldekari. However, the noble does not abandon his plans against his overlord and begins plotting against Georgian kingdom again. Having once again learned of such an event, David IV decided to act more usefully and imprisoned him again until 1098, before permanently exiling him to Byzantine Empire. After the death of Liparit's son Rati, David abolished their duchy of Kldekari in 1103.

Liparit is not the only great noble to have suffered the consequences of the king's plans. Several others, notably Dzagan Abuletisdze, were similarly severely punished after rebellions, and their domains added to the royal estates. Thus, David takes important initiatives to strengthen his power. He also dismissed the dignitaries chosen by his predecessors because of their titles and replaced them with loyal advisors generally from the lower nobility.

Conquest of Kakheti-Hereti

After reducing the power of the great ones of the kingdom, King David IV decides to complete national unity. To accomplish this task, he must succeed in reunifying western Georgia with the rest of the country. Indeed, the Kingdom of Kakheti-Hereti had declared its independence during the reign of George I (r. 1014-1027), thus depriving Georgia of a significant part of its territories. Understanding that only war could help him in his project, the king launched a short attack against King Kvirike IV (r. 1084-1102) and managed to capture the fortress of Zedazeni, north of Mtskheta, in 1101.

Kvirike IV died a year later and was replaced on the throne by his nephew Aghsartan II, who was said to have been "the complete opposite of his paternal uncle". Converted to Islam, he declared himself a vassal of the Seljuk Empire to avoid a new Georgian attack. However, he cannot foresee the discontent of the nobility of his own country, who are hardly satisfied by the change of religion of their sovereign. In 1104, a plot led by the Heretian Arishiani, Baram and their uncle Kavtar Baramisdze, dethroned Aghsartan II and delivered him to David IV, who then did not need to resort to arms, each Kakhetians citadel and fortress capitulating to the approach of Georgian forces. Once the two new provinces were integrated into the kingdom, the king granted the duchy of Hereti to Arishiani.

The Seljuks, who still consider Kingdom of Kakheti-Hereti as their vassal, are not resigned to a new defeat against the Georgians. The death of Sultan Malik-Shah I (1092) and the Pope's call for the Crusade against the Turks (1095) had already enabled David IV to call into question Muslim vassalage by ceasing the payment of the annual tribute established in 1080. Thus, the Atabeg of Ganja declared war on Georgia and fought a decisive battle at the Battle of Ertsukhi. The Seljuk army was annihilated by Georgian troops, personally led by David IV, whose exploits are recounted in the Georgian Chronicles. His chronicler thus compares the bravery of David IV to the biblical David and reports the ferocity of his blows. Three of his horses died during the battle, but the monarch, installed on his fourth mount, managed to make his sword flow “a mass of thickened and frozen blood”.

Military campaigns

Expansion of Kingdom of Georgia under David IV's reign.

In 1110 the Georgians led by George of Chqondidi, his nephew Theodore, Abuleti and Ivane Orbeli, retaliated against the Seljuk settlement and recaptured the town of Samshvilde, which was added to the royal domains, without a major battle. Following this capture, the Seljuks left a large part of their occupied territories, allowing Georgian troops to capture Dzerna.

Responding to this double defeat, Sultan Muhammad I Tapar in 1110, sent a large army of 100,00 soldiers with the aim of invading Georgia. David was in Nacharmagevi. David was faced with a choice: to avoid the enemy and gather an army or to try to stop them. The first option would result in ruining the country. More over, the king would probably not even be able to form an army before the Seljuk retreat. He chose the more aggressive course. As soon as he received information about the Seljuk army, he made a swift decision. David with 1,500 Tadzreulis warriors, organized a forced march at night and managed to block the enemy's path in the Trialeti mountains, before they could enter the Kartli plain. As a result, events unfolded exactly as described in the treatise: the Georgian gained an obvious moral advantage and the Seljuk, exhausted by a long march, were forced to fight in an unfavorable position. Despite their numerical superiority, the Turks were unable to defeat David's detachment (located in a better position) and left the battlefield in despair. The Georgians then chased the Seljuks for a long time until they were sure that the enemy would not dare to come again.

