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Nowruz, along with Sadeh (celebrated in mid-winter), survived in society following the introduction of Islam in 650 CE. Other celebrations such as Gahanbar and Mehregan were eventually side-lined or were only continued by the Zoroastrians, who carried them as far as Turkey. Nowruz, however, was honored even by the early founders of Islam. There are records of the Rashidun caliphs presiding over Nowruz celebrations and it was adopted as the main royal holiday during the Abbasid period.
Following the demise of the caliphate and the subsequent re-emergence of Persian dynasties such as the Samanids and Buyyids, Nowruz was elevated to an even higher status. The Buyids revived the Sassanid traditions and restored many smaller celebrations that had been eliminated by the caliphate. Even the Turkish and Mongol invaders did not attempt to abolish Nowruz in favor of any other celebration. Thus, Nowruz remained the main celebration of Persian lands by both the officials and the people.
The Transcaucasian Commissariat was established at Tbilisi on 11 November 1917, as the first government of the independent Transcaucasia following the October Revolution in Petrograd. The Commissariat decided to strengthen the Georgian–Armenian–Azerbaijani union by convoking a Diet or general assembly ("Sejm") in January 1918.It declared independence from Russia and formed the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic after being faced with the threat of being overrun by the Ottoman invasion.
Peace talks were initiated with the Ottoman Empire in March 1918, but broke down quickly as the Ottoman refused to accept the authority of the Commissariat. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which ended Russia's involvement in the First World War, conceded parts of the Transcaucasus to the Ottoman Empire, who continued their invasion of the region in order to take control of the territory. Faced with this imminent threat, the TDFR was proclaimed as an independent state on 22 April 1918. Further negotiations began immediately with the Ottoman, which recognized the state.
The Kingdom of Georgia (), also known as the Georgian Empire, was a medieval Eurasian monarchy that started circa 1008 AD. It reached its Golden Age of political and economic strength during the reign of King David IV and Queen Tamar the Great from 11th to 13th centuries. Georgia became one of the pre-eminent nations of the Christian East, their pan-Caucasian empire stretching, at its largest extent, from the North Caucasus to the northern portion of Iran and Anatolia, while also maintaining religious possessions abroad, such as the Monastery of the Cross in Jerusalem and the Monastery of Iviron in Greece. It was the principal historical precursor of present-day Georgia.
Located on the crossroads of protracted Roman–Persian wars, the early Georgian kingdoms disintegrated into various feudal regions by the early Middle Ages. This made it easy for the remaining Georgian realms to fall prey to the early Muslim conquests in the 7th century.
In struggle against the Arab occupation, Iberian princes of Bagrationi dynasty came to rule over Tao-Klarjeti, the former southern provinces of Iberia, and established Kouropalatate of Iberia as a nominal vassal of the Byzantine Empire. Bagrationi's continued fighting for the central Georgian land, known as Kartli, contested also by the Kingdom of Abkhazia, the Arab emirs of Tbilisi and even by Kakhetian and Armenian Bagratid rulers of Tashir-Dzoraget. The restoration of the Iberian kingship begins in 888, however Bagrationi dynasty failed to maintain the integrity of their kingdom, which was actually divided between the three branches of the family with the main branch retaining in Tao and another controlling Klarjeti.
An Arab incursion into western Georgia was repelled by Abkhazians jointly with Lazic and Iberian allies in 736. The successful defense against the Arabs, and the increasingly expansionist tendencies of the kingdom to the east and the struggle against Byzantium, fighting for the hegemony within the Georgian territories speed up the process of unification of Georgian states into a single feudal monarchy. In 9th century western Georgian Church broke away from Constantinople and recognized the authority of the Catholicate of Mtskheta; language of the church in Abkhazia shifted from Greek to Georgian, as Byzantine power decreased and doctrinal differences disappeared.
At the end of the 10th century David III of Tao invaded the Kartli and gave it to his foster-son Bagrat III and installed his father Gurgen as his regent, who was also crowned as "King of the Iberians" in 994. Through his mother Gurandukht, sister of the childless Abkhazian king Theodosius III ( 975–978), Bagrat was a potential heir to the realm of Abkhazia.
Bagrat's reign, a period of uttermost importance in the history of Georgia, brought about the final victory of the Georgian Bagratids in the centuries-long power struggles. Bagrat's foreign policy was generally peaceful and the king successfully manoeuvred to avoid the conflicts with both the Byzantine and Muslim neighbours even though David's domains of Tao remained in the Byzantine and Tbilisi in the Arab hands.
The second half of the 11th century was marked by the strategically significant invasion of the Seljuq Turks, who by the end of the 1040s had succeeded in building a vast empire including most of Central Asia and Persia. The Seljuk threat prompted the Georgian and Byzantine governments to seek a closer cooperation. To secure the alliance, Bagrat's daughter Maria married, at some point between 1066 and 1071, to the Byzantine co-emperor Michael VII Ducas.
