Guaramid Dynasty

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The Guaramid Dynasty^[1] was the younger branch of the Chosroid royal house of Iberia (Kartli, eastern Georgia). They ruled Iberia as presiding princes (erismtavari) in the periods of 588-627, 684-748, and 779/780-786, three with the dignity of curopalates bestowed by the Byzantine imperial court. The dynasty was founded by Guaram I (r. 588-c. 590) who was a grandson of the Chosroid king Vakhtang I Gorgasali and his Byzantine consort Helene. The principate of Klarjeti and Javakheti was hereditary in this line. The Guaramids were related through marriage with the leading princely houses of Georgia – the Chosroids, Nersianids, and the Bagratids. In the latter case, the marriage of Guaram III (r. 779/780-786)’s daughter with the fugitive Bagratuni prince Vasak produced the new Bagrationi dynasty, which would later become the last and the most long-lasting ruling family of Georgia. The extinction of Guaramid line by the late 8th century allowed their Bagratid cousins to gather their inheritance in the former Guaramid estates once they themselves had come to power.

The tenth-century Georgian chronicler Sumbat Davitis-Dze in his History of the Bagratids erroneously (or purposefully) identified the Guaramids as essentially Bagratid who allegedly came from the Holy Land to settle in the Georgian and Armenian lands.

[edit] Presiding Princes of Iberia from the Guaramid Dynasty

Guaram I (588-c. 590)
Stephanus I (c. 590-627)
Guaram II (684-c. 693)
Guaram III (c. 693-c. 748)
Stephanus III (779/780-786)

[edit] References

^ The dynastic name "Guaramids" is a modern designation introduced by Professor Cyril Toumanoff. It is not universally accepted among the Georgian historians, but is commonly used in the English-language literature.

Toumanoff, Cyril. Introduction to Christian Caucasian History, II: States and Dynasties of the Formative Period. Traditio 17 (1961).
Rapp, Stephen H. (2003), Studies In Medieval Georgian Historiography: Early Texts And Eurasian Contexts. Peeters Bvba ISBN 90-429-1318-5
Rapp, Stephen H., Sumbat Davitis-dze and the Vocabulary of Political Authority in the Era of Georgian Unification. Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 120, No. 4 (Oct.-Dec., 2000), pp. 570-576.