George Ellis,Memoir of a Map of the Countries... between the Black Sea and the Caspian

George Ellis (1753-1815) was an occasional poet, historian, diplomat, member of parliament, and co-founder of the Anti-Jacobin, who published several popular books, including Specimens of Early English Metrical Romances and History of the Dutch Revolution. Born in Jamaica, he was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge. While serving with a legation attached to the British ambassador Sir James Harris in St. Petersburg in 1782-1783, he wrote "Memoir of a Map of the Countries... between the Black Sea and the Caspian" which was published in London in 1788. Ellis never visited Caucasus and instead relied on existing travelogues and other literature to produce an accessible overview of the region for an average British reader. The first edition of the book featured several illustrations and a large map of the Caucasus.

Map of the Caucasus included in Ellis' book
(click to enlarge)

 Georgia, called by the Perfians Gurgiftan, and by the Turks Gurtchii [Gurji], comprehends the ancient Iberia, Colchis, and perhaps a part of Albania, as the province of Caket [Kakheti] is said to be distinguished, in the old Georgian language, by the name of Albon. The inhabitants are Christians of the Greek communion, and appear to have received their present name from their attachment to St. George, the tutelary Saint of these countries. 

Georgia is divided into nine provinces: 1. Semo Kartveli, or upper Carduel; 2. Kuemo Kartveli, or lower Carduel; 3. Somgheti; 4. Kakheti; 5. Tshina-Kartveli, or inner Carduel; 6. Imereti; 7. Guria; 8. Suaneti; and 9. Mingreli. Of these, the five first are subject to Heraclius [King Erekle II of Kartli/Kakheti, 1745-1798], and form what is commonly called the kingdom of Georgia; as the four last, which are subject to David [King David II of Imereti, 1784-1789, 1790-1791], form the kingdom or principality of Imeretia. 

This whole country is so extremely beautiful, that some fanciful travellers have imagined they had here found the situation of the original garden of Eden. The hills are covered with forests of oak, ash, beech, chestnuts, walnuts, and elms, encircled with vines, growing perfectly wild, but producing vast quantities of grapes. From these is annually made as much wine as is necessary for the yearly consumption; the remainder are left to rot on the vines. Cotton grows spontaneously, as well as the finest European fruit-trees. Rice, wheat, millet, hemp, and flax, are raised on the plains, almost without culture [cultivation]. The valleys afford the finest pasturage in the world; the rivers are full of fish; the mountains abound in minerals, and the climate is delicious; so that nature appears to have lavished on this favoured country every production that can contribute to the happiness of its inhabitants. 

On the other hand, the rivers of Georgia, being fed by mountain torrents, are at all seasons either too rapid or too shallow for the purposes of navigation: the Black Sea, by which commerce and civilization might be introduced from Europe, has been 'till very lately in the exclusive possession of the Turks: the trade of Georgia by land is greatly obstructed by the high mountains of Caucasus; and this obstacle is still increased by the swarms of predatory nations, by which those mountains are inhabited. 

[... Brief discussion of Georgian history follows...]

The capital of Georgia, and place of residence of prince Heraclius, is Tifflis, called by the inhabitants Tbilis-Cabar (Warm Town) from the warm baths in its neighbourhood. It was founded, as appears by an old inscription in the citadel, by a certain certain prince Lievang in the year 1063 [Tifliss was founded in the fifth century by King Vakhtang]. Though its circumference does not exceed two English miles, it contains twenty thousand inhabitants, of which more than half are Armenians: the remainder are principally Georgians, with some Tartars. It has twenty Armenian, and fifteen Greek churches, and three Metcheds [mosques]. The streets seldom exceed seven feet in breadth, and some are so narrow as scarcely to allow a passage for a man on horseback: they are consequently very filthy. The houses have flat roofs, on which the women occasionally walk in fine weather: they are neatly built, the walls of the rooms are wainscoted [lined with wooden paneling], and the floors spread with carpets. At Tifflis there is a foundry, at which are cast a few cannon, mortars, and balls, all of which are very inferior to those of the Turks. The gunpowder made here is very good. The Armenians have likewise established in this town all the manufactures carried on by their countrymen in Persia; the most flourishing is that of printed linens. The common coins of Georgia are the abasses, of about fifteen-pence value, and a small copper coin, stamped at the mint at Tifflis. Besides these, a large quantity of gold and silver money is brought into the country from Persia and Turkey, in exchange for honey, butter, cattle, and blue linens. 

The subjects of Heraclius are estimated at about sixty thousand families; but this, notwithstanding the present desolated state of the country, is probably an under valuation. The peasants belonging to the queen, and those of the patriarch, pay no tax to the prince, and therefore do not appear on the books of the revenue officers. Many similar exemptions have likewise been granted by the prince to his sons-in-law, and his favourites. Besides, as the impost on the peasants is not a poll-tax, but a tax on hearths, the inhabitants of a village, on the approach of the collectors, frequently carry the furniture of several huts into one, and destroy the remainder, which are afterwards very easily replaced. It is probable, therefore, that the population of Georgia does not fall short of three hundred and fifty thousand fouls. 

The revenues of this country may be estimated at about 150,000 roubles, or 26,250 £. They consist of, 1. the customs, farmed at 1,750£. 2. Rent paid by the farmers of the mint at Tifflis, 1,750£. — 3. The tribute paid by the Khans of Erivan and Gansha[Ganja], 7,000£. — and 4. The hearth money levied on the peasants, amounting to 15,750£. 

The government of Georgia is defpotic, but, were it not for the assistance of the Russian troops, the prince would be frequently unable to carry his decrees into execution. The punishments in criminal cafes are shockingly cruel, fortunately they are not frequent, because it is seldom difficult to escape into some of the neighboring countries, and because the prince is more enriched by confifcating the property of the criminal, than by putting him to torture. Judicial combats are considered as the privilege of nobility, and take place when the cause is extremely intricate, or when the power and interest of two claimants are so equal, that neither can force a decision of the court in his favour. This mode of trial is called an appeal to the judgment of God. 

The dress of the Georgians nearly resembles that of the Cossaks; but men of rank frequently wear the habit of Persia. They usually dye their hair, beards, and nails with red. The Georgian women employ the fame colour to stain the palms of their hands. On their heads they wear a cap or fillet, under which their black hair falls on their forehead; behind, it is braided into several tresses. Their eye-brows are painted with black, in such a manner as to form one entire line, and their faces are perfectly coated with white and red. Their robe is open to the girdle, so that they are reduced to conceal the breasts with their hands. Their air and manner are extremely voluptuous. Being generally educated in convents, they can all read and write; a qualification which is very unusual among the men, even of the highest rank. Girls are betrothed as soon as possible, often at three or four years of age. In the streets the women of rank are always veiled, and then it is indecent in any man to accost them. It is likewise uncivil in conversation to inquire after the wives of any of the company. These, however, are not ancient customs, but are a consequence of the violences committed by the Persians, under Shah Nadir 

Travellers accuse the Georgians of drunkenness, superstition, cruelty, sloth, avarice, and cowardice; vices which are every where common to slaves and tyrants, and are by no means peculiar to the natives of this country. The descendants of the colonists, carried off by Shah Abbas [in early 17th century], and settled at Persia, near Ispahan, and in Masanderan, have changed their character with their government; and the Georgian troops, employed in Persia against the Affghans, were advantageously distinguished by their docility, their discipline, and their courage. 

