06 Works, Today, May 8th is Tamar the Great's day, With Footnotes - #129

Unknown artist

Tamar the Great of Georgia. (1160-1213)

Tamar the Great (c. 1160 – 18 January 1213) reigned as the King of Georgia from 1184 to 1213, presiding over the apex of the Georgian Golden Age. A member of the Bagrationi dynasty, her position as the first woman to rule Georgia in her own right was emphasized by the title King, afforded to Tamar in the medieval Georgian sources.

Unknown artist

Mural from Vardzia depicting George III of Georgia and his daughter Queen Thamar

Tamar was proclaimed heir and co-ruler by her reigning father George III in 1178, but she faced significant opposition from the aristocracy upon her ascension to full ruling powers after George's death. 

Tamar was successful in neutralizing this opposition and embarked on an energetic foreign policy aided by the decline of the hostile Seljuq Turks. 

The Seljuk Empire derived its name from Seljuk Beg, the grandparent of the creator of the Seljuk Empire and of the Seljuk dynasty – Tughril Beg

Georgian–Seljuk wars, also known as Georgian Crusade, is a long series of battles and military clashes that took place from c. 1048 until 1213, between the Kingdom of Georgia and the different Seljuqid states that occupied most of Transcaucasia. More on Georgian–Seljuk wars

Unknown artist

Queen Tamar

Relying on a powerful military élite, Tamar was able to build on the successes of her predecessors to consolidate an empire which dominated the Caucasus until its collapse under the Mongol attacks within two decades after Tamar's death.

Mihály Zichy, (1827–1906)

Shota Rustaveli presents his poem to Queen Tamar

Shota Rustaveli (Georgian: c. 1160—after c. 1220), known simply as Rustaveli, was a medieval Georgian poet. He is considered to be the pre-eminent poet of the Georgian Golden Age and one of the greatest contributors to Georgian literature. Rustaveli was the author of The Knight in the Panther's Skin, which is considered to be a Georgian national epic poem. More on Shota Rustaveli 

Mihály Zichy (October 15, 1827 in Zala, Hungary – February 28, 1906 in St. Petersburg, Russia) was a Hungarian painter and graphic artist.

Zichy was a significant representative of Hungarian romantic painting. During his law studies in Pest from 1842, he attended Jakab Marastoni's school as well. In Vienna he was Waldmüller's pupil in 1844. "Lifeboat", his first major work, comes from this time. On Waldmüller's recommendation, he became an art teacher in St. Petersburg. He swore allegiance to freedom by painting the portrait of Lajos Batthyány, the first Hungarian prime minister, in 1849. From 1850 onwards, he worked as a retoucher, but he also did pencil drawings, water colours and portraits in oil. His erotic drawings have a particular warm intensity in which both members of the couple seem equal partners. He settled down in Paris in 1874.

In 1881 he was in Tbilisi, Georgia, where he started working on illustrations for "The Knight in the Panther's Skin" at the request of the Georgian intelligencia. He painted 35 pictures in total. The publishing commission of the work of "The Knight in the Panther's Skin" chose 27 pictures to be included in the publication. The painter refused to take payment for the works, so impressed was he by the poem itself. Instead, he gifted the works to the Georgian people. More on Mihály Zichy

Alan prince David Soslan and Tamar

Tamar was married twice, her first union being, from 1185 to 1187, to the Rus' prince Yuri, whom she divorced and expelled from the country, defeating his subsequent coup attempts. For her second husband Tamar chose, in 1191, the Alan prince David Soslan, by whom she had two children, George and Rusudan, the two successive monarchs on the throne of Georgia.

Tamar's association with the period of political and military successes and cultural achievements, combined with her role as a female ruler, has led to her idealization and romanticization in Georgian arts and historical memory. She remains an important symbol in Georgian popular culture. More on Tamar the Great

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