Th. Otkhmezuri, ed., Medieval Georgian Literary Culture and Book Production in the Christian Middle East and Byzantium

English translation by M. Odisheli, M. Vickers (Jerusalemer Theologishes Forum 42), Münster: Aschendorff Verlag, 2022, 505 pp.

Abstract

Since ancient times, Georgian culture and literature has been developing in close connection with other cultures of the world. Georgian literary tradition which originated in the footsteps of the Christianization of Georgians, has been connected to the monastic centres of the Christian Middle East and Byzantium. The intellectual activity of Georgian monks and scholars in foreign monastic and educational centres played a crucial role in shaping the Georgian Christian culture and thought. Moreover, the Georgians established their own monasteries in Palestine, Mount Athos, Antioch, and different regions of the Byzantine Empire. These centres undertook large-scale cultural and educational projects – translation of the most significant works of the Christian literature, creation of original Georgian writings and precious manuscripts. The literary activity of Georgians in foreign monastic centres reflect both – their close contact with advanced intellectual settings and, at the same time, their attempt to maintain ecclesiastic and cultural independence.

The book – Medieval Georgian Literary Culture and Book Production in the Christian Middle East and Byzantium (Jerusalemer Theologisches Forum, Bd. 42), edited by Thamar Otkhmezuri, English translation by Manana Odisheli and Michael Vickers, Münster, Aschendorff, 2022 (505 pp.) – presents to readers in a coherent, diachronic manner, the literary work of Georgian ecclesiastics in the monastic centres of Palestine, Mt Sinai, Mt Athos, the Black Mountain, Constantinople, and Petritsoni (Bachkovo). It aims to show how Georgians adopted the ideas and values that were predominant in the advanced literary and cultural centres of the Christian world, and how they introduced these ideas and values into Georgian national literature, converting them into an essential part of Georgian intellectual heritage.

The book also discusses the issue of relations of the Georgians with other ethnic groups – the Greeks, the Armenians and the Latins – in the multicultural and multilingual setting of the monastic centres. The book is an attempt to fill the gap that exists in the West regarding the history of medieval Georgian culture and literature. It provides international scholars with the current thinking of Georgian specialists on the history of medieval Georgian literature. The authors of the chapters are: Palestine: Tinatin Chronz (University of Cologne), Anna Kharanauli (Iv. Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University), Tamara Pataridze (Catholic University of Louvain), Tinatin Tseradze (Georgian National Centre of Manuscripts), Mount Sinai: Zaza Aleksidze – Dali Chitunashvili (both Georgian National Centre of Manuscripts), Mount Athos: Thamar Otkhmezuri, Maia Raphava (both Georgian National Centre of Manuscripts), The Black Mountain: Thamar Otkhmezuri, Constantinople: Darejan Kldiashvili (Georgian National Centre of Manuscripts), Magda Mtchedlidze (Iv. Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University), Petritsoni: Nikoloz Aleksidze (Free University of Tbilisi), Georgian and the “Others”: Thamar Otkhmezuri.