The Battle of Trialeti deprived the Seljuk Empire of the opportunity to conduct a major military campaign against Georgia for several years, and for the next 11 years, until the Battle of Didgori the Seljuks did not organized a campaign against Georgia. In 1115 while David IV was in Mukhrani (Shida Kartli), George of Chqondidi who commanded the Georgian forces captured Rustavi, one of the strong Seljuk strongholds in southern Georgia.

In February 1116 by the order of the king, the army of Kartli and Meskhetians were gathered at Klarjeti, David suddenly attacked and destroyed the Turks in Tao and captured Tao-Klarjeti and the numerous riches left by the Turks.

In 1117 David Captured the Gishi. Also in 1117 David sent his son, Prince Demetrius to Shirvan to fight, and the young commander astonished the people with his deftness in battle. Demetrius seized Kaladzori Castle and returned home with many captives and much wealth.

in 1118 Beshken II Jaqeli a Georgian nobleman who ruled the Javakheti was killed by the Seljuks in Javakheti, David heard from Nakhiduri the story of the Seljuks invasion of Javakheti and killing of Beshken Jaqeli. David refused to listen to his nobles' advice to retreat and managed to avenge Beshken's death by defeating the Seljuks at the Battle of Rakhsi and massacred the Seljuk garrisons on Araxes in April 1118.

In 1118 David captured Lori. Since 1065, the city had been the capital of Kingdom of Tashir-Dzoraget, created by the Kiurikian dynasty. David annexed Lori with its surrounding territory to Georgia. In July 1118, David IV captured Agarani in one day. Bagrat IV, David's grandfather, had taken three months to capture Agarani in the previous century.

Problems began to crop up for David now. His population, having been at war for the better part of twenty years, needed to be allowed to become productive again. Also, his nobles were still making problems for him, along with the city of Tbilisi which still could not be liberated from Seljuk grasp. Again David was forced to solve these problems before he could continue the reclamation of his nation and people. For this purpose, David IV radically reformed his military. He resettled a Kipchak tribe of 40,000 families from the Northern Caucasus in Georgia in 1118–1120. Every Georgian and Kipchak family was obliged to provide one soldier with a horse and weapons. Kipchaks were settled in different regions of Georgia. Some were settled in Inner Kartli province, others were given lands along the border. They were Christianized and quickly assimilated into Georgian society.

Georgia at the end of the reign of King David IV.

In 1120 David got into the habit of going to Abkhazia and the Seljuks were wintering near the banks of Mtkvari. David first moved to Geguti, and from there to Khupati. The Seljuks found out how far it was, they camped at Botora. The Seljuks set up camps to spend the winter. On February 14, David suddenly attacked the Seljuks and completely destroyed them at the Battle of Botora. Only a few of them managed to get on their horses and run away. In the battle the Georgians captured many Seljuks and gained a lot of booty.

In November 1120, David's army attacked and defeated the Seljuks in Arsharunik and Sevgelamej, And in 1121 he did the same in Khunan. In June 1121, David with the Kipchaks raided the camped Seljuks in Barda. In all these episodes the camp was destroyed meaning that the Georgian army managed to secretly approach it and perform a surprise attack.

fresco of King David the Builder, Shio-Mghvime monastery.

Shortly after the double defeat of Barda and Arabia, the Turkish settlers of South Caucasus and the Muslim merchants of Ganja, Tbilisi and Dmanisi sent representatives to the Seljuk Sultan of Iraq Mahmud II (r. 1118-1131), formally requesting military support against the Georgian forces. The Muslim monarch, fed up with the victories won by an increasingly powerful Christian kingdom while the Crusaders already found themselves powerful enemies of the Turks in the west, then declared jihad (holy war of Islam) against Georgia and unifies a large Turkish army with detachments formed by the Seljuks of Turks coming from all over the Middle East (from Damascus and Aleppo to Caucasus) with: Tughril a Seljuk cadet who governs Azerbaijan and Arran from Nakhchivan, Arab forces of the Mazyadid emir Dubays ibn Sadaka, troops led by Najm ad-Din Ilghazi ibn Artuq from Aleppo, and garrisons from Ganja and Armenia, with the aim of invade the Kingdom of Georgia. Mahmud II also appointed General Ilghazi, famous for his battles against the Europeans in the Holy Land and having concluded a temporary truce with the crusading Latins, as commander of these massive Muslim troops, whose numbers rose, d 'according to the sources, from 200,000 to 400,000 or even 600,000 soldiers.