The other inhabitants of Georgia are Tartars, Ossi, and Armenians, called in the Georgian language Somakhi. These last are found all over Georgia, sometimes mixed with the natives, and sometimes in villages of their own. They speak among themselves their own language, but all understand and can talk the Georgian. Their religion is partly the Armenian, and partly the Roman Catholic. They are the most oppressed of the inhabitants, but are still distinguished by that instinctive industry which every where characterizes the nation. 

Besides these, there are in Georgia considerable numbers of Jews, called, in the language of the country, Uria. Some have villages of their own, and others are mixed with the Georgian. Armenian, and Tartar inhabitants, but never with the Ossi. They pay a small tribute above that of the natives. 

[...Another discussion of Georgian history follows...]

The capital of Imeretia, and place of residence of prince David, is Cutais [Kutaisi]. The remains of its cathedral seem to prove that it was once a considerable town, but at present it scarcely deserves the name of a village. Solomon, father of the present prince [ David was the son of Giorgi IX and cousin of Solomon I], very wisely ordered the walls and the citadel to be destroyed, observing, that the rocks of Caucafus were the only fortifications which were capable of being defended by an undisciplined army of six thousand men, unprovided with artillery. 

The inhabitants of Imeretia, eflimated at about twenty thousand families, are not collected into towns or villages but scattered over the country in small hamlets. They are less mixed with foreigners, and handsomer than the other Georgians. They are likewise bolder, and more industrious: they send yearly considerable quantities of vine to the neighbouring parts of Georgia, in leather bags, carried by horses: but they are without manufactures, very poor and miserable, and cruelly oppressed by their vexatious landlords. 

The ordinary revenues of Imeretia, like those of Georgia, arise from a contribution of the peasants in wine, grain, and cattle, and from the tribute of the neighbouring princes. Among the extraordinary sources of revenue, confiscations have a considerable share; but as all this is by no means sufficient for the subsistence of the prince, he usually travels from house to house, living on his vassals, and never changing his quarters till he has consumed every thing eatable. It will of course be understood, that the court of Imeretia is not remarkable for splendour, nor the prince's table very sumptuously served. His usual fare consists of gom (a species of millet, ground, and boiled into a paste), a piece of roasted meat, and some pressed caviar; these he eats with his fingers; forks and spoons being unknown in Imeretia. At table he is frequently employed in judging causes, which he decides at his discretion, there being no law in his dominions but his own will. His new ordinances are publicized to the people on Fridays, which are the market days, by a crier, who gets up into a tree, and from thence issues the proclamation. 

The Imeretians are of the Greek religion. Their Catholicos, or patriarch, is generally of the royal family, and can seldom read or write; and the inferior clergy are not better instructed. Their churches are wretched buildings, scarcely to be distinguished from common cottages, but from a paper cross over the principal door, and some paintings of the Virgin and the saints. 

The Dadian, or prince of Mingrelia and Guriel, though possessed of a country far more considerable than Imeretia, is tributary to prince David, who is, therefore, a very formidable neighbour to the Turks of Achalziche [Akhaltsikhe]. He is, however, very much fettered in his operations by the disobedience of his numerous barons, who, like those of Georgia and Mingrelia, have power of life and death over their vassals. 

SPECIMEN OF THE CAUCASIAN LANGUAGES

[In this section, Ellis compiled examples of words from several key Caucasian languages, including Abkhaz, Circassian, Ossetian, Kist, Lezghian and Georgian. Ellis noted that the words came from a general vocabulary that was created by the order of Empress Catherine II of Russia]

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Louis Guillaume Figuier, Les Races Humaines (1872)

Louis Guillaume Figuier (1819-1894) was a French scientist and writer, who, by the end of the 19th century, emerged as one of the leading popularizers of science. Born in Montpellier (France), he studied chemistry and eventually became professor of chemistry at L'Ecole de pharmacie of Montpellier and L'Ecole de Pharmacie of Paris. But he earned his fame by publishing numerous books of popular science, including Les Grandes inventions anciennes et modernes (1861), Le Savant du foyer (1862), La Terre avant le déluge (1863), La Terre et les mers (1864), Les Merveilles de la science (1867–1891) and others. His books enjoyed considerable success with the public. In this respect, one book in particular is noteworthy: Les Races Humaines (1872) where Figuier compiled, classified and described all of "human races"; the text was lavishly illustrated with 243 engravings on wood and 8 chromolithographs. The book was a success and was quickly translated into other languages and released in several editions over the next couple of decades. 

The book contains numerous mistakes and is clearly racist in its outlook, but for many Europeans, it served as an important source of information on the peoples of the world, including Georgians whom Figuier classified as one of the "Aramean" branch of the 'White Race." Figuier offers a brief description of the Georgians in a section dealing with the Caucasus but he also mentions them in the parts dealing with the Ottoman and Arab societies, noting that "besides their legitimate wives, the wealthy and the great keep a collection of Georgian and Circassian slaves." In fact, one of the eight chromolithographs was devoted to a Georgian slave.

The Georgian Family. 

The Georgian Family is gathered together on the southern slope of the Caucasus. The beauty of the 

Georgian women is proverbial. M. Moynet, in his "Journey to the Caspian and the Black Seas," tells us that they deserve all their reputation. Their physiognomy is as calm and regular as that of the immortal type handed down to us in the ancient statuary of Greece. A head-band of bright colours in the shape of a crown, and from which hangs a veil passing under the chin, forms their headdress. Two long plaits of hair fall behind, reaching nearly to their feet. Nothing can be imagined more graceful or more dignified than this head-dress. A long ribbon of the gayest hues serves them for a sash, and falls down the front of their dress to the ground. Out of doors they wrap themselves up in a flowing white cloth, which shields them from the sun, and which they wear with much grace.

The men are also generally handsome. They have preserved the Caucasian type untouched and unaltered. They wear rich dresses, embroidered with gold and silver, and carry costly, sparkling arms. They are brave and chivalrous, and are passionately fond of horses.

The Mingrelians, inhabitants of Mingrelia, a little kingdom on the shores of the Caspian Sea, resemble the Georgians in physical appearance, in manners, and in customs.

The Circassian Family.

The Circassian Family, collected in the Caucasian mountains, is composed of a population distinguished for their bravery, but very feebly civilized. The Circassian type has in the whole of the East a great reputation for beauty, and it deserves it. Most Circassians have a long oval face, a thin straight nose, a small mouth, large dark eyes, a well-defined figure, a small foot, brown hair, a very white skin, and a martial appearance.

In affinity with the Circassians are the Abases, who speak a dialect akin to Circassian. They are semi-barbarous, and live on the produce of their herds and from the spoil of their brigandage. Their features show no sign of Circassian grace. They have a narrow head, a prominent nose, and the lower half of their face is extremely short.

The Armenians

The Armenians of both sexes are remarkable for their physical beauty. Their language is nearly allied to the oldest dialects of the Aryan race, and their history is connected with that of the Medes and Persians by very ancient traditions. They have a white skin, black eyes and hair, and their features are rounder than those of the Persians. The luxuriant growth of the hair on their faces distinguishes them from the Hindoos.

The climate of Armenia is generally a cold one; but in the valleys and in the plains the atmosphere is less keen and the soil very fertile. Crops of wheat, wine, fruit, tobacco, and cotton are very plentiful there. Mines of gold, silver, copper, iron, and lead are found there, but these are but little worked. Armenian horses have the reputation of being the best bred in western Asia. Cochineal, an important production of this country, is very plentiful at the foot of Ararat. Excellent manna is found in the same districts. Armenian floreals are very abundant.