The Seljuqs made their first appearances in Georgia in the 1060s, when the sultan Alp Arslan laid waste to the south-western provinces of the Georgian kingdom and reduced Kakheti. These intruders were part of the same wave of the Turkish movement which inflicted a crushing defeat on the Byzantine army at Manzikert in 1071. Although the Georgians were able to recover from Alp Arslan's invasion and even securing the Tao (theme of Iberia), by the help of Byzantine governor of Armeno-Georgian origin, Gregory Pakourianos. On this occasion, George II was bestowed with the Byzantine title of "Caesar", granted the fortress of Kars and put in charge of the Imperial Eastern limits.
Watching his kingdom slip into chaos, George II ceded the crown to his 16-year-old son David IV in 1089. King David IV proved to be a capable statesman and military commander. As he came of age under the guidance of his court minister, George of Chqondidi, David IV suppressed dissent of feudal lords and centralized the power in his hands to effectively deal with foreign threats. In 1089–1100, he organized small detachments to harass and destroy isolated Seljuk troops and began the resettlement of desolate regions. By 1099 David IV's power was considerable enough that he was able to refuse paying tribute to Seljuqs.
In 1103 a major ecclesiastical congress known as the Ruis-Urbnisi Synod was held. Next year, David's supporters in the eastern Georgian province of Kakheti captured the local king Aghsartan II (1102–1104), a loyal tributary of the Seljuk Sultan, and reunited the area with the rest of Georgia. Following the annexation of Kakheti, in 1105, David routed a Seljuk punitive force at the Battle of Ertsukhi, leading to momentum that helped him to secure the key fortresses of Samshvilde, Rustavi, Gishi, and Lori between 1110 and 1118.
To strengthen his army, King David launched a major military reform in 1118–1120 and resettled several thousand Kipchaks from the northern steppes to frontier districts of Georgia. In return, the Kipchaks provided one soldier per family, allowing King David to establish a standing army in addition to his royal troops (known as Monaspa). The new army provided the king with a much-needed force to fight both external threats and internal discontent of powerful lords. The Georgian-Kipchak alliance was facilitated by David's earlier marriage to the Khan's daughter.
David IV founded the Gelati Academy, which became an important center of scholarship in the Eastern Orthodox Christian world of that time. Due to the extensive work carried out by the Gelati Academy, people of the time called it "a new Hellas" and "a second Athos". David also played a personal role in reviving Georgian religious hymnography, composing the "Hymns of Repentance", a sequence of eight free-verse psalms. In this emotional repentance of his sins, David sees himself as reincarnating the Biblical David, with a similar relationship to God and to his people. His hymns also share the idealistic zeal of the contemporaneous European crusaders to whom David was a natural ally in his struggle against the Seljuks.
Reign of Demetrius I and George III.
The kingdom continued to flourish under Demetrius I, the son of David. Although his reign saw a disruptive family conflict related to royal succession, Georgia remained a centralized power with a strong military. In 1139, he raided the city of Ganja in Arran and brought the iron gate of the defeated city to Georgia and donated it to Gelati Monastery at Kutaisi, western Georgia. Despite this brilliant victory, Demetrius could hold Ganja only for a few years. A talented poet, Demetrius also continued his father's contributions to Georgia's religious polyphony. The most famous of his hymns is Thou Art a Vineyard.
The unified monarchy maintained its precarious independence from the Byzantine and Seljuk empires throughout the 11th century, and flourished under David IV the Builder ( 1089–1125), who repelled the Seljuk attacks and essentially completed the unification of Georgia with the re-conquest of Tbilisi in 1122. In spite of repeated incidents of dynastic strife, the kingdom continued to prosper during the reigns of Demetrios I (1125–1156), George III (1156–1184), and especially, his daughter Tamar (1184–1213).
The successes of his predecessors were built upon by Queen Tamar, daughter of George III, who became the first female ruler of Georgia in her own right and under whose leadership the Georgian state reached the zenith of power and prestige in the Middle Ages. She not only shielded much of her Empire from further Turkish invasions but successfully pacified internal tensions, including a coup organized by her Russian husband Yury Bogolyubsky, prince of Novgorod.
This offensive, which would prove the ruin of Georgia, was preceded by the devastating conflict with Khwarazm ruler Jalal ad-Din Mingburnu, the son of the last ruler of Khwarazm, who was defeated by the Mongols and now led his Khwaras mian army to Caucasus. The Georgians suffered bitter defeat at the Battle of Garni, and the royal court with Queen Rusudan moved to Kutaisi, when the Georgian capital Tbilisi was besieged by the Khwarezmians. The victorious Khwarezmid soldiers sacked Tbilisi and massacred its Christian population and terminated Georgia's "Golden Age". Jalal al-Din continued devastating Georgian regions until 1230, when the Mongols finally defeated him.
In 1235–1236, Mongol forces, unlike their first raid in 1221, appeared with the sole purpose of conquest and occupation and easily overran the already devastated Kingdom. Queen Rusudan fled to the security of western Georgia, while the nobles secluded themselves in their fortresses. By 1240 all the country was under the Mongol yoke. Forced to accept the sovereignty of the Mongol Khan in 1242, Rusudan had to pay an annual tribute of 50,000 gold pieces and support the Mongols with a Georgian army.