Having learned of the declaration of jihad by Mahmud II, David IV understood that the defeat of such an army would lead to the total liberation of the Caucasus and, therefore, the completion of the political goal of the Georgian ruler. In turn, he assembled a large army, composed of 40,000 Georgians, 15,000 Kipchaks and 5,000 Alans (60,000 troops in total), to which was added a detachment of 200 to 1,000 Crusaders from Western Europe. The king decided to let the Turks penetrate into Georgia proper, with the idea of benefiting from the local geography, and finally intercepted the enemy on the roads linking Trialeti to interior Kartli. The two armies met near the town of Manglisi, at the foot of Mount Didgori, on August 12, 1121.

According to the French knight and historian Walter the Chancellor, before heading off to battle, King David inspired his army with these words:

“Soldiers of Christ! If we fight bravely for our Faith, we will defeat not only the devil’s servants, but the devil himself. We will gain the greatest weapon of spiritual warfare when we make a covenant with the Almighty God and vow that we would rather die for His love than escape from the enemy. And if any one of us should wish to retreat, let us take branches and block the entrance to the gorge to prevent this. When the enemy approaches, let us attack fiercely!”

The king personally launches the attack, rushing his troops towards the attackers with a ferocity comparable to that of a "rambling monster". From the first attack, the Muslims were forced to retreat despite their numerical superiority, allowing the Georgians to multiply such attacks. Soon, these maneuvers bring the enemy to such a degree of excitement and disorientation that they make him lose composure. At this moment, David IV launched a new attack, which turned into a coup de grace for the Muslim allies on the battlefield: suddenly, the vigor of the enemy army collapsed in the middle of the fight. The genius of Georgian strategy then defeated the power of numbers, bringing a decisive defeat to the Seljuk Empire and its influence in the Caucasus. Testimonies report in various chronicles, both Christian and Muslim, that Saint George personally led the Georgian forces against the invader. Among the many commanders of the invading troops, only General Ilghazi and his son-in-law Dubays managed to escape. This victory at the Battle of Didgori had an important repercussion on the fate of the Crusades, whose leaders were then seeking crucial aid against the Turks, and stories, sometimes exaggerated, of Didgori's victory were told in the royal courts of the West as a new hope against Muslim power.

Relations with the Middle East

Besides Europe, David IV established relations with the Middle East. This is how he maintained close relations with the Crusader forces, and in particular with King Baldwin I of Jerusalem (r. 1100-1118), with whom he exchanged numerous gifts as a sign of support. In addition, as stated above, a battalion of Latins composed of 200 to 1,000 men participated during the Battle of Didgori. Some sources also speak of the participation of Georgian auxiliary forces during the Siege of Jerusalem in 1099. The historian Prince Ioane of Georgia even reports a secret visit by King Baldwin II of Jerusalem to the Georgian royal court. The existence of a powerful Kingdom of Georgia is also felt in the Arab world, where the Georgian monarch's kindness to his Muslim subjects and his knowledge of the Quran are renowned. A coin with the Arabic inscription “King of Kings David, the Sword of the Messiah” then circulated throughout the Middle East.

Last years

Liberation of Tbilisi

David the Builder. A 16th-century fresco from the Gelati Monastery.

The fdefeat of the Seljuk Empire at the Battle of Didgori in August 1121 allowed David IV to liberate the Caucasus from Muslim domination dating back several centuries. Georgia's enemies found themselves decisively defeated, preventing them from retaliating against the northern Christian advance, while the Crusades raged in the west of the Turkic world. However, there remains a last Islamic enclave within the Georgian kingdom, an enclave having lost all relations with other Muslim states since the start of King David's conquests. This corresponds to the Emirate of Tbilisi, which had been occupied by the Arabs for almost five centuries, and contains the regions of Tbilisi and Dmanisi.