Armenia nowadays constitutes the pachaliks of Erzeroum, Kara, and Dijar-Bekr in Asiatic Turkey. Besides its indigenous population, it is inhabited by Turks, Kurds, Turcomans, and the remnants of other nations who formerly made raids into their country. The Armenian is distinguished by his serious, laborious, intelligent, and hospitable disposition. He is very successful in business. Fond of the traditions of his forefathers, and attached to his government, he has a good deal of sympathy with Europeans. He becomes easily accustomed to European customs, and learns our languages with little difficulty.

The Christian religion has always been followed in Armenia, and Armenians are much attached to their church. But this is divided into several sects. The Gregorian (the creed founded by Saint Gregory), the Roman Catholic, and the Protestant religions are all to be found in Armenia. The head of the first, which is the most numerous (it musters about four million worshippers), resides at Etchmiadzia, in Russian Armenia. There is another patriarch, who is nearly independent, at Cis, the ancient capital of the kingdom of Cilicia. The patriarch of the Catholics, who are fifty thousand in number, resides at Constantinople; but a second patriarch (in partibus), whose jurisdiction extends over Syria, Cilicia, and a part of Asia Minor, dwells on Mount Libanus. The Roman Catholics of Russian Armenia belong to the see of the Metropolitan residing in St. Petersburg. The head of the Protestant church, which contains from four to five thousand souls, dwells at Constantinople.

The Ossetines

The Ossetines, who are the last branch of the Aryan race in Asia, inhabit a small portion of the chain of the Caucasian mountains, populated for the most part by races distinct from the IndoEuropeans. They resemble the peasants of the north of Russia; but their customs are barbarous, and they are given to pillage. M. Vereschaguine met with the Ossetines in his travels in the Caucasian provinces. A Cossack, with whom he had some trouble, belonged to this race. The villages of the Ossetines lie on the slopes of the mountains. On each side of the Darial Pass lofty walls, flanked by towers, are to be seen, reminding the spectator of the days of brigandage.

The Ossetine, contrary to the customs of all the other tribes of the Caucasus and of the Trans-Caucasus, uses beds, tables, and chairs. He seats himself, like most Europeans, without crossing his legs.

Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, Les Six Voyages... (1676) - Part 2

Jean-Baptiste Tavernier (1605 – 1689) was a French gem merchant and traveler, who had made six voyages to Persia and India between the years 1630 and 1668. In 1675, Tavernier, at the behest of his patron Louis XIV, published his famous travelogue "Les Six Voyages de Jean-Baptiste Tavernier" (1676) which was translated into English in 1678 and excerpted here.

Mengrelia [Western Georgia] extends from a Chain of Mountains, that separates it from [eastern] Georgia to the Black Sea, and is now divided into three Provinces, every one of which has their King. The first is called the Province of lmarete [Imereti], or Bassa-Shiouk [Baschi Achouk, Ottoman name for Imeretians], the king whereof pretends to a superiority over both the other, which is the reason they are often at War, and that with so much cruelty, that when they have taken any prisoners of either side, they sell them into Turkey. They are so accustomed to sell one another in this Country, that if a man or his wife have any occasion for money, they will go and sell one of their Children, and many times they will exchange a Child for Ribands [ribbons] or other Toyes at the Mercers [merchants'] Shops. 

The second Province is that of Mengrelia, and the ruler of this Province is called the King of Dadian. 

The third is the Province of Guriel [Guria], the ruler of which Province is called the King of Guriel. 

The Province of Mengrelia was formerly subject to the King of Bassa-Shiouk, who sent thither a Governour, which is called in their language Dadian. One of those Govemours being a person of wit and courage, gained so far upon the affection of the People, that they chose him for their King. 

The chief of the Province of Guriel, seeing how the Dadian had obtained the Kingdom, following the example of Mengrelia, shook off the Yoke of the King of Bassa-Shiouk, and chose another King among themselves, who keeps his Soveraignty to this day, by the support of the Grand Signor [Ottoman sultan]. For when the Dadian rebelled, he entered into an Alliance with the Grand Signor, and obliged himself to furnish him every year with such a certain quantity of Iron, upon condition that if the King of Bassa-Shiouk should wage war upon him, [the sultan] would furnish him with twenty thousand Horse[men]. Of which the Turk was very glad, finding thereby the Country of Mengrelia [western Georgia] divided, which being united, was able at any time to have disturbed him with an Army of fifty thousand Men. 

The King of Bassa-Shiouk [Imereti] coins money of the same size and weight with that of the King of Persia. But in regard it is not so fine metal as that of the King of Persia, he would have much a doe to make it pass in the trade between his Subjects and the Persians, which is very great, had he not found an expedient by putting the King of Persia's name upon the Coin as well as his own, which makes it pass without any difficulty. He would also put the Grand Signor's Name upon his Coin, but that the Turk coins none but small money, or Aspers, excepting excepting only some Ducatts which he coins in Cairo. The King of Bassa-Shiouk as well as the King of Teflis coins all sort of foreign money. 

These three Kings of Bassa-Shiouk [Imereti], Mengrelia and Guriel are Christians also. And when they go to war, all the Ecclesiastical Persons attend them; Arch-bishops and Bishops, Priests and Monks: not so much to fight as to encourage the Soldiers. 

Being at Constantinople the first time I travelled to Persia, I saw there an ambassador from the King of Mengrelia, whose behaviour gave all the Franks occasion of laughter. The Present which he made to the Grand Signor [the sultan] was in Iron and Steel, and a great number of Slaves. The first time of his Audience, he had a suite of over 200 Persons. But every day he sold two or three [persons] to defray his expenses, so that at his departure, he had none but his Secretary and two Vassals more left. He was a man of presence but no wit: and every time he went to visit the Grand Signor, he presumed to wear the white Bonnet which all the Franks wondered at; when they saw that the Grand Vizier winked at it. For should any other Christian have done so, he had been most certainly put to death, or constrain'd to turn Mahometan. By which it was apparent how much the Grand Signor valued the friendship of the King of Mengrelia, and how careful he is of offending those that are sent from his Court. He knew those People suffer no affronts, but upon the least word presently draw [their swords], besides that there is nothing to be got by provoking them. 

This ambassador going once upon a visit into the Country, returning home was caught in a storm, whereupon he pulled off his Boots and carried them under his Coat, choosing rather to go bare-foot to his lodging, than to spoil his Boots. 

Another time, it being the custom of all Catholic Ambassadors to go to Mass to the Covent of Grey Friars in Pera , upon St. Francis' Day, the Mengrelian ambassador after mass was done, coming out of the Church, and seeing several baubles which the peddlers expose in the cloister upon that day, bought a tin ring, two or three small looking-glasses, and a pipe, which he put in his mouth and went piping all the way in the street, as Children do coming from fairs. 

But to return to the matter, you must take notice that there are not only Iron Mines, but also Mines of Gold and Silver in two places five or fix days Journey from Teflis, the one called Souanet [Svaneti] and the other Obetet. But the mischief is, the people can hardly be got to work there  for fear the Earth should tumbledown and bury them in the Mine, as it has many times happened. There is also a Mine of Gold near to a place which is called Hardanoushe, and a Mine of Silver at Gunishe-Kone, five days journey from Erzurum, and as many from Trebizond. 

As for the people themselves, both Georgians and Mengrelians [western Georgians] never trouble themselves about the ignorance and viciousness of their Priests, or whether they be able to instruct them or no. The richest among them are they which are in the most credit, and absolutely give Laws to the poor. There are also some heads of the Church that assume such a jurisdiction over the people, as to sell them both to the Turks and Persians, and they choose out the handsomest children, both Boys and Girls, to get more money, by which authority also the great men of the Country enjoy married Women and Maids at their pleasure. They will choose out their Children for the Bishops while they are yet in their Cradles, and if the Prince be dissatisfied at it, all the clergy joins with him that makes the choice, and then together by the ears they go. In which skirmishes they will carry away whole villages, and sell all the poor people to the Turks and Persians. And indeed the custom of selling men and women is so common in that Country that a man may almost affirm it to be one of 

their main Trades. 

