Claims
- 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.
Timeline
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