Fearing that her nephew David VII of Georgia would aspire to the throne, Rusudan held him prisoner at the court of her son-in-law, the sultan Kaykhusraw II, and sent her son David VI of Georgia to the Mongol court to get his official recognition as heir apparent. She died in 1245, still waiting for her son to return.
The Mongols created the "Vilayet of Gurjistan", which included Georgia and the whole South Caucasus, where they ruled indirectly, through the Georgian monarch, the latter to be confirmed by the Great Khan upon his/her ascension. Following the death of Queen Rusudan in 1245, an interregnum began during which the Mongols divided the Caucasus into eight tumens.
The period between 1259 and 1330 was marked by the struggle of the Georgians against the Mongol Ilkhanate for full independence. The first anti-Mongol uprising started in 1259 under the leadership of King David Narin who in fact waged his war for almost thirty years. The Anti-Mongol strife went on under the Kings Demetrius II ( 1270–1289) and David VIII ( 1293–1311).
In 1334, Shaykh Hasan of the Jalayir was appointed as governor of Georgia by Abu Sai'd. However, George soon took advantage of the civil war in the Il-Khanate, where several khans were overthrown between 1335 and 1344, and drove the last remaining Mongol troops out of Georgia. The following year he ordered great festivities on the Mount Tsivi to celebrate the anniversary of the victory over the Mongols, and massacred there all oppositionist nobles.
Having restored the kingdom's unity, he focused now on cultural, social and economic projects. He changed the coins issued by Ghazan khan with the Georgian ones, called George's tetri. Between 1325 and 1338, he worked out two major law codes, one regulating the relations at the royal court and the other devised for the peace of a remote and disorderly mountainous district. Under him, Georgia established close international commercial ties, mainly with the Byzantine Empire, but also with the great European maritime republics, Genoa and Venice.
One of the primary reasons of Georgian political and military decline was the bubonic plague. It was first introduced in 1346 by the soldiers of George the Brilliant returning from a military expedition in south-western Georgia against invading Osmanli tribesmen. It is said that the plague wiped out a large part, if not half of the Georgian populace. This further weakened the integrity of the kingdom, as well as its military and logistic capabilities.
There was a period of reunion and revival under George V the Brilliant, but the eight onslaughts of the Turco-Mongol conqueror Timur between 1386 and 1403 dealt a great blow to the Georgian kingdom. Timur's first appearance in the Caucasus was a response to Khan Tokhtamysh’s marauding inroad into Northern Iran through the Caucasian lands in 1385.
In late autumn 1386, a huge army of Timur attacked Georgia. Timur officially proclaimed his invasions to be jihad against the region's non-Muslims. Tbilisi was besieged and taken on 22 November 1386, after a fierce fight. The city was pillaged and Bagrat V and his family were imprisoned. Taking advantage of this disaster, the royal vassal Duke Alexander of Imereti proclaimed himself an independent ruler and was crowned king of Imereti at the Gelati Monastery in 1387.
Georgian resistance prompted a renewed attack by the Turco-Mongol armies. Bagrat's son and successor, George VII, put up a stiff resistance and had to spend much of his reign (1395–1405) fighting the Timurid invasions. Timur personally led most of these raids to subdue the recalcitrant Georgian monarch. Although he was not able to establish a firm control over Georgia, the country suffered a blow from which it never recovered. By the time George VII was forced to accept Timur's terms of peace and agree to pay tribute, he was a master of little more than gutted towns, ravaged countryside and a shattered monarchy.
The political split of the kingdom was sped up by the Eristavs of Samtskhe. In 1462 Kvarkvare II Jaqeli called against the king of Georgia Uzun Hasan, the leader of the Aq Qoyunlu. His invasion was used by the viceroy of the western Georgia – Bagrat VI. In 1463 Bagrat VI defeated Giorgi VIII at Chikhori. "Dadiani, Gurieli, Abkhazians and Svans came to the conqueror and expressing the wish of all the Imerians (westerners) blessed him to be King. From that time Imereti turned into one kingdom and four Duchies or satavado.
Bagrat was the king of only west Georgia for a short period. In 1466 he crossed the borders of East Georgia (Inner Kartli) and proclaimed himself King of all Georgia. In fact, he possessed only west Georgia and Inner Kartli. Giorgi VIII went to Kakheti and formed an independent Kakhetian Kingdom. Recognizing as a sovereign of Bagrat VI the grandson of Alexander I the Great – Constantine II was consolidated in the lower Kartli (Tbilisi), while Samtskhe-Saatabago became an independent principality.
In 1490 Constantine asked a specially assembled royal court for an advice concerning restoration of the integral kingdom. The royal court advised Constantine II to postpone this struggle till the better times. After this the king of Kartli had to temporarily reconcile with the kings of Kakheti and Imereti and also prince of Samtskhe having thus formed the factual split of Georgia. Its unity was finally shattered and, by 1490/91, the once powerful monarchy fragmented into three independent kingdoms – Kartli (central to eastern Georgia), Kakheti (eastern Georgia), and Imereti (western Georgia) – each led by the rival branches of the Bagrationi dynasty, and into five semi-independent principalities – Odishi (Mingrelia), Guria, Abkhazia, Svaneti and Samtskhe – dominated by their own feudal clans.
