An Unknown Building Inscription from the Church of St. Marine of Tskrukheti Village of 1679 and its Significance for the Feudal House of Abashidze

Abstract

In the present work, we have brought the construction inscription of Tskhrukets of 1679, unknown in Georgian historiography, mentioning Giorgi, his spouse - Martha, and their children. Based on the mutual comparison of Georgian epigraphic monuments (inscriptions of the so-called "Tiris" church in Navardzeti) and Georgian narrative sources (Vakhushti Batonishvili), we identified the founder of the temple - Giorgi Fulabioti with Giorgi Abashidze, a famous and influential Imerel feudal lord who worked in the second half of the 17th century and at the beginning of the 18th century. In addition, we found out the name of his first wife Martha, who was also unknown to Georgian community, and the heavenly patron of the temple, Saint Marine. On the basis of the historical and source-studies analysis of the inscription, the years of nunnery (1679-1684) were established, and we also narrowed down chronological frames of the creation of the church item ("sakos") commissioned by her and her third husband, Gulkan Lordkifanidze, and the inscription embroidered on it, and instead of the first half of the 18th century, we defined it by the years 1708-1722. Finally, we changed the date of copying of one of the Gulan's (Q-631) copied by his order to 1679-1684 or 1709-1722 instead of 1723.