ABOUT CHRONOLOGY AND OFFICE OF TBILISI MELIK

Abstract

The late in the middle ages office of Melik was established in Caucasus. Several Melikdoms emerged in contemporary territories of Armenia and Azerbaijan. In Georgia at the region of Kvemo Kartli, also in Tbilisi and Gori several Melikdoms existed. Everywhere, in Iranian Empire, Shah has granted some privileges to Meliks. The offfice of Melik was created conserning to Muslim – Eastern influence. The last Melik of Tbilisi – Melik Darchia Bebutasvili outlined this peculiar moment in his writings: “Office of Melik is established by Asians”. In the Eastern countries title of Melik was used to denote the king or the highest sovereign of the country. In Georgia, especially in the urban administration, Melik was equil to Georgian – Mamasakhlisi. Both of those offices – Mamasakhlisi and Melik were appointed by king from the high class citizens or rich merchants of the city. Duties of Mamasakhlisi and Melik were as following: buying and selling of public houses, buildings and other properties of the city, as well as their official indication. Everything that was commerced should have been stamped by Melik or Mamasakhlisi (later those offices were combined into one position of Melik-Mamasakhlisi) Their duties were also to establish order in commercial deals and to regulate the prices on goods, solving the problems conserning the business deals and many more. Because of similarities in the urban administration system, offices of Melik and Mamasakhlisi were occupied by one person and from 1725 the single, unifed office of Melik-Mamasakhlisi was created. Melik of Tbilisi and later Melik-Mamasakhlisi were totally under the dependence of king. The latter had authority to dismiss or to punish the officeholder of Melik-Mamasakhlisi. As far as we see from the sources king had used this right very often. Below we have presented the chronology of Meliks of Tbilisi according to historical datum preserved in Georgian charters.