Claims
- B-009 A In his 18th-century "აღწერა სამეფოსა საქართველოსა", ვახუშტი ბაგრატიონი lists ბერიძე among the princely (თავადი) houses of გურია that stood under the გურიელი — alongside თავდგირიძე, შარვაშიძე, კვერღელისძე, ბერეჟიანი and ნაკაშიძე — "and likewise the aznaurs" (ეგრეთვე აზნაურნიცა). Later documents confirm the family's tavadi standing (a 1488 charter of Imereti; 17th-century Gurieli charters naming გიორგი ბერიძე as მესტუმრეთუხუცესი and ოთარ ბერიძე as სახლთუხუცესი), before the house declined to aznaur rank around the turn of the 18th century, its court offices passing to the ნაკაშიძე. Vakhushti gives no date for the family's origin; the "12th–14th century" dating found in popular surname articles is a later gloss, not his.
- B-013 D A Meskhetian legend (recorded in ქართული დიალექტოლოგია, vol. I, p. 362) says that most of the village ერკოტი near ახალციხე are ბერიძეები descended from a single monk who fled ზარზმა monastery during a Tatar invasion, married in ერკოტი, took up farming while secretly continuing to serve the liturgy, and was recorded under the surname ბერიძე; his lineage was nicknamed ზანდარიენთი (earlier ზარზგიენთი). A second, unreferenced variant retold on Georgian Wikipedia says three brother-monks of ზარზმა were ordered to leave and raise families during a plague, one settling in აჭარა, one in მესხეთი and one in გურია, all recorded as ბერიძე. Neither variant is documentary history; they are origin tales of one Meskhetian village lineage.
- B-014 D A Meskhetian legend (recorded for ერკოტი, Akhaltsikhe district, and reproduced in popular surname compilations) says most of the village's ბერიძეები descend from a single monk who fled the ზარზმა monastery during a Tatar invasion, took a wife in ერკოტი to avoid suspicion, and turned to farming while secretly still holding services. The tale adds that this lineage was once called ზარზგიენთ (evidently after ზარზმა) and is today called ზანდარიენთ. This is oral lore, not documented history.
Passages
Villages
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