The Bishops dissolve Marriages when they please, and then Marry again after they have sold the first. If any of the Natives be not Married to his fancy, he takes another for such a time as he thinks fit, for which he pays her all the while as the Turks do. Very few of these people know what Baptism means. Only two or three days after the woman is brought to bed [gives birth], the Priest comes and brings a little oil, mumbles over a few Prayers, and then anoints the Mother and the Infant, which they believe to be the best Baptism in the World. In short they are a people of no Devotion at all, neither in their Ceremonies nor in their Prayers. But there are great number of Nunneries, where the young Maids apply themselves to their Studies, and after such an age, whether they stay in the Nunneries or betake 

themselves to the Service of any of the great Lords, they Confess, Baptize, Marry, and perform all other Ecclesiastical Functions, which I never knew practiced in any other part of the World. 

Victor Dingelstedt, The Riviera of Russia (1904)

In Victor Dingelstedt, the corresponding member of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society, visited Western Georgia and prepared a lengthy report on its climate, natural resources and people. The article was published in The Scottish Geographical Magazine in June 1904 and was illustrated with these three photos.

Gamba, Voyage dans la Russie méridionale (1826) - part 1.

Jean-François Gamba was a French consul in Tiflis in the 1820s. He traveled extensively across the Caucasus and, in 1826, published a two volume Voyage dans la Russie méridionale, et particulièrement dans les provinces situées au delà du Caucase that contains many interesting insights into contemporary Georgian society. 

From volume 2:

The Georgian is of tall stature and strong constitution. His traits are very pronounced and beautiful, with handsome black eyes, and long, often  aquiline nose, more of the Jewish (with whom he has often been confused) than the Roman cut. His gait is proud, sometimes accompanied by a peculiar body motion that makes him almost insolent. Living in a country that was constantly ravaged by wars, [the Georgians] had to remain constantly on the defensive, either against the Turks, who threatened them from the pashaliks of Kars and Akhaltsikhe, or against the Persians, who menaced from the Aras River, or against the tartars and Lezghis who descended from the Caucasus. He is thus born a warrior but, belonging to a nation that is few in numbers, he is more practiced in guerrilla warfare than in regular battles. No other people in Asia furnishes soldiers who are braver or better horsemen that Georgians. In the Persian armies they always constituted an elite corps that the Persians king turned to secure a victory in battle. They are brave, but often cruel; hospitable, but reserved; intelligence, yet ignorant. A Georgian thus has all the vices and virtues of a soldier.

The Georgian princes, accustomed to incessant wars under their kings, are beginning to tire of their idle  and monotonous life. If ever Russia should make any serious attack upon the Muslim [states] of Asia, she would find it easy to recruit numerous armies among the Georgians, distinguished by their courage and European-style training, worthy of the name of the best troops in the entire [Russian] empire. 

The population is, in general, agricultural or engaged in artisan crafts, but it neglects commerce... The beauty of the Georgian women is famed all over the world. Regular features, that remind us of the beautiful Greek statues, slender waists, the whiteness of the skin and gentle looks all distinguish a Georgian woman.

From Volume 1:

The noble Mingrelian, who held the functions of chief of the village, received us with great hospitality; he was remarkable for his size and his strength; he wore a beard and a short mustache. His features were regular, but amidst an expression of kindness, which he expressed to us, he had rather the air of a feudal lord than of a peaceful cultivator. 

His house, built of wood, was neat. It contained, as usual, but one room; it was large, and was provided with two beds, which were covered with carpets and cushions. Enormous logs of oak, heaped on the fire that occupied the centre of the chamber, had been long burning. We found it the more comfortable, as we all felt desirous to dry ourselves after having been for six hours in a continued rain. 

The name of our host was Georgighia [George]. He presented to us his wife, who was large, well formed, and handsome; although she had a daughter twelve years old, she was herself only twenty-six - as it is the custom in Mingrelia for girls to marry at the age of twelve. She greeted us in the most affable manner, and preserved, during our residence, an air of ease which surprised us. 

Having offered them some tea, we were about to make use of our own provisions, when our interpreter informed us that supper was preparing for us. Accordingly, in a short time, they placed before us a long bench, on which the domestics, in great numbers, arranged the provisions. These consisted of three large vessels, containing a paste of ground millet, which they call gomi, and which was taken with a wooden trowel out of the iron cauldrons; then was brought in, two roast fowls, and a great wooden bowl, coarsely wrought, containing peaces of meat, accompanied with cold water; and, finally, white cheese, made with the milk of goats. Large cakes of corn flour [mchadi] served us for plates and for bread. 

[...]

The red wine which our host gave us was of a good quality, and did not at all resemble that which we had been accustomed to buy in the market of Redoute-kale. 

The family and the friends of the house all sat at table with us. The chamber was filled, and the doors were crowded with spectators. After supper, the master of the house and his wife slept on one of the beds, and we spread our mattress on the other. 

The house of our host was situated on an eminence, decorated with fine trees. On one extremity of this terrace was a wooden church, built with much care, and not yet finished. The sides of this building were formed with oaken planks, about two inches thick, well polished, and held together by a tongue and grove. Around the church have been preserved ash, linden and elm trees of remarkable size. 

[...]

As an acknowledgement of the kind offices of the head of the village, we offered him two razors and a pruning knife to trim his vines. His wife, encouraged by these small presents, asked for a pair of scissors, a thimble, needles, and, above all things, for two metal spoons, which made a part of our travelling equipage. While it gave me pleasure to satisfy this wish, it was, at least, a proof that if this people eat still with their fingers - if they know not the use of many things which have become of prime necessity in civilized nations, nothing would be more easy than to create these wants, and to lead them, gradually, to peaceful labours, and to manners more mild.

 [,..]

James Bryce, Transcaucasia and Ararat (1876)

James Bryce (1838-1922) was a distinguished British jurist, writer and Liberal politician. Born in Belfast, he studied at the University of Glasgow, University of Heidelberg and at Trinity College, Oxford, where he earned his law degree. He practiced law for several years in London before accepting an offer to serve as Regius Professor of Civil Law at Oxford, a position he held for twenty three years until 1893. During this time Bryce had travelled extensively in Europe and, in 1876, visited the Caucasus, where he visited Georgia and Armenia.  In later years Bryce ventured into politics, becoming a member of the Parliament and serving as the British ambassador to the USA in 1907-1913. During World War I he was commissioned to write the well known Bryce Report on the German atrocities in Belgium. 

The brief excerpt below is from Bryce's book "Transcaucasia and Ararat" 

I will shortly describe the chief races that now occupy the country. Beginning from the west, we find the Mingrelians along the Black Sea coast, from the Turkish border to Sukhum Kaleh. They are the ne'er-do-wells of the Caucasian family. All their neighbours, however backward a Western may think them, have a bad word and a kick for the still more backward Mingrelian. To believe them, he is lazy, sensual, treacherous, and stupid, a liar and a thief. The strain in which the Russians and Armenians talk of them reminded me of the description one gets from the Transylvanian Saxons and Magyars of the Wallachs or Roumans who live among them. You ask what kind of people the Wallachs are. "A dirty people," they answer, "a treacherous people, a lazy people, a superstitious people, a cruel people, a gluttonous people. Otherwise not such a bad kind of people."