Already in June 1121, David IV had put the city of Tbilisi under siege but was content with a formal allegiance with an annual tribute, in view of the upcoming war against the Turkish invaders. Once the Seljuks were defeated, the sovereign focused on the capture of Tbilisi from the beginning of 1122. After a short siege, the king, probably accompanied by general Ivane Orbeli, managed to take the city in February and enters it to rid it of the Muslim elite. According to Arab historiography, David IV carried out a pillage on the first day of the conquest, devastating the mosques and other signs of the Islamization of the Georgian city, but soon calmed down. and, in the words of the 15th-century Arab historian Badr al-Din al-Ayni, "respected the feelings of Muslims more than Muslim rulers had done before."

Following the capture of the city, the king transferred the capital from Kutaisi to Tbilisi, thus restoring the latter to the status it had before the Arab conquest of the 7th century. The recovery of Tbilisi guarantees a cultural renewal in the city, whose Christian religious buildings are being enlarged. David the Builder also built several noble palaces and cultural centers, such as an important palace built especially to serve as a place of study and inspiration for Muslim poets. However, the situation in the city has not calmed down. During the following years, several bloody clashes between Muslims and Christians occurred, and even the royal power failed to calm inter-religious dissensions. At the same time, David IV decided to preserve some of the institutions of the former emirate of Tbilisi. Thus, the post of emir was retained, but as governor of the city, until the 18th century.

Despite this conquest, the Muslim enclave, whose territory was greatly reduced following the loss of its administrative center, persisted in the middle of the Georgian kingdom. David IV finally decides to put an end to the existence of this State, just after having “settled the affairs of the country”. In March 1124, he managed to attack the last Muslim stronghold in Georgia, Dmanisi, which he took after a short fight, thus completing the unification of Georgia.

Conquest of Shirvan

The resumption of Tbilisi by David the Builder ebuilder therefore established the kingdom of Georgia as the supreme protector of Christianity in the Caucasus and the Georgians now tried to assert their domination by trying to reduce the Muslim presence in the same region, this one being considered an ally of the Seljuk Empire. This is the case with Shirvan, whose sovereign, already defeated several times by Georgian troops, remained too independent of Georgian power and was forcibly replaced by a son-in-law of David IV, Manuchihr III, in 1120. The Turks, alarmed by the situation in Caucasus, then decided to respond militarily.

Sultan Mahmud II soon resumed the war against Georgia, despite his defeat at the Battle of Didgori a year earlier. In November 1122, he began his invasion of Shirvan and captured Tabriz, before reaching the local capital, Shamakhi, the following spring. Mahmud then captured the regional sovereign Manuchihr III and sent a letter to the king of the Georgians saying: "You are the king of the forests, and you never go down to the plains. Now I have taken Shirvanshah and I demand Kharaj [tribute] from him. If you wish, send me suitable presents; if not, come and see me in all haste.

Following this provocation, the Christian monarch called in all his troops and assembled an army of 50,000 men, most of them Kipchaks. The Seljuk sultan locked himself in Shamakhi after learning of the arrival of the Georgian troops, prompting David IV to halt his advance, deeming it disrespectful to pursue a retreating army. Mahmud II then offered the king the opportunity to regain control of his vassal province if he would let him leave in peace, but the monarch categorically refused and resumed his march towards the Shirvan capital after defeating an army of 4,000 Seljuks led by the Atabeg of Arran. Once he had laid siege to Shamakhi, the Seljuk left the city in a hurry via the commune's excrement drainage system.

In June 1123, a month after the defeat of the Seljuks, David IV invaded Shirvan, starting by capturing the town of Gulistan. He soon dethroned his own son-in-law, establishing him in Georgia and directly annexing the region. This act allows Georgia to reach its greatest extent since the beginning of its history. Indeed, for the first time Georgia extended from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea and from the Greater Caucasus to Northern Armenia.

