Founding the “Tiflīs Emirate”, Administrative Unit of the Caliphate, According to Non-Narrative Sources

(Early Arab Coins and Lapidary Inscriptions from Georgia)

Abstract

The Goal of this work is to ascertain the chronology of Arab sway in Georgia, particularly the timeframe when Arabs managed to consolidate their control over Kartli, the eastern part of the country, by creating the so called Tiflīs Emirate (initially administrative unit of the Caliphate, rather than the [semi] independent state).

We reviewed the historiography of this issue (three different dates were suggested for founding the Tiflīs Emirate: beginning of the 8th c., the 730s, and 770s) and discussed the empiricist methodology we employed: deliberately ignoring the non-contemporary and relatively unreliable narrative (Georgian, Armenian and Arabic) sources but considering the contemporary non-narrative primary sources, i.e. the epigraphic monuments; searching for the traces of Arab administrative activities, rather than the first Emir of Tiflīs (presumably unproductive approach, due to the dearth of primary sources). Comparative approach was employed when analysing the Tiflis mīl (as many new remarkable Umayyad and ‘Abbasid milestones have been discovered since the 19th century; we reviewed them all).

The following material was analyzed:
1) Silver and copper coinage issued by Tiflīs mint;
2) Copper coinage issued by “Jurzān” mint;
3) Tiflīs mīl, undated;
4) Kufic inscription from Tiflīs, dated Sha‘bān AH 147.

We demonstrated that the silver and copper coins, issued by Tiflīs and “Jurzān” (presumably, = Tiflīs) mints in AH 85 and 86, the 730s-740s, and also AH 152, constituted the original Arab currency of the Caliphate, rather than local Georgian imitations. Minting the coinage of this type testified to at least intermittent functioning of Arab mint in Tiflīs in the first 7 decades of the 8th c.

Considering the archeological artifacts, ‘Abd al-Malik was the first caliph who developed the postal / communication (barīd) system within the Caliphate (also adopting many other reforms) by fixing the roads and relevant infrastructure, including the milestones; the ‘Abbāsid caliphs paid particular attention to the Kūfah-Makkah pilgrimage road also ordering mīls. We demonstrated that the Tiflīs milestone, albeit undated and bearing no name, pertains to the Umayyad epoch, i.e. the reign of ‘Abd al-Malik (685-705) or al-Walīd (705-715). Making of Tiflīs mīl with inscription in Arabic proves that the Arabs made some effort to improve the road infrastructure in the early 8th century Georgia (and that the Umayyad efforts to establish the barīd system extended to South Caucasus and Georgia).

The Kufic inscription from Tiflīs, dated Sha‘bān of AH 147 (October 764) makes it clear that the Arabs controlled the city before the 770s.

The Arab coins minted at Tiflīs mint as well as the Arab road infrastructure, along with ordering monumental inscriptions in Tiflīs in Arabic, are clear vestiges of Arab administrative activity locally. Both numismatic and milestone evidence points to the beginning of the 8th century as the time period when the Arab administration, i.e. the Tiflīs Emirate, was established in Georgia.