Lazy the Mingrelian certainly is, but in other respects I doubt if he is worse than his neighbours ; and he lives in so damp and warm a climate that violent exercise must be disagreeable. He is a well-made, good-looking fellow, but with a dull and perhaps rather sensual expression. And he is certainly backward in agriculture and trade, making very little of a singularly rich country. 

South of Mingrelia lies Guria, on the slopes and ridges of the Anti-Caucasus, a land where the people are more vigorous and upright, and where, as they have been less affected by conquest and immigration, the picturesque old costumes have best maintained themselves. 

West of the Mingrelians, in the hilly regions of the Upper Rion and its tributaries, live the Imeritians, a race speaking the Georgian language, who may generally be distinguished by their bushy hair. My personal knowledge of them is confined to three waiters at three several inns, rather a narrow basis for induction, but quite as wide as many travellers have had for some very sweeping conclusions. They have a better name than the Mingrelians, both for industry and honesty, and these three waiters 

were pleasant, civil fellows, though not particularly bright. 

Still farther east, and occupying the centre of Transcaucasia, are the Georgians, called by the Russians Grusinians or Grusians, who may be considered the principal and, till the arrival of the Muscovite, the dominant race of the country. They call themselves Karthli [kartveli], deducing their origin from a patriarch Karthlos (who was brother of Haik, the patriarch of the Armenian nation, and of Legis, the ancestor of the Lesghians), a grandson, or, as others hold, great-grandson of Gomer, son of Japhet. According to their own legends, they worshipped the sun and the moon and the five planets, and swore by the grave of Karthlos until converted to Christianity by St Nina in the fourth century of our era. For several centuries their kingdom extended almost to the Black Sea in one direction and the Caspian in another, and maintained itself with some credit against the hostility of Turks and Persians, though often wasted by Persian armies, and for long periods obliged to admit the suzerainty of the Shah. Its heroic age was the time of Queen Tamara, who flourished in the twelfth century, and is still honoured by pictures all over the country, in which she appears as a beautiful Amazon, not unlike the fancy portraits of Joan of Arc. To her is ascribed the foundation of every ancient church or monastery, just as all the strongholds are said to have been built by the robber Kir Oghlu, and as in Scotland there is hardly an old mansion but shows Wallace's sword and Queen Mary's apartment. [...] One sees traces of a sort of feudal period in the numerous castles ; most of them mere square towers, such as we see on the coast of Scotland and the north of Ireland, which lie scattered all over Georgia and Imeritia ; and the organisation of society was till quite lately feudal, the peasantry villeins under the native kings, and reduced under the Russians to serfdom, while the 

upper class consisted of landowning nobles and their immediate dependants. 

It is a joke among the Russians that every Georgian is a noble, and as the only title of nobility is Prince, the effect to an English ear of hearing all sorts of obscure people, country postmasters, droshky drivers, sometimes even servants, described as being Prince So-and-so, is at first grotesque. The number of noble families is, however, really not very large. I have heard it put as low as thirty, but as the title goes to all the children, each of the families has a vast number of titled members. This at least may be said for the numerous nobility, that, although it has been charged with vanity and frivolity, it does not despise all honest occupations. And some of the Georgian noble houses have pedigrees, apparently authentic pedigrees, older than any to be found in Europe. 

Every one has heard of the Georgian beauties, who in the estimation of Turkish importers rivalled or surpassed those of Circassia itself. Among them a great many handsome and even some beautiful faces may certainly be seen, regular and finely chiselled features, a clear complexion, large and liquid eyes, an erect carriage, in which there is a good deal of dignity as well as of voluptuousness. To a taste, however, formed upon Western models, mere beauty of features and figure, without expression, is not very interesting ; and these beautiful faces frequently want expression. Nor have they always that vivacity which, in the parallel case of the women of Andalusia, partly redeems the deficiency of intelligence. Admirable as pieces of Nature's handiwork, they are not equally charming. A Turk may think them perfection, but it may be doubted whether any one who had seen the ladies of Cork or Baltimore would take much pleasure in their society. However, this is a point on which people will disagree to the end of time; and those who hold that it is enough to look at a beauty without feeling inclined to talk to her need not go beyond Georgia to find all they can wish. It must be remembered, however, that this loveliness is rather fleeting. Towards middle life the complexion is apt to become sallow, and the nose and chin rather too prominent, while the vacuity of look remains. One is told that they are, as indeed the whole nation is, almost uneducated, with nothing but petty personal interests to fill their thoughts or animate their lives.

The men are sufficiently good-looking and pleasing in manner, with, perhaps, a shade of effeminacy in their countenances, at least in those of the lowland. They do not strike one as a strong race, either physically or otherwise, though they have produced some remarkable men, and having obtained civilisation and Christianity in the fourth century of our era, have ever since maintained their religion and national existence with great tenacity against both Turks and Persians. So early as the sixth century, Procopius compliments the Iberians (who are doubtless the ancestors of our Georgians) on their resolute adherence to Christian rites in spite of the attacks of the Persian fire-worshippers, who, it may be remarked in passing, seem to have been the first to set the example of religious persecution. The Muslims say that the Christianity of the Georgians is owing to their fondness for wine and for pork, both which good things, as everybody knows, the Prophet has forbidden to true believers. 

[...]

Scattered through Upper Georgia, and to be found among the peasantry as well as in the towns, there is a considerable Armenian population, who probably settled here when their national kingdom was destroyed by the Seljukian conquerors Alp Arslan and Malek Shah, in the eleventh century. Farther south, in Armenia proper, they constitute the bulk of the population in the country districts, Kurds being mixed with them in the mountains, Tatars in the plains, and Persians in the towns. As I shall have to recur to them in a later chapter, it is enough to remark here that they are the most vigorous and intelligent of the Transcaucasian races, with a gift for trade which has enabled them to get most of the larger business of the country into their hands. Their total number in these countries is estimated at 550,000. Between them and the Georgians there is little cordiality, especially as their wealthy men are apt to be creditors, and the Georgians apt to be debtors. 

Going down the Kur from Tiflis towards the Caspian, one finds the Greorgians give place to a people whom the Russians call Tatars, and who are unquestionably a branch of the great Turkic family....Veritable Turks these fellows certainly are, quite unlike the mongrel race who go by the name of the Turks in Europe, and much more resembling, in face, figure, and character, the pure undiluted Turkman of Khiva and the steppes of the Jaxartes. Being in some districts a settled and industrious race, they are, however, less wild-looking than the Turkmans, and remind one more of the grave and respectable Tatar of Kazan or the Crimea. Their villages, often mere burrows in the dry soil, are scattered all over the steppe eastward to the Caspian, and southward as far as the Persian frontier. Many are agricultural, many more live by their sheep and cattle, which in summer are driven up towards the Armenian mountains and in winter return to the steppe; and some of them, settled in the larger towns, practise various handicrafts, and among others weave rich carpets and other woollen fabrics which pass in the markets of Europe under the name of Persian. The Tatars are also the general carriers of the country. On the few roads, or oftener upon the open Steppe, one sees their endless trains of carts, and more rarely their strings of camels, fetching goods from Shamakha, or Baku, or Tavriz, to Tiflis, thence to be despatched over the Dariel into Southern Russia, or by railway to Poti and Western Europe. 