The aristocratic élite of this period was divided into two major classes: an upper noble whose dynastic dignity and feudal quality was expressed in the terms Tavadi and Didebuli, respectively; both of these terms were synonymous, from the 11th to the 14th centuries, with Eristavi, and all three terms referred to one of the upper nobles, "a Prince". Lesser nobles, the Aznauri, were either "nobles of race" or "of patent" who acquired their status in specific charters issued by the king or a lord. The power of the feudal nobles over the peasantry also increased and the cultivators began to loss a degree of personal freedom they had formerly enjoyed.
"Eristavi"'s (dukes) were in charge of local governing. Saeristavo (duchy) was divided into Khevi ruled by "Khevistavi" (in mountainous regions – "Khevisberi"). List of duchies at the time of reign Tamar the Great: Svaneti, Racha-Takveri; Tskhumi, Artgveti, Odishi, Kartli, Kakheti, Hereti and Samtskhe.
The frontier regions were granted exceptional privileges and autonomous rights, and were governed by monapire eristavi (frontier governor). There were several frontier (sanapiro) marches estabelished specifically on southern districts: Gagi, Lore, Akhalkalaki, Artani, Panaskerti, Gachiani and Kari.
For their part, towns were governed by "amiri", while large cities by "amirt-amiri". All these arrangements were codified and systematised in special legislation – Regulations of the Royal Court – and codes of laws. The bishops and the churches were exempted from quitrents and duties.
Tribute extracted from the neighbors and war booty added to the royal treasury, giving rise to the saying that "the peasants were like nobles, the nobles like princes, and the princes like kings."
During the Middle Ages, Christianity was the central element of Georgian culture. Specific forms of art were developed in Georgia for religious purposes. Among them, calligraphy, polyphonic church singing, cloisonné enamel icons, such as the Khakhuli triptych, and the "Georgian cross-dome style" of architecture, which characterizes most medieval Georgian churches. The most celebrated examples of Georgian religious architecture of the time include the Gelati Monastery and Bagrati Cathedral in Kutaisi, the Ikalto Monastery complex and Academy, and the Svetitskhoveli Cathedral in Mtskheta.
Outstanding Georgian representatives of Christian culture include Euthymius of Athos (Ekvtime Atoneli, 955–1028), George of Athos (Giorgi Atoneli, 1009–1065), Arsen Ikaltoeli (11th century), and Ephrem Mtsire, (11th century). Philosophy flourished between the 11th and 13th century, especially at the Academy of Gelati Monastery, where Ioane Petritsi attempted a synthesis of Christian, aristotelician and neoplatonic thought.
Tamar's reign also marked the continuation of artistic development in the country commenced by her predecessors. While her contemporary Georgian chronicles continued to enshrine Christian morality, the religious theme started to lose its earlier dominant position to the highly original secular literature. This trend culminated in an epic written by Georgia's national poet Rustaveli – "The Knight in the Panther's Skin" ("Vepkhistq'aosani"). Revered in Georgia as the greatest achievement of native literature, the poem celebrates the Medieval humanistic ideals of chivalry, friendship and courtly love.
From the 10th century, Georgians had started to play a significant role in preaching Christianity in the mountains of the Caucasus. "Wherever the missions of the patriarchs of Constantinople, Rome, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem failed, the Georgian Church succeeded in bringing Jesus's Cross and preaching His Gospels". This is corroborated not only by old written sources, but also by Christian architectural monuments bearing Georgian inscriptions, which are still to be seen throughout the North Caucasus in Chechnya, Ingushetia, Dagestan, North Ossetia, Kabardino-Balkaria. The golden age of Georgian monasticism lasted from the 9th to the 11th century. During that period, Georgian monasteries were founded outside the country, most notably on Mount Sinai, Mount Athos (the Iviron monastery, where the Theotokos Iverskaya icon is still located), and in Palestine.
The Transcaucasian Military District, a military district of the Soviet Armed Forces, traces its history to May 1921 and the incorporation of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia into the Soviet Union. It was disbanded by being redesignated as a Group of Forces in the early 1990s after the Soviet Union collapse. The military district formed as a basis of the modern day armed forces of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia.
The Transcaucasian Military District was originally formed from the Red Army's Separate Caucasian Army, which became the Red Banner Caucasian Army in August 1923. On 17 May 1935, the Red Banner Caucasus Army was redesignated the Transcaucasian Military District. The Georgian, Armenian, and Azerbaijani national formations, plus units from the 11th Soviet Red Army, all joined the new district about this time.
