CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VOLUME VII (1, 2) Contemporary-Eurasia-3new | Page 138

CONTEMPORARY EURASIA
issue of religious unity as well. 14 It is obvious that the main goal of the
author is to identify those characteristics that will help to diff erentiate the
Georgian ethno-cultural we-group from the other ones. That is why he
uses the well-known and most sensitive markers, language and religion
as well. The fact, that he exactly knew what he said, is testifi ed by that he
especially underlines the issue of the Mengrels and Svans, 15 and points
out that they were the historical and inseparable family members of the
united Georgia, when determining the meaning of a common language
in order to avoid any misunderstanding. 16 As for the Abkhazians and Os-
setians, Vakhushti especially points out that none of these peoples have
any ethnic or genetically relations to the Georgian community, unlike the
Mengrels and Svans, and that they do not belong to the Georgian lingual
and cultural group and do not have distinct religious unity with the Geor-
gians. Here is what Vakhushti says about the Abkhazians:
…thieves and robbers, they travel on the sea by the boats, meet the
boats of the Ottomans and the Laz people, govern Odishi and Guria. 17 But
rather they are in battle cowards. They are greater resistance and brave in
the sea warriors. 18
Also, he specially outlines the fact that “they have their own language,
but rather Georgian language knows only nobility”. 19 About Ossetians he
writes the following:
They eat little food in their own country because they are satisfi ed
with the food and water. But when paying a visit, they are greedy of food.
They do not feel brave in the wars, as they are afraid of the armies. But
rather they are brave and secretly creep to armies at night, ill-bred and
fool, free and proud of their own country, they are modest and speak
wisely, thieves, deceitful and greedy, acquisitive, libertine, captive buyers
sell them abroad. 20
As for the knowledge of the language: ‘only the leaders and the walk-
ers in Kartli and Racha, 21 are speaking Georgian language...’ (Bagrationi,
1973, 639). 22
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
Ibid.,15, 25.
Mengrels and Svans are Georgian subgroups. They speak the Svanian and Mengrelian lan-
guage and are mostly bilingual. These languages belong to the Kartvelian language family
too.
Bagrationi, The Description of the Georgian Kingdom, 783, 788.
Odishi is the name of historical part of west Georgia and another name of the Mengrels prin-
cipality. Guria is one of the historical and ethnographic regions of Georgia.
Bagrationi, The Description of the Georgian Kingdom, 785-786.
Ibid., 786.
Ibid., 637.
Racha is an old Georgian historical and geographical region.
Bagrationi, The Description of the Georgian Kingdom, 639.
138