House of Gelovani
The Gelovani ( Georgian: გელოვანი ) are a royal house of Georgia, which came from the counted the Georgian nation and ethnic group of the Svan of 13 dominated until the 16th century Svaneti and later by the mid-18th century to 1857 in the Principality of Niederswanetien. A branch line are the reigning from the 1720s to 1857 in the western Upper Svaneti Prince Dadeschkeliani.
Origin
About the origin of the Gelovani there are in addition numerous legends only some hardly testable hypotheses. Your own ruler legend claiming that they are guardians of the black stone in the Kaaba in Mecca, been in pre-Islamic times and afterwards emigrated to Georgia. In this legend, apparently her name alludes, the etymologically to galav ( old - swanisch: "stone" ) and ani ( Georgian: "Sons in. ..", the suffix was taken from Middle Iranian languages , where -an- example MPERS. - " son of " means ) is returned, therefore, means " sons of the stone ". This legend is historically implausible, because Armenian, Georgian and other Caucasian dynasties often relied on high- foreign origin, such as the Bagratides to King David, the Artsruni on the Assyrian dynasty and the Mamikonian on the Chinese nobility. A historical hypothesis, which is regarded as unproven today, suspects a descent from the medieval Georgian noble family Kvenipneveli. In the sources, the family is detectable only since the 11th century and has been since the 18th century, a complete genealogy can be reconstructed. The swanische epic song about Giga Glwan seems to refer to an early member of the Gelovani family.
Development
The Georgian, writing in Russian chronicler Vachuschti Bagrationi (18th century ) narrated, in the heyday of the united Georgia in the 13th century the Georgian Queen Tamar have their vizier Antoni Gelovani used as governor in Svaneti, replacing the older swanische house Vardanisdze. After the disintegration of Georgia in part states the Gelovani ruled as Duke ( eristavis ) since the 14th century over large parts of Svaneti, but were defeated in the 15th century by the princes Mingrelian Dadiani and nearly wiped out. A surviving line fled the dominated by the Dadiani Niederswanetien (also called Dadiani Svaneti ) to Upper Svaneti and fell into feuds with other clans Svan, where they were eventually expelled in the 18th century by the victorious Dadeschkeliani from Upper to Niederswanetien. There they took advantage of the weakness of the Dadiani, which were replaced by the branch line Tschikowani to drive them and himself to rise to the Prince of Niederswanetien while the Dadeschkeliani in Western Upper Svaneti ruled. The conflict between the two families until 1833 was ended by Russian and Mingrelian placement and Gelovani and Dadeschkeliani detected simultaneously to the Russian protectorate over Svaneti. In 1857, Svaneti was conquered by the Russian army and eliminates the principalities.
Later, the Gelovani were recorded together with the related Dadeschkeliani as a princely house in the ranking table of the Russian nobility. The numerous descendants of the Gelovani family now live in several countries, including in Georgia, Russia, the U.S., Germany and the UK.
Known representatives
- Mikheil Gelovani: Soviet actors and most important actors of the Stalin - Soviet cinema.
- Prince Varlam Gelovani Duma deputy 1912-15 for the Georgian social democracy, friend of Alexander Kerensky