In July 1936 the District's formations and units received designations according to the countrywide numbering scheme and became: the 9th (formerly 1st Caucasus) Mountain Rifle Division, named for the Central Executive Committee of the Georgian SSR; the 20th (formerly 3rd Caucasus) Mountain Rifle Division; the 47th (former 1st) Georgian Mountain Rifle Division, named for Joseph Stalin; the 63rd (former 2nd) Georgian Mountain Rifle Division, named for Mikhail Frunze; the 76th Armenian Mountain Rifle Division, named after Comrade Voroshilov, and the 77th Аzerbaijani Mountain Rifle Division, named for Grigoriy Ordzhonikidze.
On 22 June 1941 the District consisted of the 3rd (4th, 20th, and 47th Rifle Divisions), 23rd Rifle Corps (136th and 138th Rifle Divisions) and 40th Rifle Corps (9th and 31st Rifle Division), the 28th Mechanised Corps, which included the 6th and 54th Tank Divisions and the 236th Motorised Division (), five unattached divisions – the 63rd, 76th, and 77th Rifle, the 17th Mountain Cavalry Division and the 24th Cavalry Division, and three fortified regions.
On 1 August 1941 the 46th Army was formed from the 3rd Rifle Corps headquarters. 45th Army was formed from the 23rd Rifle Corps. 45th and 46th Armies guarded the Turkish border. The 44th Army was formed from the 40th Rifle Corps and the 47th Army formed from the 27th Mechanized Corps. Both armies were deployed on the Iranian border. On 23 August, the military district became the Transcaucasus Front. District headquarters was subordinated to the front's military council and directed the formation of new units. It was disbanded on 14 September 1941.
On 28 January 1942, the military district was reformed when the Caucasian Front was divided into the Transcaucasian Military District and the Crimean Front. The district was commanded by Ivan Tyulenev and included the 45th and 46th Armies, as well as 4 rifle divisions and a rifle brigade. On 28 April 1942, the district became the second formation of the Transcaucasian Front.
After the war the Transcaucasus Front reverted to being a part of the Headquarters Transcaucasus Military District (ZakVO), in Tbilisi. In 1979 Scott and Scott reported the District' headquarters address as Tbilisi-4, Ulitsa Dzneladze, Dom 46. The District became part of the Southern Direction, headquartered in Baku and including the North Caucasus and Turkestan Military Districts, in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
In 1988, dispositions within the District were as follows:
The Soviet Air Forces' presence in the district consisted of the 34th Air Army, established in 1949, redesignated the Air Forces of the Transcaucasian Military District (VVS ZKVO) in 1980, and then given the name 34th Air Army again in 1988. It was made up of the 36th Bomber Aviation Division, 283rd Fighter Aviation Division and six independent aviation regiments, totaling twelve aviation regiments. The formation's Military Unit Number was 21052.
Army composition (source V.I. Feskov et al 2004):
The Soviet Air Defence Forces had the 19th Army of Air Defence Forces located in the District.
By Ukaz No. 260 of the President of the Russian Federation of 19 March 1992 the Soviet Transcaucasian Military District and the Caspian Flotilla were transferred to the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation.
On 26 September 1992 the district was disbanded, according to Michael Holm and Feskov et al. 2013. Another, earlier report said on 1 January 1993, the District became the Group of Russian Forces in the Transcaucasus (Russian Группа российских войск в Закавказье – ГРВЗ; GRVZ). After many of the divisions listed above had disbanded or become part of the former republics' armed forces, in the mid 1990s the GRVZ's dispositions were:
General Major Aleksander Studenikin, former deputy commander of the Moscow Military District's 20th Army, commanded the Group in 2004 with General (Major?) Andrei Popov as his deputy.
The Russian presence at Vaziani was withdrawn in the late 1990s and an agreement over the withdrawal of the 12th and 62nd Bases by 2007–08 was made in 2005. The Akhalkalaki 62nd base was officially transferred on schedule to Georgia on 27 June 2007. The 12th Military Base in Batumi was transferred earlier than scheduled; scheduled for February 2008, it was transferred on 13 November 2007. The 'Zvezda' command post (probably the former District war headquarters) in the town of Mtskheta, just north of Tbilisi, was handed over by early September 2005. Due to the espionage conflict between Russia and Georgia, the Transcaucasus Group of Forces headquarters in Tbilisi was closed down ahead of schedule: 287 Russian servicemen left Georgia by 31 December 2006.
Even after the GRVZ was totally withdrawn, Russian troops continue to remain in peacekeeping roles in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, de jure parts of Georgia. There are about 1,600 men on the Abkhazian-Georgian boundary (serving alongside UNOMIG) and a battalion in South Ossetia. According to the Russian authorities, the Gudauta military base is also now used by the peacekeeping forces, but no international monitoring has ever been allowed there.
The Special Transcaucasian Committee (Russian: Особый Закавказский Комитет "Osobyi Zakavkazskii Komitet" (OZaKom, Ozakom or OZAKOM)) was established on March 9, 1917, with Member of the State Duma V. A. Kharlamov as Chairman, to replace the Imperial Viceroy Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich and with special instruction to establish civil administrations in areas occupied in the course of the war on the Caucasian front by the Russian Provisional Government in the Transcaucasia as the highest organ of civil administrative body. Commissars were appointed for the Terek Oblast and the Kuban Oblast, and these as well as the Committee were to carry on relations with central government institutions through a Commissar for Caucasian Affairs in Petrograd attached to the Provisional Government.