The last of their occupations, the one in which they most excel, and which they have almost to themselves, is brigandage. To what extent it prevails, I cannot attempt to say, for, as every traveller knows, there is no subject, not even court scandal, on which one hears such an immense number of stories, some of them obviously exaggerated, many of them honestly related, most of them absolutely impossible to test. If we had believed a quarter part of what the quidnuncs of Tiflis told us, we should have thought the country seriously disturbed, and travelling, especially by night, full of peril. If we had gone by our own experience, we should have pronounced the steppes of the Kur a greatdeal safer than Blackheath Common [ an area of south-east London]. Stories were always being brought into the city, and even appearing in the papers, of robberies, sometimes of murders, committed on the roads to Elizavetpol and Erivan; and along the latter road, we found the folk at the post stations with imaginations ready to see a Tatar behind every bush. Even the Russian officials at Tiflis, who of course desired to make little of anything that reflects on the vigilance of the Government, advised us to be careful where we halted, and how we displayed any valuables. I cannot help believing, therefore, that robberies do sometimes occur, and no doubt it is the Tatars, or at least bands led by a 

Tatar chief, who perpetrate them. But the substantial danger is not really more than sufficient to give a little piquancy to travelling, and make you fondle your pistols with the air of a man who feels himself prepared for an emergency. In a dull country, far removed from the interests and movements of the Western world, the pleasure of life is sensibly increased when people have got the exploits of robbers to talk about. It is a subject level with the meanest imagination: the idle Georgian noble and the ignorant peasant enjoy it as heartily as Walter Scott himself. 

[...]

Besides these aboriginal races, Georgians, Mingrelians, Caucasian mountaineers, and Armenians, and the incomers of old standing, such as Tatars and Persians, there is what may be called a top-dressing of recent immigrants from Europe, mostly Russians and Germans. The Russians, with one exception, consist of the officials, who generally consider Russia as their home, almost as our Indian civilians consider England, and intend to return to it when their work is over. The exception is formed by the various sects of dissenters whom the Government, fearing their disturbing political and social influence, has banished, or at least transferred, to these remote seats. They are mostly industrious, well-disposed people, morally, if not intellectually, above the level of the rest of the peasantry, who live in large villages, exactly like those of Central Russia, and keep themselves quite apart from the surrounding native population. 

Still more distinct are the Germans, of whom there are several colonies, the largest, established in Tiflis, numbering some four or five thousand souls. They came hither from Wurtemberg about sixty years ago, driven out by an obnoxious hymn-book. In respect of education and intelligence, they are of course far above any of the natives, while their Protestantism prevents them from intermarrying with, and therefore from sensibly affecting, their Russian neighbours. They have lost, if they ever possessed, the impulse of progress ; their own farms are the best in the country, and their handicrafts-men in Tiflis superior to the Georgians or Persians; but they are content to go on in their old ways, not spreading out from the community, not teaching or in any way stimulating the rest of the population. 

All these races live together, not merely within the limits of the same country, a country politically and physically one, but to a great extent actually on the same soil, mixed up with and crossing one another. In one part Georgians, in another Armenians, in a third Tatars, predominate ; but there are districts where Armenians and Georgians, or Armenians, Georgians, and Tatars, or Tatars and Persians, or Persians, Tatars, and Armenians, are so equally represented in point of numbers that it is hard to say which element predominates. This phenomenon — so strange to one who knows only the homogeneous population of West European countries, or of a country like America, where all sorts of elements are day by day being flung into the melting-pot, and lose their identity almost at once - comes out most noticeably in the capital of Transcaucasia, the city of Tiflis. Here six nations dwell together in a town smaller than Brighton, and six languages are constantly, three or four more occasionally, to be heard in the streets. Varieties of dress, religion, manners, and physical aspect correspond to these diversities of race. 

[...]

These peoples inhabit the more or less level country south of the Caucasus. Besides them, there is a multitude of mountain tribes of whom I have said something in the last preceding chapter, but who are far too numerous and too diverse in their character to be described at length. Probably no-where else in the world can so great a variety of stocks, languages, and religions be found huddled together in so narrow an area as in the Caucasian chain between the Euxine and the Caspian. It is as if every nation that passed from north to south, or west to east, had left some specimens of its people here behind to found a kind of ethnological museum. 

Michele Membré, Relazione... (1539-1542)

Portrait of Tahmasp I by an unknown Italian artist,
XVI-XVII centuries, Uffizi Gallery, Florence.

Starting in 1521, the Ottomans led by the maverick Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent embarked on a rapid succession of victories in southeast Europe, capturing Belgrade, overrunning Hungary and besieging Vienna. Alarmed by these successes, Venice explored a possibility of forming an alliance with the rising Safavid Persia, where Shah Tahmasp had been also hard-pressed by the Ottomans. In 1539 the Venetian government made the decision to dispatch the thirty year old Michele Membré to Persia. Born into a well-to-do (but not patrician) Venetian family, Membré spoke several languages - Italian, Greek, Turkish and Arabic - and was a sociable person who found it easy to get to know people, all qualities that, in the eyes of the Venetian governing council, made him eminently qualified for the embassy. 

Pretending to be a merchant, Membré left Venice in early 1539 and, after passing  Crete, Cyprus and the Ottoman heartlands, he reached Western Georgia in late spring. After spending several weeks in Mingrelia, Imeretia and Kartli, he traveled to Armenia where he revealed his identity to the Persian authorities and was conveyed, with appropriate pomp, to Marand (some 45 miles northwest of Tabriz) where Shah Tahmasp had established his royal encampment. Welcomed by the shah, Membré spent several months at the Safavid court advocating alliance with Venice against the Turks and had exceptional opportunities to observe the Persian court. By the summer of 1540, Membré embarked on a return journey, travelling to the Portuguese colony in Hormuz, then to India and Portugal before returning back home in early spring of 1542. It was Venetian practice for envoys to present detailed accounts of their missions and Membré submitted his Relazione in July 1542. This document document provides excellent insights into the regions that Membré had visited and below is the excerpt on his experiences in Georgia.

Then I found a ship ready to go to Kaffa [in the Crimea], loaded with cotton botanoes from Adana and Tarsus. In the said ship were Turkish and Greek merchants; the sailors were Greek. So I straightway found the master of the ship and came to agreement with him; and because the sailors were Greek the master treated me kindly. And on the instant I loaded my camlets, which I had bought in Angora, and also sold that donkey of mine. And then we set out for Kaffa; if I am not mistaken, that was in the month of June 1539; and we went straight to Kaffa, remaining 18 days at sea with contrary winds and calms. The city of Kaffa consumes much cotton cloth because of the dyers. Then, together with the merchants, we lodged in a caravanserai... And that same day I found another Greek ship loaded with salt and other merchandise, master Khoja Ra'is of Sinop, which was ready to go to Mingrelia; and the next day I straightway found the master in the company of an Athenian barber, and I spoke with him, saying that he should carry me to Mingrelia. He replied that he would do so gladly. So, on the third day I loaded those few mohairs and camlets and on the fourth day set off on the said ship; from there we always sailed in sight of land, and in 18 or 16 days we reached a place called Anaclia, territory of the King Dadian of Mingrelia. 

In this place there is a large river, on which the ships go into when they are unloaded. Then the ship stops there on the said shore and holds a market within the ship, all by barter; they give cloth and take cloth. The Mingrelians come alongside the ship in their boats and each brings a bag with his cloth. So in that way they hold their markets. Salt is not found in the said place of Mingrelia. Leather and sheepskin and other goods are very dear. In the said place of Mingrelia there comes forth much yellow wax, linen thread and canarine silk of Zagem [Zagemi in eastern georgia] and they also sell many slaves. Then the next day the said ship began unloading salt and loading it into the boats to send to be sold in a market which they were going to hold in those days on the Phasis River at a place called Culauropa. 

