Vakhushti
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Vakhushti (Georgian: ვახუშტი) (1696-1757) was a Georgian prince (batonishvili), geographer, historian and cartographer.
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[edit] Life
A natural son of King Vakhtang VI of Kartli (ruled 1716-1724), he was born in Tbilisi, 1696. Educated by a Roman Catholic mission, he was fluent in six foreign languages, particularly in Greek, Latin, French, Turkish, Russian and Armenian.
In 1719 and 1720, he took part in two successive campaigns against the rebel duke (eristavi) Shanshe of the Ksani. From August to November 1722, he was a governor of the kingdom during his father’s absence at the Ganja campaign. Later he served as a commander in Kvemo Kartli. After the Ottoman occupation of Kartli, he followed King Vakhtang in his emigration to the Russian Empire in 1724. Retired to Moscow, Tsarevich Vakhusht (as he came to be known in Russia) was granted a pension.
He married in 1717 Mariam, youngest daughter of Prince Giorgi-Malakia Abashidze, virtual ruler of the Kingdom of Imereti, and had seven children.
He died at Moscow, 1757. He was buried at the Donskoy Monastery in Moscow, a traditional burial ground of Georgian emigrant royalty and nobility.
[edit] Works
Most of his works were written or completed in Moscow. The chief of these were The Description of the Kingdom of Georgia (completed in 1745) and The Geographic Description of Georgia (completed in 1750), also two geographic atlases of the Caucasus region accompanied by the images of several historic coats of arms (1745-46). Vakhushti’s geographic work was soon translated into Russian and French and served as a guide to many contemporary European travelers, geographers and cartographers to Caucasus up to the mid-19th century.
He completed, with his brother, Prince Bakar, the printing of the Bible in Georgian, which he had been only partly done by their father, Vakhtang VI. He established for that purpose, in his house near Moscow, a printing-press, taught the art of printing to several Georgian clergymen, and completed the first printed edition of the Bible of the language of his country in 1743. The printing-press was afterwards transferred to Moscow, where several religious works in Georgian were printed.
[edit] References
- Gabashvili, Valerian. Vakhushti Bagrationi. Tbilisi, 1969 (Georgian)
- This article incorporates text from the Penny Cyclopædia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, a publication now in the public domain.
[edit] See also
- Bagrationi
- Bakar Bagrationi