Soviets also sprang up throughout the area and, in time, organized an influential Regional Center at Tiflis, using the loyalty of the Russian Armenians. Hakob Zavriev was instrumental in having Ozakom issue a decree about the administration of the occupied territories. This region was officially identified as "the land of Turkish Armenia" and transferred to a civilian rule under Zavriev, who oversaw districts Trebizon, Erzurum, Bitlis, and Van. Each of the districts under Administration for Western Armenia had their own Armenian governor, with Armenian civil officials. The position of the Caucasian Muslems was different though membership was drown from ethnically representatives of Duma deputies.
The committee ignored the Social Democratic hegemony in the region and provoked the Soviet to demand its abolition.
The Ozakom was composed of five members:
The ruble (, ), manat () or maneti () was the currency of both Transcaucasian states, the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic and the Transcaucasian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic.
In 1918, the Comissariat of the short-lived Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic issued paper money denominated in rubles: . This ruble was equivalent to the Russian ruble. The notes bore Russian text on the obverse, with Armenian, Azerbaijani and Georgian texts on the reverses. Denominations were 1, 3, 5, 10, 50, 100 and 250 rubles.
Between 1919 and 1922/3, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia issued their own currencies, the Armenian ruble, Azerbaijani manat and Georgian maneti, which replaced the Transcaucasian ruble at par.
In 1923 and 1924, the Transcaucasian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic (part of the USSR) issued notes of denominations between 1000 and 10 milliard rubles.
From 1924 and onwards, the Soviet ruble circulated as the official currency of the Transcaucasian SFSR (and the three Soviet Socialist Republics that succeeded the Transcaucasian SFSR). Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia gained independence and issued their own respective currencies in 1993, 1992, and 1993, shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union.
The Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic (TDFR; 22 April — 28 May 1918) was a short-lived South Caucasian state extending across the present-day countries of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, plus parts of eastern Turkey as well as Russian border areas. The state lasted only for a month before Georgia declared independence, followed shortly by Azerbaijan and Armenia.
Diverging goals of the three major groups (Armenians, Azerbaijanis, and Georgians) jeopardized the TDFR's existence. The peace talks again broken down, and facing a renewed Ottoman offensive in May 1918 Georgian delegates in the Seim announced that the TDFR was unable to continue on, and declared independent the Georgian Democratic Republic on 26 May, with aid from the German Empire. With the Georgians no longer part of the TDFR, the Armenians and Azerbaijanis each declared themselves independent on 28 May, ending the federation.
The South Caucasus had been conquered by the Russian Empire in the early nineteenth century, with the last annexations taking place in 1828. A Caucasian Viceroyalty had originally been established in 1801, and over the next several decades the administration was reformed to consolidate Russian control, with the Viceroyalty given greater power in 1845. Tiflis (now Tbilisi), which had been the capital of the Georgian Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti, became the seat of the viceroy and the "de facto" capital of the region.
The South Caucasus was overwhelmingly rural: aside from Tiflis the only other city of significance was Baku, which grew in the late nineteenth century as the region began exporting oil and became a major economic hub.
With the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, the Caucasus became a major theatre, with the Russian and Ottoman Empires fighting each other in the region. The Russians won several battles and invaded deep into Ottoman territory. However they were concerned that the local population, who were mostly Muslims, would continue to follow the Ottoman Sultan and disrupt the Russian forces, as he was also the caliph, the spiritual leader of Islam. Both sides also wanted to use the Armenian population, who lived across the border, to their advantage and foment uprisings. However, after military defeats, the Ottoman government turned against the Armenians, launching the Armenian Genocide by 1915, in which an estimated 0.8 to 1.5 million Armenians were killed.
The idea to establish a Transcaucasian legislative body had been discussed since November 1917, though it had not been acted on at that time. However, with the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly in January, it became apparent to the leaders of the Commissariat that ties with Russia had been all but severed. With no desire to follow the lead of the Bolsheviks the Commissariat agreed to establish their own legislative body, so that the Transcaucasus could have a legitimate government and negotiate with the Ottoman Empire more properly. Thus on 23 February they established the "Seim" (legislature) in Tiflis.
No election was held for the deputies; instead the results for the Constituent Assembly election were used, with the electoral threshold lowered to one-third of that used for the Constituent Assembly in order to allow more members to join, which allowed smaller parties to be represented. Nikolai Chkheidze, a Georgian Menshevik, was named the chairman. Ultimately the Seim comprised some ten different parties. However, it was dominated by three parties, each representing one major ethnic group: the Georgian Mensheviks and Azerbaijaini Musavat party each had 30 members, while the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) had 27 members. The Bolsheviks boycotted the Seim, asserting that the only legitimate government for Russia (including Transcaucasia) was the Council of People's Commissars (known by its Russian acronym, Sovnarkom).
