Guria
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- For the village in Bangladesh, see Guria, Bangladesh.
| Guria Region გურიის მხარე Guriis Mkhare |
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| Map highlighting the modern political subdivision | |
| Capital | Ozurgeti |
| Region ISO 3166 code | GE-GU |
| Districts | 3 |
| Area | 2,033 km² |
| Population | 143,000 (2002) |
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| Map highlighting the historical region of Guria in Georgia | |
Guria (Georgian: გურია) is a region (mkhare) in Georgia, in the western part of the country, bordered by the eastern end of the Black Sea. The region has a population of 143,357 (2002)[1] and Ozurgeti is a regional capital.
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[edit] Geography
Guria is bordered by Samegrelo to the north-west, Imereti to the north, Samtskhe-Javakheti to the east, Ajaria to the south, and the Black Sea to the west. The province has an area of 2,003 km².
Guria consists of three administrative districts:
- Ozurgeti
- Lanchkhuti
- Chokhatauri [1]
[edit] History
The toponym "Guria" is first attested in the c. 800 Georgian chronicle of Pseudo-Juansher.[2]
The province had been under the rule of western Georgian rulers until the creation of the unified Georgian “Kingdom of Abkhazians and Georgians” towards the end of the tenth century AD. Guria then was a province (saeristavo) governed by an eristavi (duke). Following the disintegration of the Kingdom of Georgia in 1466, Guria turned into an independent principality (samtavro) under the noble family of Gurieli, nominal vassals of Imeretian kings. Attacked by the Ottomans at the turn of the sixteenth century, Guria lost Adjaria and became a tributary of the Sultan. In permanent disputes with neighbouring Georgian rulers, two princes of the Gurieli family Giorgi III Gurieli (reigned 1664-1684) and Mamia III Gurieli (reigned 1689-1714) were too successful to become king of Imereti in the late seventeenth century. Throughout the eighteenth century, Gurian princes were involved in anti-Ottoman liberation wars of the western Georgians. As a result, Guria lost the whole Adjaria and Lower Guria, part of which was forcibly Islamized. Prince Mamia V Gurieli accepted Russian sovereignty on 19 June 1810. Russian domination resulted in the 1819-1820 uprising. In 1828, the Tsarist government abolished the principality and annexed it to Kutais Gubernia in 1840. The 1841 peasant unrest as well as the 1905 uprising against the Russian rule was brutally suppressed. The former principality of Guria formed Ozurgeti mazra within the independent Democratic Republic of Georgia (DRG) in 1918-1921 and was divided into three districts under the Soviet rule. The region (mkhare) of Guria was created in 1995.
The Orthodox churches of Likhauri and Shemokmedi are the main historical buildings in the province.
[edit] Origin of the name "Guria"
As for the etymology of the name of Guria, some say that the root of the word refers to restlessness and the word should mean “the land of the restless” and may be associated with events during the eighth and ninth centuries when “Leon became the King of Abkhazeti, Guruls refused to obey the ruler of Odzrakho, ceased their vassal relations with Adarnase and Ashot Bagrationi and united with Leon” as it was described in Vakhushti Bagrationi’s historical works of the eighteenth century.
According to the later explanation, in the times of Georgia’s prosperity, when its borders stretched from “Nikopsia to Daruband”, Guria was situated in the heart of the Georgian territory. The linguistic evidence for the above hypothesis is the Megrelian for “heart” – “guri”.
[edit] Economy
Subtropic farming and tourism is a mainstay of the region’s economy. Water is one of the Guria’s main assets. The province is famous for the mineral water of Nabeglavi, which is similar to Borjomi in its chemical composition and the Black Sea health resort of Ureki rich in magnetic sand. Guria is also one of the largest tea growing regions in Georgia. [2]
[edit] Demographics
Gurians (Gurulebi) are ethnic Georgians who speak a local dialect of Georgian language.
[edit] Notables
- Gabriel Kikodze, the Bishop of Imereti (nineteenth century).
- Ekvtime Takaishvili (1862-1952), historian.
- Kalistrate, the Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia from 1932 to 1952.
- Noe Zhordania, Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of Georgia from 1918 to 1921.
- Pavle Ingorokva (1893-1990), historian, philologist, and public benefactor.
- Eduard Shevardnadze, Georgia’s former president.
- Nodar Dumbadze, Writer.
[edit] References
- ^ 2002 Georgia census. State Department of Statistics of Georgia. Retrieved on December 16, 2007.
- ^ Rapp, Stephen H. (2003), Studies In Medieval Georgian Historiography: Early Texts And Eurasian Contexts, p. 427. Peeters Bvba, ISBN 90-429-1318-5.
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