MATERIAL FOR THE GEORGIAN MILITARY HISTORY OF LATE FEUDAL PERIOD
Apolon Tabuashvili
Associate Professor in History at Faculty of Humanities, Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University
Abstract
The article discusses the issues of firearm used in Late Feudal Georgia. Special attention is payed to the letters of king Erekle II to prince Muraviov and general Totleben, where the interesting accounts are preserved about this issue. From these accounts, it is clarified that by 1770, the “jabakhana” or the arsenal of Kartl-Kakheti Kingdom, alongside with the other armaments, contained numerous grenades similar to the Turkish fabric, which were made by the Georgian craftsmen. The manual for the preparation of grenades is included in Artillery Book, which was used by the Georgian artillerists for casting the cannons. This book is preserved in the National Center of Manuscripts (Tbilisi, Georgia). This circumstance testifies the fact that those kind of weapons were spread in Georgian military practice in the 18th century