From the outset the Seim faced challenges to its authority. With a diverse ethnic and political makeup and no clear status to its authority, there was conflict both within its chambers and outside. It was largely dependent on national councils, represented by the three main ethnic groups, and was unable to proceed without their consent. Thus the Ottoman offer to renew peace talks and a willingness to meet in Tiflis, where the Seim was based, was refused, as the Seim felt it would only showcase the internal disagreements taking place. Instead they agreed to travel to Trabzon, in northeast Anatolia.
During the recess at Trabzon, the Ottoman forces continued their advance into the Transcaucasian territory, crossing the 1914 border with the Russian Empire by the end of March. The Seim debated the best course of action; majority of the delegates favored a political solution. To this end, on 20 March the Ottoman delegates offered that only if the Seim were to declare independence, thereby confirming that Transcaucasus was no longer part of Russia, could they return to negotiations. The idea of independence had come up before, with the Georgians having discussed it for themselves in depth in the preceding years. However, it was decided against as the Georgian leadership felt the Russians would not approve it and the Menshevik political ideology leaned away from nationalism.
By 5 April, Chkhenkeli accepted the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk as a basis for further negotiations and urged the Transcaucasian Seim to accept this position. He initially asked that Batum remain part of the Transcaucasus, arguing that as the major port in the region it was an economic necessity. However, the Ottomans refused the proposal, making it clear that they would only accept the terms of Brest-Litovsk, to which Chkhenkeli conceded. Acting on his own accord, on 9 April Chkhenkeli agreed to negotiate further based on the terms set out, though requested that representatives from the other Central Powers participate in the talks. Rauf replied that such a request could only be considered if the Transcaucasus were an independent state.
The Ottoman forces made their military superiority apparent right away. They occupied Batum on 14 April, with little resistance. They also attacked Kars, but a force of 3000 Armenian soldiers, with artillery support, held the city until it was evacuated on 25 April. Having captured most of their desired territory and not willing to lose more soldiers, the Ottoman delegates offered another truce on 22 April and waited for the Transcaucasians to reply.
The debate finished, Davit Oniashvili, a Menshevik, proposed the motion for the Seim "to proclaim Transcaucasia an independent democratic federative republic". Some deputies left the chamber in order to avoid voting against the matter, so the motion passed with few dissents. The new republic, the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic (TDFR), immediately sent a message to Vehib Pasha announcing this development and expressing their will to accept the provisions of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and surrendered Kars to the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire recognized the new republic, the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic (TDFR), on 28 April. Despite this recognition the Ottomans continued their advance into Transcaucasian territory and shortly after occupied both Erzerum and Kars.
The treaty contained twelve articles, which called for the Ottoman Empire to be ceded not only Ardahan, Batum, and Kars, but also the , , and Surmalin Uyezds, and large parts of the Aleksandropol and Echmiadzin Uyezds, mainly along the tracks of the Kars-Julfa railway. The territory named would effectively bring the entire Armenia within the Ottoman Empire. The railway was desired as the Ottoman forcese sought a fast route to North Persia, where they were fighting the British forces in the Persian Campaign, though historian Richard G. Hovannisian has suggested that the real reason was to allow them a means to reach Baku.
Giving the TDFR several days to consider their options, the Ottoman forces resumed their military advances into Armenia on 21 May. They engaged the Armenians at the battles of Bash Abarn (21–24 May), Sardarapat (21–29 May) and Kara Killisse (24–28 May), but could not defeat the Armenians decisively. As a result, their advance slowed down and eventually they were forced to retreat.
As the TDFR lasted only a month, it has had a limited legacy, and the historical scholarship on the topic is limited. Historians Adrian Brisku and Timothy K. Blauvelt have noted that it "seemed both to the actors at the time and to later scholars of the region to be unique, contingent, and certainly unrepeatable." Stephen F. Jones stated it was "the first and last attempt at an independent Transcaucasian union," while Hovannisian noted that the actions of the TDFR during its short existence demonstrated that it "was not independent, democratic, federative, or a republic".
While the three successor states would be reunited within the Soviet Union as the Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, this would only exist between 1922 and 1936 before being broken up again into three union republics. Within the modern states of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, the TDFR is largely ignored in their respective national historiography, given consideration only as the first stage towards their own independent states.
The Treaty of Ahmet Pasha (Persian:"عهدنامه احمد پاشا", ) was a treaty signed on 10 January 1732 between the Ottoman Empire and Safavid Persia.
In the 17th century, a stalemate between the Ottoman and Safavid empires had been reached by the treaties of Serav and Zuhab. However, during the short rule of Afghanistan based Hotaki dynasty, chaos in Iran resulted in clashes along frontiers, especially in Caucasus. Meanwhile, Peter I of Russia began to occupy the Iranian territories in the North Caucasus and Transcaucasia, gains which were confirmed by the Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1723). Fearing a Russian-controlled Caucasus, the Ottomans decided to capture Tbilisi to balance the Russian advance. But this operation resulted in a long Ottoman Safavid war.