Death and burial

Death

The "Tomb of David IV" at Gelati reads:Ⴕ ႤႱႤႠႰႱႢႠႬႱႠႱႭႤႬႤ ႡႤႪႨႹ[ႫႨ][ႭႩႨႭႩႤ][ႤႱႤ]ႫႧႬႠ ႥႱႠႵႠႣႠႥႤႫႩჃႣႰႭႫႤ

Subsequently, David IV began to organize plans for new large-scale campaigns for the coming spring. However, the weakness caused by his illness and his age prevented him from continuing this project and he was forced to let his Mtsignobartukhutsesi Simon of Chqondidi take care of the affairs of the country. The long reign of thirty-four years of David IV the Builder ended abruptly on January 24, 1125. The king died in his capital Tbilisi, after having appointed his eldest son Demetrius as successor, transmitting to him the Georgian royal attributes, consisting of a crown of precious stones, a scimitar and purple kneepads and sleeves. The king was buried, following his request, in the Gelati Monastery. His tomb is placed, again according to his will, at the main entrance of this religious building that he had built, so that anyone coming to his beloved Gelati Academy stepped on his tomb first.

Burial

A tombstone at the entrance of Gelati monastery, bearing a Georgian inscription in the asomtavruli script, has traditionally been considered to be that of David IV. Although there are no clear and reliable indications that David was indeed buried in Gelati and that the present epitaph is his, this popular belief had already been established by the mid-19th century as evidenced by the French scholar Marie-Félicité Brosset who published his study of the Georgian history between 1848 and 1858. The epitaph, modeled on the Psalm 131 (132), 14, reads: "Christ! This is my resting place for eternity. It pleases me; here I shall dwell."

Cultural life

Gelati Monastery fresco of King David, 16th century

King David the Builder gave close attention to the education of his people. The king selected children who were sent to the Byzantine Empire "so that they be taught languages and bring home translations made by them there". Many of them later became well-known scholars.

David's chronicler claimed that "he knew the deeds better than any other king" because he was enthralled with theology, astrology, and history, and he brought his books with him on campaign. It seems that he read both Persian poetry and the Qur'an.

At the time of David the Builder there were quite a few schools and academies in Georgia, among which Gelati occupies a special place. King David's historian calls Gelati Academy

a second Jerusalem of all the East for learning of all that is of value, for the teaching of knowledge – a second Athens, far exceeding the first in divine law, a canon for all ecclesiastical splendors.

Besides Gelati there also were other cultural-enlightenment and scholarly centers in Georgia at that time, e.g. the academy of Ikalto.

David IV's processional cross

David himself composed, c. 1120, "Hymns of Repentance" (გალობანი სინანულისანი, galobani sinanulisani), a sequence of eight free-verse psalms, with each hymn having its own intricate and subtle stanza form. For all their Christianity, cult of the Mother of God, and the king's emotional repentance of his sins, David sees himself to be similar to the Biblical David, with a similar relationship to God and to his people. His hymns also share the idealistic zeal of the contemporaneous European crusaders to whom David was a natural ally in his struggle against the Seljuks.

Family

Autograph of David IV.
"მე დავით უნარჩევესმან მონამან ჴელითა მონითა ქრისტესთა მან გავგზავნე წიგნი ესე მთას წმიდას სინას ვინც მოიხმარებდეთ ლოცვა ყავთ ჩემთვინ"
"I David the servant of Jesus sent this book to Holy Mount Sinai and who uses it pray for me"
Document from Saint Catherine's Monastery, 12th century

Main article: Family of David IV of Georgia

Marriages

First marriage

The Armenian chronicler Matthew of Edessa says that David's eldest son Demetrius was born from an Armenian woman. She is not mentioned in the surviving Georgian documents. According to the modern historian Cyril Toumanoff, David's repudiation of his first marriage occurred c. 1107. The same author hypothesizes that David's Armenian wife was called Rusudan and she mothered all of David's children.

Second marriage

Gurandukht, a daughter of "the supreme leader of the Kipchaks" Otrok (Atraka), was the only wife of David mentioned by his medieval Georgian biographer. He married her years before the recruitment of around 40,000 of the Kipchaks in the Georgian service, which David effected c. 1118. Gurandukht is a Persianate name popular in medieval Georgia; her original Turkic name is unknown as are the details of her life. The chronicler of David praises Gurandukht's virtues and points out that the marriage helped David to secure the transfer of the Kipchak families as allies of the Georgian crown.

Issue

In total, Cyril Toumanoff tentatively identifies seven of David's children:

Demetrius I, son of David, by Michael Maglakeli, from Matskhvarishi, 1140. He is wearing front-opening qaba with Arabic tiraz bands inscribed in Kufic script.