And I went with the said boats to the said place where the market is held; and we travelled always in the boats on a river called the Phasis for 8 days. On the said river are infinitely many trees, on one side and the other, flat country; so each night the boat stopped by land and in the morning travelled, proceeding by sail. In the said place many flies and mosquitoes are found, which I surely could not have survived if I had not covered my face with a cloth, and all my body and hands; for the said mosquitoes were of such a kind that, when they had found uncovered flesh, they treated it so that the blood flowed as if a phlebotomy [ the practice of drawing blood from patients] had been performed. 

The Mingrelians go very poorly dressed, all with short cotton clothes and unshod, which we value for nothing. But it is quite true that all their feet look as if they were scabby. They wear on their heads a piece of felt like a mitre; they are all very small. To the north are many high mountains. The Mingrelian gentlemen wear very long clothes and a pair of boots of sheepskin leather, not having a leather sole but all of that sheepskin; also coloured felt on the head; and they are unbearded, with long moustaches such as the Iberians [eastern Georgians]have. So, because of the mosquitoes, as I have said, we endured great trouble till arriving at the said place of the market, called Culauropa. The said place is by the river called Phasis, to the southeast. It is on a plain within a wood and the houses are of wood, about 50 in number; and in the said place most of the households are Jews, who buy slaves of the Mingrelian nation and make them Jews; and in this the Mingrelians do not say them nay. 

And in the middle of the square where the market assembles stands a Church of Saint George, its vault of copper and with two little bell-towers. The Iberians [Georgians] celebrate the mass, and outside the church, there stands a wooden mast with three or four of their daggers [...] and two swords all stuck into the said wood. So, in that said place Culauropa I found a man from Scio called Zane, who was married there with an old lady of Mingrelia. Wherefore he made me alight at his house. I also found another, who was a venetian, married to a Mingrelian. His name was Bernardo Moliner, a man of forty five years of age, who told me that he had been a miller in Venice and that place in Mingrelia he had children, 3 in number, two male and a female married to one of the Mingrelians. 

Now, many poor people come to the said market, and other Iberian [Georgian] merchants with silks, which they exchange, cloth for cloth, without other money being used. And the said fair lasts three days and then all depart. There only remain those families of the Jews and 10 or 12 families of Mingrelians. 

So after the said fair was ended, as I have said, I set off in the company of a Greek merchant, Calojero of Trebizond by name, and we crossed the said river Phasis in a boat and went to a city of Iberia [Imeretia] called Kutaisi, of King Bashi achuq.* 

We were on the road 21/2 days, always travelling over level ground with many gardens. Then we entered the city called Kutaisi, crossing a river by a wooden bridge. Which river passes beside the said city; and to the north stands a stone fortress on a hill, in which there is a church; and on the other side, to the south east, is a meadow where the said King runs his horses. And beside the river he was building some houses of stone with many vaults, which they said were for the King. However, most of the houses in the  said city are of wood for the most part and there are many gardens.  

I lodged in the house of some goldsmiths from Trebizond, who kept me good company, and together with the said Calojero. In the said city cloth pays 5 per bale in tax. The coins of the said city are like Turkish aspers, and they are called tanka. The stamp on them is some Iberian [Georgian] letters. The King can have, by what was said, horsemen 7,000 in number, who are called aznavurs. The said aznavurs are much bigger men than the rest of us and have long, black moustaches; and they shave the beard. And they wear clothes, that is very long stockings of cotton cloth, of very coarse cotton, and cloth breeches, with, over the stockings, boots of sheepskin leather, and a quilted shirt of coarse cotton cloth, and a very long dolman of cotton cloth; and on the head a felt hat with a very long fine top. Which felts are coloured. Their arms are swords, lances, shield, bow and arrows, iron mace, mail coat, cuirassine, half helmet, plate gauntlets, good horses with good silk covers such that an arrow cannot go through them. So, when one of the said aznavurs rides to go to the field of battle, he wears all those arms. 

The said city of Kutaisi is very small.  After 7 or 8 days we went our way to another city called Gori, on which we were four days on the road, travelling always over very high mountains, full of trees and with many rivers, on which roads there is much mire; and about a day from the said city of Gori we passed by a fortress which stood on the summit of a mountain, and was in ruins for the most part. Then we came to to a place where there were houses to the number of about 70, all Jews, and beside that place passed a sweet stream like a canal. Thus, a river passes by the city called Gori. And with the horses we passed the said river and entered the city and lodged in the house of some Trapezuntines. The city is half of houses of wood and the other half of earth and part of stone. The city is small and to the north stands a stone fortress, partly in ruins. The King of the said place is called King Luarsab; he has horsemen called aznavurs, some 5,000 in number, by the account of his gentlemen. The people who live in the said city are half Armenians and the other half Iberians [Georgians]. They do not have salt, save that which comes from the lands of the Sophy [Persia]. Then, having loaded the mules, after 8 days I departed and went to another city called Tiflis, in the company of an Armenian of Lori. This city belongs to the said King Luarsab; to it we traveled 1 1/2 days. The said city of Tiflis is very large but the greater part of it was destroyed on account of the many wars the said Iberians have made among themselves. So the next day we departed, in company of five other Armenians who were going to Lori, the first of the Sophy's [Shah tahmasp's] cities, which borders on Iberia...

*King of Imereti was Bagrat III; Bashi achuq was the Ottoman name for the Imeretians.

Pieter van der Aa - La Galerie Agreable du Monde (1729)

At the start of the 18th century Pieter van der Aa (1659 - 1733) was the leading printer in Leiden. Perhaps the most ambitious European publisher of his day, he conceived a remarkable project - to publish an illustrated atlas of the world. Utilizing available sources and prints, he produced "La Galerie Agreable du Monde," a vast set in 66 parts that contained some 3,000 plates covering customs, religion and history of the peoples of Europe, Asia, Africa and America. Upon its completion "La Galerie..." presented for the 18th century reader's pleasure and edification a stunning array of images - maps of various regions, city-views, port perspectives, landscapes, architectural plans of famous sites, landmarks, as well as numerous pictures pertaining to world history and ethnography, depictions of religious practices, social ceremonies and sumptuary clothing from around the globe. This was a veritable pinnacle of the field of "exotic geography" that flourished in Europe between 1660s and 1730s. Interestingly, van der Aa included a few plates on Georgia. The volume on "China and Grand Tartary" features two sketches on Mingrelia while the volume on Persia contains a plate with partial Georgian alphabet. 

Caption: "The clothing and feasts of the Mingrelians"

Caption: "How Mingrelians determine truth"

Caption: "The Georgian ABC"

Jean Chardin, Journal du voyage du chevalier Chardin en Perse & aux Indes (1673) - Part 2

Born in Paris in a Hugenot (Protestant) family, Jean Chardin (1643-1713) spent much of his life traveling to the East because of his father's position as a jeweler and shareholder in the French East India Company. In 1664, the twenty year old Chardin set out on a long journey to Persia, traveling through the Ottoman Empire, Georgia and Armenia before arriving to Persia, where he served at the courts of Shah Abbas II and Shah Safi. After a trip to India, Chardin returned to France in 1670. In 1671, he published an account of the coronation of Shah Safi and in the same year set off for Persia, traveling through Georgia once more before arriving in Isfahan in 1673. He remained in Persia for several years before visiting India and returning home in 1677. 

With the start of the persecution of the Hugenots in France, Chardin moved to England in 1680. The first edition of his Travels appeared in London in 1686 - entitled "Journal du voyage du chevalier Chardin en Perse & aux Indes Orientales, par la Mer Noire & la Colchide..." - and was followed over the next decades by several expanded editions. Chardin's travelogue provides precious insights into the regions and societies that he had encountered on his journeys. He remains one of the best-informed European observers of Georgia and Safavid Persia.

