# Erusheti

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Medieval Georgian fiefdom

**Erusheti** ([Georgian](/source/Georgian_language): ერუშეთი) was a medieval [Georgian](/source/Georgia_(country)) [fiefdom](/source/Fiefdom), currently part of the [Ardahan Province](/source/Ardahan_Province) in northeastern [Turkey](/source/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](/source/Christianity_in_Georgia_(country)). 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

Ruins of the medieval castle [Kajt'a-tsikhe](/source/%C5%9Eeytan_Castle) (Şeytan Kalesi) at the village [Yıldırımtepe](/source/Y%C4%B1ld%C4%B1r%C4%B1mtepe%2C_%C3%87%C4%B1ld%C4%B1r).

The name "Erusheti" was applied by the medieval Georgians to the territory in the [Kura or Mtkvari river](/source/Kura_(Caspian_Sea)) valley around the eponymous town or fortress, north of Artani (Ardahan), between the [Arsiani Range](/source/Arsiani_Range) (Yalnızçam Dağları) and [Kartsakhi Lake](/source/Kartsakhi_Lake) (Aktaş Gölü). Erusheti was contiguous with the province of [Javakheti](/source/Javakheti) and is considered to have been its "lower" or "western" part.[1]

According to [Cyril Toumanoff](/source/Cyril_Toumanoff), Javakheti, together with Erusheti, was part of the [Iberian](/source/Caucasian_Iberia) duchy of [Tsunda](/source/Tsunda) from the 4th or 3rd century BC. While its eastern counterpart was at times conquered by the [Artaxiads](/source/Artaxiad_Dynasty) and [Arsacids of Armenia](/source/Arsacid_dynasty_of_Armenia), Erusheti/West Javakheti firmly remained within the Iberian realm, eventually becoming a [Bagratid](/source/Bagrationi_dynasty) domain c. 780.[2]

The [Georgian historical tradition](/source/Georgian_Chronicles) makes Erusheti, along with [Mtskheta](/source/Mtskheta) and [Manglisi](/source/Manglisi), one of the earliest church establishments in [Kartli](/source/Kartli) (Iberia) following King [Mirian](/source/Mirian_III_of_Iberia)'s conversion to Christianity in the 330s. According to the 11th-century historian [Leonti Mroveli](/source/Leonti_Mroveli), Erusheti was the first place which the bishop John of Kartli, returning from his mission to [Constantinople](/source/Constantinople) with a group of [Byzantine](/source/Byzantine_Empire) priests and masons, chose to build a Christian church. There, the chronicle continues, he left a treasure and the [nails of the Lord](/source/Nail_(relic)) brought from Constantinople, to the disappointment of King Mirian who wanted to have the relics at his capital, Mtskheta.[3] The church at Erusheti was further adorned by one of Mirian's successors [Mihrdat III](/source/Mihrdat_III_of_Iberia) later in the 4th century[4] and it became a seat of the homonymous bishopric under [Vakhtang I](/source/Vakhtang_I_of_Iberia) in the 5th century.[5] Erusheti was dispossessed of its holy relics by the Byzantine emperor [Heraclius](/source/Heraclius) who passed through Kartli during his [war with Iran](/source/Byzantine%E2%80%93Sassanid_War_of_602%E2%80%93628) in the 620s.[6]

After the [Ottoman Empire](/source/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](/source/Prince_Vakhushti) reported that a cathedral church still stood in Erusheti, but it was no more in use.[7] The Georgian archaeologist [Ekvtime Takaishvili](/source/Ekvtime_Takaishvili), visiting Erusheti in 1902, found that only the elderly could understand the Georgian language.[8] He identified a three-[nave](/source/Nave) [basilica](/source/Basilica) at the village of Oğuzyolu, near [Hanak](/source/Hanak), as the church of Erusheti, of which only a ruined [apse](/source/Apse) was found by Bruno Baumgartner in 1990. Of other monuments described by Takaishvili, the domed [tetraconch](/source/Tetraconch) church of [St. George](/source/St._George) of Gogubani or [Gogiuba](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gogiuba&action=edit&redlink=1), at [Binbaşak](/source/Binba%C5%9Fak%2C_Hanak), now stands in ruins and nothing remains of an important cruciform domed church of the Holy [Mother of God](/source/Mother_of_God) of Tsqarostavi at [Öncül](/source/%C3%96nc%C3%BCl%2C_%C3%87%C4%B1ld%C4%B1r). Better preserved are single-nave churches at Berki ([Börk](/source/B%C3%B6rk%2C_Hanak)) and Chaishi ([Kayabeyi](/source/Kayabeyi%2C_%C3%87%C4%B1ld%C4%B1r)), the latter currently being in use as a [mosque](/source/Mosque).[9]

