Glossary

25 October. The word okdonbersa (ოკდონბერსა) means October, and ke (კე) stands for the numbers კ (20) and ე (5).

The Georgian 532-year dating cycle (years 1–532). In the cycle from 1312, add 1312: koronikon 99 is 1411. The next began in 1844. Letters doubled as numerals, so a damaged letter can move dates by decades. No koronikon exceeds 532.

A tax register. Two kinds matter for history. The detailed register (vrtseli davtari, ვრცელი დავთარი) lists every taxed household by name. The summary register (mokle davtari, მოკლე დავთარი) gives only village totals.

The holder of a large fief in the Ottoman system.

A poll tax of 25 akçe levied on adult non-Muslim men. Its payment means that the village was Christian. This is how we know that 534 households in Adjara (აჭარა) were Christian in 1566–1574.

An Ottoman administrative unit, a sanjak or district.

A smaller administrative subdivision of a liva (district).

A civil settlement next to a fortress, a suburb.

A village's total tax assessment in akçe, the Ottoman silver coin.

A sharia court document confirming a particular right.

Jikia (ჯიქია) warns: „ოსმალურ ტრანსკრიფციაში ქართული სახელები იმდენად არის შეცვლილი, რომ მათი პირვანდელი სახის აღდგენა დიდ დაკვირვებასა და ადგილის ტოპონიმიკის ზედმიწევნით ცოდნას მოითხოვს.“ [rendering: Ottoman transcription so distorts Georgian names that restoring them needs close study and local toponymic expertise.]

An Ottoman suffix meaning “son” or “child”. Under Ottoman rule, Adjaran families took branch names ending in -oghlu (-ოღლი). These names are a bridge between oral memory and written sources.

Noble but not princely: the rank of a lord's vassal. In Guria (გურია) the Beridzes (ბერიძე) were tavadi until the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries, then aznauri. The 1850 decree also confirmed them as aznauri.

An Ottoman-era title and byname of a local ruler or official. In Adjara (აჭარა) it was borne by the heads of leading families. Family names ending in -oghlu (-ოღლი) are a separate matter: they are Ottoman-period branch names.

A cultivator of the land, a commoner living in a village.

A status and title denoting learning.

The highest rank of the Georgian aristocracy. A tavadi held his own princely estates and had vassals, the aznauri.

A single family or household, the basic unit counted in tax registers.

A court officer responsible for hospitality and for receiving envoys. At the Gurieli (გურიელი) court in the 1660s–1680s the Beridzes (ბერიძე) held this office, together with that of sakhltukhutsesi. Later it passed to the Nakashidzes (ნაკაშიძე).

A council or assembly.

A governor of an estate or district acting on a lord's behalf. It is an office, not a rank.

The chief steward of the household and palace at a ruling prince's court.

A sharia judge.

A serf: a vassal or peasant who depended on a lord.

The elected lay priest-elder of a highland community's shrine, literally “the beri of the gorge”. The word beri (ბერი) also named a lay office and a social status, not only a monk.

A teacher of religion.

An ending of Meskhetian and Kartlian lineage names, as in Zandarient (ზანდარიენთ) and Gigolient (გიგოლიენთ). Like the Adjaran -oghlu (-ოღლი) names, they mark a particular branch within a surname and are well kept in oral memory.

An ending of Meskhetian and Kartlian names for branches of a family, as in Beridzianebi (ბერიძიანები). Like the Adjaran -oghlu (-ოღლი), it marks a branch within a surname and is well kept in family memory.

A commemorative meal and liturgy for the soul of a dead person, funded by a gift of land or money. The 1411 charter was issued to establish one such aghapi.

A cleric who oversees several parishes. This is the office Nikoloz Beridze (ნიკოლოზ ბერიძე) held at Alerti (ალერტი) in 1850.

A large collection of church and liturgical texts. Notes written into gulanis are a very important source for dated events, such as the 1687 note about Bishop Ioane (იოანე).

A parish register recording baptisms, marriages and deaths. It is the main foundation of Georgian genealogy before 1921, but none exists for Muslim Adjara (აჭარა).

The Soviet household book (1935–2005), the main series of the 20th century. It recorded every member of a family, with birth dates and property. It is the main source that works for families in Muslim Adjara (აჭარა).

A charter that fixes the compensation, the price of blood, due for killing or injuring a member of a particular family. This is why such documents name so many witnesses.

An official letter of grant, a legal document.

In this context a legal document or deed, not a book in the modern sense.