728 GEORGIA trade in slaves was carried on with Turkey, the Georgian nobles deriving their chief reve- nue from the sale of their serfs, the men for the Turkish armies, the women for the ha- rems ; but the traffic is now interdicted, and the relations between the upper and lower classes are much modified. The Persians and Mussulmans from the north of India also pur- chased many women from this region for their harems; paying sometimes as high as 20,000 piastres for a remarkably beautiful one. The Georgian stock consequently is largely dissem- inated throughout Mohammedan countries. The Georgians are nominally members of the Greek church, and have had the Bible in their language since the beginning of the 10th cen- tury ; but the priests are generally as ignorant as the people. Nothing certain is known of early Georgian history. The statements of the Greek and Latin writers are confused and lead to various conclusions. George Rawlin- son thinks that the territory was anciently " in the possession of a people called by Herodotus Saspeires or Sapeires, whom we may identify with the Iberians of later writers." The Col- chians and Albanians were probably their neighbors. Their legends trace their origin to Targamos, a descendant of Japhet, and claim Mtzkhetos as the founder of the ancient capital Mtzkhta, which stood about 15 m. N. W. of Tiflis. The first Georgian empire seems to have been ended by the Scythians, who invaded it in the 7th century B. 0. It is probable that it afterward formed a part of the Persian em- pire, was conquered by Alexander the Great, and regained its independence at his death. Pharnavas was the first or one of the first kings of the second Georgian empire. Mir- van, in the latter part of the 2d century B. 0., and his son Pharnaj, sovereigns of Persian de- scent, introduced Parseeism, which led to a re- volt. The king of Armenia came to the aid of the Georgians, and put his son Arshag on the throne, thus founding the dynasty of the Arsa- cides. In 65 B. C. the Georgians or Iberians came into contact with the Eomans, and were compelled by Pompey to sue for peace. In the beginning of the 3d century A. D. the king- dom became highly prosperous, but in the following period the Persians made destructive invasions. Early in the 4th century the Geor- gians were converted to Christianity by St. Nina, a captive woman. At the death of Ste- phanos I. in 574, Guram, a Jew who had been his general-in-chief, ascended the throne. In 635 the Arabs overran the country, but did not succeed in subverting Christianity. Subse- quent kings suffered much from their aggres- sions, and the Armenian dynasty of the Ba- gratides, who succeeded the Guramides, even- tually became vassals of the caliphs. Bagrat III. liberated his country from foreign domi- nation, and David III. (1089-1126) extended his dominions over a part of Armenia and as far as Trebizond. Queen Tamar III. (1184- 1206) reduced several of the tribes north of the Caucasus, and her son George IV. van- quished the Persians, converted many of them to Christianity, and rendered valuable aid to the crusaders. In the 13th century the Mon- golians subdued the country, but in the mid- dle of the 14th George VI. threw off their yoke and extended his sway over the neighbor- ing provinces. Tamerlane reduced the coun- try to subjection, but it was again liberated by George VII. In 1424 King Alexander divided his kingdom among his three sons, and the his- tory of the next two centuries is one of conflicts between the three governments, and of quar- rels with Persia and Turkey, in which Russia interfered. The country was reunited under Vakhtang IV. or V., whom the Persians call Shah Naos. He died in 1676, and for a century after Georgia was the scene of intestine feuds and divisions, in which the Turks and Persians took part. In 1783 Irakli (Heraclius) II. of Kakhetia, who had united under his sway a Jarge part of the ancient kingdom, being pressed by the Persians, announced himself a vassal of Rus- sia. His successors having new difficulties with the Persians and Lesghians, Georgia was made in 1801 a province of Russia, and in 1810 Ime- rethia was added to it. The Georgian language is written in an alphabet of 40 letters, some- what varying in different manuscripts. The following are used in Brosset's dictionary : B G Q>D o Q w 07 TH Q I 5 C (X> 3 M 6 N <Q,I 3 CH TS KH X KHH V DJ