• Demetrius I (c. 1093–1156), king of Georgia (1125-1155, 1155-1156)
• Prince George (1114–1129)
• Princess Rusudan, who was married to Prince of Alania.
• Prince Zurab (died 1125)
• Prince Vakhtang (1118–1138)
• Princess Tamar, who married Shirvanshah Manuchihr III (died c. 1154), and became a nun in widowhood.
• Princess Kata, who has been theorized to be the same person as Irene who married the Byzantine prince Isaac Komnenos.

Legacy

Also known as David the Builder, he occupies a special place among the kings of the Georgian "Golden Age" in the period of the defense against the Seljuqs. The "Order of David the Builder" is given to regular citizens, military and clerical personnel for outstanding contributions to the country, for fighting for the independence of Georgia and its revival, and for significantly contributing to social consolidation and the development of democracy.

After being elected President of Georgia, Georgia's former leader Mikheil Saakashvili took an oath at David the Builder's tomb at Gelati Monastery on the day of his inauguration on 25 January 2004.

The airport at Kutaisi is known as David the Builder Kutaisi International Airport. The National Defense Academy is named after him.

See also

• List of the Kings of Georgia
  • Georgian monarchs family tree
• Kipchaks in Georgia

Media related to David IV of Georgia at Wikimedia Commons

References

Notes

General

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• Eastmond, Antony (1998). Royal Imagery in Medieval Georgia. University Park: Pennsylvania State Press. ISBN 0-271-01628-0.
• Lordkipanidze, Mariam (1987). Georgia in the 11th–12th centuries. Tbilisi. pp. 80–118.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Metreveli, Roin (1990). Davitʻ Aġmašenebeli. Tʻbilisi: Ganatʻleba. ISBN 5-505-01428-3.
• Grand Larousse encyclopédique (in French). Vol. 5. Paris. 1962. pp. 452–453. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Enciclopedia Italiana (in Italian). Rome. 1950. pp. 641–643. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Massingberd, Hugh (1980). Burke's Royal Families of the World: Volume II Africa & the Middle East. pp. 56–67. ISBN 0-85011-029-7.
• Rapp, Stephen H. Jr. (2000). "Sumbat Davitʿis-dze and the Vocabulary of Political Authority in the Era of Georgian Unification". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 120 (4): 570–576. doi:10.2307/606617. JSTOR 606617.
• Rapp, Stephen H. (2003). Studies In Medieval Georgian Historiography: Early Texts And Eurasian Contexts. Leuven: Peeters. ISBN 90-429-1318-5.
• Rapp, Stephen H. Jr (2007). The Blackwell Companion to Eastern Christianity. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-4443-3361-9. Retrieved 11 May 2012.
• Otkhmezuri, Giorgi (2012), Epigraphic Monuments of the Epoch of David the Builder ("Agmashenebeli")
• Synod of Ruis-Urbnisi (1103), ed. E. Gabidzashvili, Tbilisi, 1978, on Georgian language.
• Khuroshvili, Giorgi (2018), Conceptions of Political Thought in Medieval Georgia: David IV "the Builder", Arson of Ikalto. In: Veritas et subtilitas. Truth and Subtlety in the History of Philosophy. John Benjamins Publishing Company. Amsterdam/Philadelphia. pp. 149–156. ISBN 978-9027200686
• Kiziria, Dodona (1994). "The Prayers of Remorse of King David IV the Builder". Le Muséon. 107 (3): 335–347. doi:10.2143/MUS.107.3.2006012.
• Pubblici, Lorenzo (2022). Mongol Caucasia: Invasions, Conquest, and Government of a Frontier Region in Thirteenth-Century Eurasia (1204-1295). Brill.
• Thomson, Robert W. (1996). Rewriting Caucasian history: the medieval Armenian adaptation of the Georgian chronicles; the original Georgian texts and the Armenian adaptation. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-826373-2.
