“FEUDAL REVOLUTION” IN THE 8TH-9TH CC. GEORGIA AND THE HISTORICAL-GEOGRAPHICAL ISSUES OF ITS DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

The researching of periodization of Georgian history is one of the most discussed topic of Georgian historiography. Issues regarding the establishment and evolution of feudalism in Georgia are still topical. A lot of works deal with the subject, but there is still no consensus regarding the issue. Namely, the further development of the theoretical basis is needed in order to reach the endpoint in the debate about the social-political gradation of country. The dating of the establishment of classical feudalism (“Patronkmoba”) in Georgia varies from the 8th to the 13th cc. Although nearly all Georgian scholars, who worked on the issue, agree upon the characteristic features of feudalism, they name the different reasons of its triumph in Georgia. The article aims to discuss some historical and geographical characteristics of the classical feudalism, and define more or less correct date of its establishment in Georgia. On the basis of the existing data, I think that the process of the establishment of classical feudalism in Georgia began in the 8th c. and ended in the 9th c. The following historical and geographical characteristics strengthen this above-said conclusion:1. The formation of the new “qvekanas” (“lands”) on already divided territories and their establishment as independent Signiorias; the unification of the “khevis” (socially stratified small feudal domains) and “qvekanas” into one new historical-geographical “country,” in the 8th c., as it happened in Kakheti following the reforms conducted by king Archil, and in the “Abkhazian” kingdom after Leon withdrew from the Byzantine influence and divided it into Saeristavos.2. The establishment of castle as not only the weapon of political superiority, but as a form of the social influence inside the “qvekana” borders. The newly-established “qvekanas” are governed by such castles and they help to transform the free commune members into serfs. The large quantity of such castles is characteristic to the classical feudalism and is called “incastellamento” in European Medieval historiography. It coincides with the process of city-building and development, which was called “akhalkalakoba” by Niko Berdzenishvili.3. Language as the basic instrument of communication and one of the expression of memory, preserves the general symbolic signs. It clearly shows the semantic changes in the words defining the territorial division of country and a social status of men, which is caused by the social tranformation in 8th-9th cc.All these features, which are characteristic to classical feudalism, appeared in Georgia in 8th-9th cc. That is just this exact period can be called “Feudal Revolution.”