The text below is based on the French edition (volume I, pp. 46-47) published in Amsterdam in 1711.

The noblemen of the country have full power over the lives and estates of their tenants, with whom they do what they please. They seize upon them, whether wife or children; they sell them, or dispose of them otherwise as they think fit. Every man furnishes his Lord with so much corn, cattle, wine, and other provisions, as he is able. So that their [noblemen's] wealth consists in the number of their vassals. Besides, every one is obliged to entertain his Lord two or three days in a year at their own expenses, which is the reason that the nobility, so long as the year lasts, go from one place to another devouring their tenants, and sometimes the tenants of other men.

The Prince himself leads the same life, so that it is a hard matter every day to know where to find him. When the vassals of several lords are at difference, their masters decide the dispute: but when the lords are at variance among themselves, force and brute strength determine the quarrel, and the strongest side gets the better. There is not a gentleman in Mingrelia but has some quarrel or other. And therefore it is, that they always go armed, and as numerously attended as they can. When they ride, they are armed at all points, and their followers are as well; nor do they ever sleep without their swords by their sides; and when they go to Bed, they sleep upon their stomachs, with their swords underneath them.

Their Arms are a lance, bow and arrows, a straight sword, a mace and a buckler; but there are very few that carry firearms. They are very good soldiers, ride horses very well, and handle their lances with an extraordinary dexterity. They train children in the use of a bow starting at the age of four and they become so adroit that can shoot even the most smallest birds in flight. 

Their Habit is peculiar; and unless they be the Ecclesiastical Persons, they wear but very little beard. They shave the top of their heads in a circle but allow the rest of their hair to grow down to their eyes, and then clip it round at an even length. They cover their Heads with a light cap of felt, very thin pared and cut into several half-moons around edges. In the winter they wear a fur bonnet: They are moreover so beggarly [gueux] and so wretched [miserables], that for fear of spoiling their caps or their bonnets in the rain, they will put them in their pouches, and go bare-headed. Over their bodies they wear little shirts [chemises] that fall down to their knees, and tuck into a straight pantaloon. Nor

indeed is there any habit in the world more deformed then theirs. They carry a [long] rope at their girdles, to tie together such people or cattle which they rob from their neighbors or take in war. The nobles wear leather girdles four fingers broad, full of silver studs, at which they hang a knife, a whetstone, and a steel to strike fire: together with three leather purses, the one full of salt, the other of pepper, and the other with pack-needles, lesser-needles, and thread. The poor people go almost naked; such is their misery not to be paralleled anywhere else; not having any thing to cover their nakedness but a pitiful felt resembling the chlamys of the Ancients; into which they thrust their heads, and turn which way they please as the Wind sits; for it covers but one side of their bodies, and falls down no lower than their Knees. There are some, that are pared very thin to keep out the Water, which are not so heavy as the common sort; that are ready to weigh a man down, especially when thorough wet. He that has a shirt and a pair of pitiful drawers, thinks himself rich; for almost all of them go bare-Foot; and such of the Colchians as pretend to shoes, have nothing but a piece of a buffalo's hide, and that untanned too; this piece of raw hide is attached to their feet with a thong of the same: so that for all these sort of sandals, their feet are as dirty as if they went bare-foot.

Almost all the Mingrelians, both men and women, even the most noble and wealthy, rarely have but one shirt [chemise] and one pair of breeches [calleçon] at a time; which last them at least a year: in all which time they never wash them more than three times: only once or twice a week they shake them over the fire for the vermin to drop off, with which they are mightily haunted; and indeed, I cannot say I ever saw anything so nasty and loathsome, which is the reason that the Mingrelian ladies do not smell well. I always taken with their beauty but could not endure a moment longer in their company because of rank odor from their skins stifled all my amorous thoughts.

The Grandees eat, sitting upon carpets, after the manner of the Eastern people. Their napkin is only a piece of painted cloth, or leather, and sometimes they only wipe upon the boards. The common people sit upon a bench [banc], with another bench before them of the same height, which serves for a table. All their dishes are made of wood, as are all their drinking cups: only among the people of quality [nobility] you shall see a little silver plate.

Moreover it is the custom in this savage country [pais sauvage] that the whole family, without distinction for males and females, eat all together. The king [eats] with his entire suite down to his very grooms. The Queen [shares her meal] with her [waiting] ladies, maids, servants and all, down the very lackeys that attend her. When it does not rain, they dine in the open courts, where they rank themselves, either in a circle, or side by side, one below another, according to their quality [status]. If it be cold weather they make great bonfires in the court where they eat; for wood-firing costs nothing in that country, as I have said already. When they sit down, four men, if the family be great, bring upon their shoulders a large kettle full of gom, or boiled grain as I have already described; of which, most usually a half-naked wretch [un gueux, a demi nud] serves, upon a wooden plate, to every one his proportion, which weighs full three pounds. Afterwards two other servants, somewhat but not much better equipped, bring in another kettle full of grain more white than the other; which is only for the better sort. Upon work-days they never give but only gom to the servants, the masters being served with vegetables, or roasted fish or meat. On holidays, or when they make entertainments, they kill either a hog, or an ox, or a cow, especially if they have no venison. As soon as they have cut the throat of the beast, they dress it, and set it upon the fire, without salt, or sauce, in the great kettle where they boil it. When it has boiled a while, they take it from the fire, pour away the broth, and serve meat half-raw without any seasoning. The Master of the House has always standing before him a large portion of this food: they set before him likewise all the vegetables, all the bread, and all the poultry and wildfowl. He presently carves for his guests and his friends their share. They feed themselves with their fingers, and that so nastily that nothing but extremity of hunger could provoke the meanest of our Europeans to eat at the tables of these barbarians. 

When they have begun to eat, there are two persons who serve the drink round the table. Among the common people, this function is performed by women or maids. It is the same incivility among them to call for wine as to refuse it. For they must wait until it is presented, and take it when it is given to them. They never give less then a pint at a drought, which at their ordinary meals is thrice done; but at feasts and banquets, the guests, and the gentry drink on till they are drunk. The Mingrelians and their neighbors are very great drinkers, far exceeding the Germans, and all the Northern People They never mix their wine, but drink it pure, both men and women. But once they are drunk, they think their pints too little and therefore drink out of their dishes, and out of the pitcher itself. While I stayed near Cotatis [Kutaisi], I lodged at a gentleman's house, who was one of the stoutest drinkers in all the country: and while I stayed at his house, he made a feast for three of his friends; at what time they were all four so set upon carousing that from ten in the morning till five in the evening, they drank out a whole charge of wine; a charge of wine weighs three hundred pounds. 

It is also a custom among these people, practiced by all the world, to rise from the table, and [to relieve themselves] as often as they have occasion, and when they return, they sit down without ever washing their hands. They provoke their guests and their friends, as much as they can, to drink; it being chiefly at the table that they observe civility, and are free of their arms [complimens]. Conversations between men are about their robberies [contes de vols], wars, fights, murders [assassinats] and selling of slaves. Neither is discourse any better among the women, for they are pleased with all sorts of love-tales, no matter how obscene or lascivious, and they are unashamed of using the dirtiest words; and their children learn these filthy words and phrases as soon as they can speak; so that by that time they are ten years of age, their discourse with the women is as obscene as one dares to say. In Mingrelia, education of children, without exaggeration, is lewdest in the world. Their fathers raise them for thievery [larcin], and their mothers for depravity [turpitude].