• Toumanoff, Cyril (1943). "Medieval Georgian Historical Literature (VIIth–XVth Centuries)". Traditio. I.
• Toumanoff, Cyril (1966). "Armenia and Georgia". The Cambridge Medieval History (Volume 4). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 593–637.
• Vasiliev, Alexander (January 1936). "The Foundation of the Empire of Trebizond (1204–1222)". Speculum. 11 (1). The University of Chicago Press: 3–37. doi:10.2307/2846872. JSTOR 2846872. S2CID 162791512.
• Metreveli, Roin (2011). Saint David the Builder. Tbilisi. ISBN 9789941425509.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Lortkipanidze, Mariam; Japaridze, Otar; Muskhelishvili, David; Metreveli, Roin (2012). History of Georgia in four volumes, vol. II - History of Georgia from the 4th century to the 13th century. Tbilisi: National Academy of Sciences of Georgia. ISBN 978-9941-19-585-3.
• Samushia, Jaba (2015). Illustrated history of Georgia. Tbilisi: Palitra L. ISBN 978-9941-21-755-5.
• Norris, Harry (2009). Islam in the Baltic: Europe's Early Muslim Community. I.B. Tauris.
• Antelava, Ilia (2002). საქართველოს საისტორიო-წყაროთმცოდნეობითი ძიებანი [Studies in Georgian history and sources] (in Georgian). Tbilisi: Artanuji. ISBN 99928-973-7-6.
• Garland, Lynda; Rapp, Stephen H. (2006). "Mary 'of Alania'". In Garland, Lynda (ed.). Byzantine Women: Varieties of Experience, 800-1200. Aldershot: Ashgate. ISBN 0-7546-5737-X.
• Rapp, Stephen H. (1997). Imagining History at the Crossroads: Persia, Byzantium, and the Architects of the Written Georgian Past (Ph.D. dissertation). University of Michigan. OCLC 41881042.
• Toumanoff, Cyrille (1976). Manuel de Généalogie et de Chronologie pour l'histoire de la Caucasie chrétienne (Arménie, Géorgie, Albanie) [Manual of Genealogy and Chronology of Christian Caucasian History (Armenia, Georgia, Albania)] (in French). Rome: Edizioni Aquila.
• Avalishvili, Zurab (October 1936). "The Cross from Overseas". Georgica. 1 (1–2): 3–11.
• Allen, W.E.D. (1932). A history of the Georgian people; from the beginning down to the Russian conquest in the nineteenth century. London: Routledge & K. Paul. ISBN 0-7100-6959-6.
• Asatiani, Nodar; Bendianashvili, Alexandre (1997). Histoire de la Géorgie. Paris: L'Harmattan. ISBN 2-7384-6186-7.
• Brosset, Marie-Félicité (1849). Histoire de la Géorgie depuis l'Antiquité jusqu'au XIXe siècle. Volume I [History of Georgia from Ancient Times to the 19th Century, Volume 1] (in French). Saint-Petersburg: Imperial Academy of Sciences.
• Salia, Kalistrat (1980). Histoire de la nation géorgienne [History of the Georgian nation] (in French). Paris: Nino Salia.
• Asatiani, Nodar; Janelidze, Otar (2009). History of Georgia. Tbilisi: Publishing House Petite. ISBN 978-9941-9063-6-7.
• Kaukhchishvili, Simon (1955). La vie du Karthli — Texte complet et commentaires le concernant (in Georgian). Tbilisi: Publication d'État. ISBN 99928-43-44-6. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |pages totales= ignored (help).
• Javakhishvili, Ivane (1949). Histoire de la Géorgie. Template:Sp- (in Georgian). Tbilisi: Publication d'État de la RSS de Géorgie. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |pages totales= ignored (help).
• Brosset, Marie-Félicité (1851). Additions et éclaircissements à l'histoire de la Géorgie depuis l'Antiquité jusqu'en 1469 de J.-C [Additions and clarifications to the history of Georgia from Antiquity to AD 1469] (in French). St.-Petersbourg: Imprimerie de l'Académie Impériale des Sciences.

Further reading

• Toria, Malkhaz; Javakhia, Bejan (2021). "Representing fateful events and imagining territorial integrity in Georgia: cultural memory of David the Builder and the Battle of Didgori". Caucasus Survey. 9 (3): 270–285. doi:10.1080/23761199.2021.1970914. S2CID 238993015.