## Notes

1. **[^](#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEToumanoff1963439_1-0)** [Toumanoff 1963](#CITEREFToumanoff1963), p. 439.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEToumanoff1963499_2-0)** [Toumanoff 1963](#CITEREFToumanoff1963), p. 499.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEThomson1996131_3-0)** [Thomson 1996](#CITEREFThomson1996), p. 131.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEThomson1996147_4-0)** [Thomson 1996](#CITEREFThomson1996), p. 147.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEThomson1996217_5-0)** [Thomson 1996](#CITEREFThomson1996), p. 217.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEThomson1996236_6-0)** [Thomson 1996](#CITEREFThomson1996), p. 236.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWakhoucht1842105_7-0)** [Wakhoucht 1842](#CITEREFWakhoucht1842), p. 105.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-FOOTNOTETakaishvili1991207_8-0)** [Takaishvili 1991](#CITEREFTakaishvili1991), p. 207.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBaumgartner2009186–187_9-0)** [Baumgartner 2009](#CITEREFBaumgartner2009), pp. 186–187.

## References

- Baumgartner, Bruno (2009). "Unknown and less Known Georgian Monuments in Northeast Turkey". In Skinner, Peter; Tumanishvili, Dimitri; Shanshiashvili, Anna (eds.). [*The Proceedings of the International Symposium "Georgian Art in the Context of European and Asian Cultures". June 21-29, 2008*](https://web.archive.org/web/20130202182546/http://www.symposiumgeorgia.org/2008/Proceedings2008.pdf) (PDF). Tbilisi: Georgian Arts & Culture Center. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-9941-0-2005-6](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-9941-0-2005-6). Archived from the original on 2 February 2013. Retrieved 26 August 2012.

- Takaishvili, Ekvtime (1991). "სამუსულმანო საქართველო" [Muslim Georgia]. In Sharadze, Guram (ed.). [*დაბრუნება: ემიგრანტული ნაშრომები*](http://www.nplg.gov.ge/dlibrary/coll/0001/000770/) [*The comeback: Emigré literature*] (in Georgian). Vol. 1. Tbilisi. Retrieved 26 August 2012.{{[cite book](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Cite_book)}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher ([link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:CS1_maint:_location_missing_publisher))

- Thomson, Robert W. (1996). *Rewriting Caucasian history: the medieval Armenian adaptation of the Georgian chronicles; the original Georgian texts and the Armenian adaptation*. Oxford: Clarendon Press. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0198263732](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0198263732).

- Toumanoff, Cyril (1963). *Studies in Christian Caucasian history*. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.

- Wakhoucht, Tsarévitch (1842). [Brosset, Marie-Félicité](/source/Marie-F%C3%A9licit%C3%A9_Brosset) (ed.). [*ღეოღრაჶიული აღწერა საქართველოჲსა. Description géographique de la Géorgie*](https://books.google.com/books?id=L9cBAAAAYAAJ&q=Brosset%20Eroucheth&pg=PA105) [*Geographic description of Georgia*] (in Georgian and French). S.-Pétersbourg: A la typographie de l'Academie Impériale des Sciences. Retrieved 26 August 2012.

[41°18′N 42°42′E / 41.3°N 42.7°E / 41.3; 42.7](https://geohack.toolforge.org/geohack.php?pagename=Erusheti&params=41.3_N_42.7_E_dim:300km)

v t e Subregions of Tao-Klarjeti Tao Lower Tao Upper Tao Narimani Panaskerti Parkhali Klarjeti Borchkha Machakheli Nigali Shavsheti Adjara Samtskhe Tori Trialeti Meskheti Javakheti Artaani Erusheti Kola Chrdili (Palakazio) Abotsi Other Speri Basiani Tchaneti

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