{{Short description|Medieval Georgian fiefdom}} '''Erusheti''' ({{lang-ka|ერუშეთი}}) was a medieval [[Georgia (country)|Georgian]] [[fiefdom]], currently part of the [[Ardahan Province]] in northeastern [[Turkey]], close to the border with Georgia. The district was centered in the eponymous settlement, at the present-day village Oğuzyolu, which, according to the medieval historical tradition, was one of the earliest centres of [[Christianity in Georgia (country)|Christianity in Georgia]]. Ruins of Christian churches are found throughout the region. In modern Georgia, the name "Erusheti" is preserved as a designation of a mountainous range along the border with Turkey.
==History== [[File:Qajis cixe1.jpg|thumb|Ruins of the medieval castle [[Şeytan Castle|Kajt'a-tsikhe]] (Şeytan Kalesi) at the village [[Yıldırımtepe, Çıldır|Yıldırımtepe]].]] The name "Erusheti" was applied by the medieval Georgians to the territory in the [[Kura (Caspian Sea)|Kura or Mtkvari river]] valley around the eponymous town or fortress, north of Artani (Ardahan), between the [[Arsiani Range]] (Yalnızçam Dağları) and [[Kartsakhi Lake]] (Aktaş Gölü). Erusheti was contiguous with the province of [[Javakheti]] and is considered to have been its "lower" or "western" part.{{sfn|Toumanoff|1963|p=439}}
According to [[Cyril Toumanoff]], Javakheti, together with Erusheti, was part of the [[Caucasian Iberia|Iberian]] duchy of [[Tsunda]] from the 4th or 3rd century BC. While its eastern counterpart was at times conquered by the [[Artaxiad Dynasty|Artaxiads]] and [[Arsacid dynasty of Armenia|Arsacids of Armenia]], Erusheti/West Javakheti firmly remained within the Iberian realm, eventually becoming a [[Bagrationi dynasty|Bagratid]] domain {{circa}} 780.{{sfn|Toumanoff|1963|p=499}}
The [[Georgian Chronicles|Georgian historical tradition]] makes Erusheti, along with [[Mtskheta]] and [[Manglisi]], one of the earliest church establishments in [[Kartli]] (Iberia) following King [[Mirian III of Iberia|Mirian]]'s conversion to Christianity in the 330s. According to the 11th-century historian [[Leonti Mroveli]], Erusheti was the first place which the bishop John of Kartli, returning from his mission to [[Constantinople]] with a group of [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] priests and masons, chose to build a Christian church. There, the chronicle continues, he left a treasure and the [[Nail (relic)|nails of the Lord]] brought from Constantinople, to the disappointment of King Mirian who wanted to have the relics at his capital, Mtskheta.{{sfn|Thomson|1996|p=131}} The church at Erusheti was further adorned by one of Mirian's successors [[Mihrdat III of Iberia|Mihrdat III]] later in the 4th century{{sfn|Thomson|1996|p=147}} and it became a seat of the homonymous bishopric under [[Vakhtang I of Iberia|Vakhtang I]] in the 5th century.{{sfn|Thomson|1996|p=217}} Erusheti was dispossessed of its holy relics by the Byzantine emperor [[Heraclius]] who passed through Kartli during his [[Byzantine–Sassanid War of 602–628|war with Iran]] in the 620s.{{sfn|Thomson|1996|p=236}}
After the [[Ottoman Empire]] took over Erusheti as part of its acquisitions in southwestern Georgia in the 16th century, Christianity and the Georgian culture went in steady decline. The early 18th-century Georgian scholar [[Prince Vakhushti]] reported that a cathedral church still stood in Erusheti, but it was no more in use.{{sfn|Wakhoucht|1842|p=105}} The Georgian archaeologist [[Ekvtime Takaishvili]], visiting Erusheti in 1902, found that only the elderly could understand the Georgian language.{{sfn|Takaishvili|1991|p=207}} He identified a three-[[nave]] [[basilica]] at the village of Oğuzyolu, near [[Hanak]], as the church of Erusheti, of which only a ruined [[apse]] was found by Bruno Baumgartner in 1990. Of other monuments described by Takaishvili, the domed [[tetraconch]] church of [[St. George]] of Gogubani or [[Gogiuba]], at [[Binbaşak, Hanak|Binbaşak]], now stands in ruins and nothing remains of an important cruciform domed church of the Holy [[Mother of God]] of Tsqarostavi at [[Öncül, Çıldır|Öncül]]. Better preserved are single-nave churches at Berki ([[Börk, Hanak|Börk]]) and Chaishi ([[Kayabeyi, Çıldır|Kayabeyi]]), the latter currently being in use as a [[mosque]].{{sfn|Baumgartner|2009|pp=186–187}}
==Notes==
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== References ==
*{{cite book|last=Baumgartner|first=Bruno|title=The Proceedings of the International Symposium "Georgian Art in the Context of European and Asian Cultures". June 21-29, 2008|year=2009|publisher=Georgian Arts & Culture Center|location=Tbilisi|isbn=978-9941-0-2005-6|url=http://www.symposiumgeorgia.org/2008/Proceedings2008.pdf|editor=Skinner, Peter|editor2=Tumanishvili, Dimitri|editor3=Shanshiashvili, Anna|access-date=26 August 2012|chapter=Unknown and less Known Georgian Monuments in Northeast Turkey|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130202182546/http://www.symposiumgeorgia.org/2008/Proceedings2008.pdf|archive-date=2 February 2013|url-status=usurped}} *{{cite book|last=Takaishvili|first=Ekvtime|year=1991|title=დაბრუნება: ემიგრანტული ნაშრომები|trans-title=The comeback: Emigré literature| volume =1|location=Tbilisi|url=http://www.nplg.gov.ge/dlibrary/coll/0001/000770/|editor=Sharadze, Guram|access-date=26 August 2012|language=Georgian|chapter=სამუსულმანო საქართველო|trans-chapter=Muslim Georgia}} *{{cite book|last=Thomson|first=Robert W.|title=Rewriting Caucasian history: the medieval Armenian adaptation of the Georgian chronicles; the original Georgian texts and the Armenian adaptation|year=1996|publisher=Clarendon Press|location=Oxford|isbn=0198263732 }} *{{cite book|last=Toumanoff|first=Cyril|title=Studies in Christian Caucasian history|year=1963|publisher=Georgetown University Press|location=Washington, DC }} *{{cite book|last=Wakhoucht|first=Tsarévitch|editor1-first=Marie-Félicité |editor1-last=Brosset |editor1-link=Marie-Félicité Brosset|title=ღეოღრაჶიული აღწერა საქართველოჲსა. Description géographique de la Géorgie|trans-title=Geographic description of Georgia|year=1842|publisher=A la typographie de l'Academie Impériale des Sciences|location=S.-Pétersbourg|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L9cBAAAAYAAJ&q=Brosset%20Eroucheth&pg=PA105|access-date=26 August 2012|language=Georgian, French }}
{{coord|41.3|42.7|dim:300km|display=title}} {{Subregions of Tao-Klarjeti}}
[[Category:Historical regions of Georgia (country)]] [[Category:Tao-Klarjeti]] [[Category:History of Ardahan Province]]