Between 1723 and 1730, the Ottomans were able to control South Caucasus by capturing Yerevan and Ganja in addition to Tbilisi. In the southern fronts (i.e., Western Iran), Ottomans captured Tabriz, Urmia, Khorramabad, Kermanshah and Hamedān. In 1724, the Ottomans and Russians had agreed, by the Treaty of Constantinople (1724), to further divide the aforementioned Iranian territories between the two of them. But after Tahmasp II of Safavids began controlling Iran, the Ottoman advance was checked. Tired of war, both sides decided to end the war. Ahmet Pasha (Ottoman) and Mehmet Rıza Kulu (Persian) signed the treaty.
The treaty proved to be an armistice rather than a permanent treaty. Because, neither Ottoman sultan Mahmut I approved the loss of Tabriz nor Nader Shah, then the commander in chief of the Persian army, the losses in Caucasus. During Nader Shah's reign, Afsharid Persia was able to regain its losses.
The Caucasian Native Cavalry Division (), or "Savage Division" () was a cavalry division of the Imperial Russian Army. Formed on 23 August 1914, it was transformed into the Caucasian Native Cavalry Corps on 4 September 1917 before being dissolved several months later. It was composed mostly of Muslim volunteers from among various Peoples of the Caucasus. It took part in World War I, commanded by Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia, younger brother of Emperor Nicholas II.
The division earned the nickname "Savage" for its personnel's traditional attire and relaxed discipline. During the course of World War I it distinguished itself in numerous engagements, including the Brusilov and Kerensky Offensives. During the February Revolution, the Savage Division remained loyal to the Russian Provisional Government and refused to participate in the Kornilov affair. Dissolving soon afterwards, many of its veterans enlisted into the armed forces of the White movement and the Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus.
In early October, the newly formed division conducted a parade in Vladikavkaz, the division’s units then began transferring to Vinnytsia and Proskurov. On 15 November, the division was dispatched to Lvov where it became part of the 2nd Cavalry Corps of the Southwestern Front. On 28 November, it began its march towards the front line at Sambir. On 30 November, the division crossed the border Russia between Austria-Hungary. On 8 December, the Circassian Regiment clashed with the enemy at Terky and Volkovya.
Between 26 and 27 February, the Kabardin Regiment defended the Lomnica river crossing at Podgorka against several Austrian attacks, while being targeted by heavy shelling. The regiment lost three killed and 29 wounded in the fighting. The Ingush and Circassian Regiments crossed the Lomnica river under heavy enemy fire a week later. They then attacked the Tsu Babina village, which was held by an Austrian infantry battalion supported by six machine guns and dislodged the defenders. The Austrians lost 323 men killed and 54 captured. On 6 March, Michael Alexandrovich personally led the division in an offensive on Tlumach, defeating two Austrian battalions and seizing the town. He was later awarded the Saint George Sword for the action.
A large scale Austrian offensive forced the division to withdraw to the right bank of the Prut and by the middle of May it returned to its initial positions on the Dniester. On 4 June, the division took part in the Brusilov Offensive advancing along the right bank of the Dniester towards Chernivtsi, taking Okno village two days later. On 11 June, the division counter-attacked the Austrians who had attempted to create a bridgehead at Zhezhava. The division continued to pursue the Austrians taking the villages Luzhany, Shepenice and Altmaeshti on the left bank of the Prut, taking 1,320 prisoners in the process.
In the middle of October 1916, the 1st and 3rd Brigades were incorporate into the Romanian Front's 4th Army and were forwarded to Stanislavov. In December 1916, the division fought a series of battles in Roman and Bacău. In February 1917, the division was withdrawn to the Bessarabia Governorate, allowing its personnel to rest. The February Revolution and the subsequent Abdication of Nicholas II did not negatively affect the division's morale. In the middle of June 1917, the division joined the 12th Army Corps at Stanislavov in preparation of the Kerensky Offensive. On 8 July, the division launched an offensive on Kalush and Dolyna. On 12 July, the 1st Brigade and the 3rd Caucasus Cossack Division thwarted a German counter-offensive at Kalush.
Mount Qaf, or Qaf-Kuh, also spelled Cafcuh and Kafkuh (), or Jabal Qaf, also spelled Djebel Qaf (), or Koh-i-Qaf, also spelled "Koh-Qaf" and "Kuh-i-Qaf" or "Kuh-e Qaf" () is a legendary mountain in the popular mythology of the Middle East. In Islamic tradition, Mount Qaf is said to be the homeland of the jinn and was made out of shining emerald by God.
Historically Iranian power never extended over all of the Northern Caucasus and ancient lore shrouded these high mountains in mystery.
In Iranian tradition this mountain could be any of the following:
The Peri and Deev kingdoms of Qaf include are Shad-u-kam (Pleasure and Delight), with its magnificent capital Juherabad (Jewel-city), Amberabad (Amber-city), and Ahermanabad (Aherman’s city).
Mount Qaf in Arabic tradition is a mysterious mountain renowned as the "farthest point of the earth" owing to its location at the far side of the ocean encircling the earth. Because of its remoteness, the North Pole is sometimes identified with this mountain. According to Hatim Tai’s account, the Qaf Mountains were said
to be composed of green emerald, peridot or chrysolite, whose reflection gave

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