Georgians

Georgians, the principal branch of the South Caucasian group. [Caucasians, III.] They are the Grusians of the Russians, both of these terms having reference to St. George, patron saint of the Georgian Christians. The native name is Karthveli, which occurs in the oldest chronicles under the form of Karthlosi - that is, descendants of Karthlos, one of the legendary national patriarchs, founder of the Georgian nation. During the flourishing period of their history the Georgians occupied a vast domain along the southern slopes of the Caucasus; but they are at present mainly confined to the Russian government of Tiflis, which roughly corresponds to the old kingdoms of Karthafinia and Kakhetia. In 1892 the Georgian-speaking communities of this region numbered little over 310,000; the Mingrelians, Imeritians, Pshavs, Khevsnrs, Lazes, and others of kindred speech, nearly 700,000; total South Caucasian family, about 1,000,000. The Kartli (Kartuli) or Georgian language is highly agglutinating and very harsh, with a surprising accumulation of consonants, as in Mtkhet, the name of the old capital of Karthalinia. It has long been cultivated, and is written in a peculiar character attributed to Mesrob, of which there are two varieties - Khutzuri, the Church alphabet, based on the old Armenian, and Mkhedruli, the current script in general use. Like Armenian, it runs from left to right. The Georgians rank physically amongst the finest races of the Caucasus, and they were taken by Blumenbach as the type of his Caucasic division of mankind. They are of tall stature, shapely figure, well-marked regular features, with black hair and eyes, large nose, often aquiline, giving them somewhat of a Jewish look. The grace and beauty of the Georgian women have long been proverbial, and for generations the harems of the Ottoman Sultan and pashas have been supplied from this source. Hence the modern Turks, especially the upper classes, have been almost completely assimilated in appearance to the general European (Caucasian) type. The Georgians were formerly subject chiefly to Persian influences, as shown by the national costume, which is still essentially Persian; but since the Russian conquest Persian have yielded to Slav influences, and during the present century European culture has made considerable progress amongst all classes of Georgian society. The national Church does not form a separate rite, like the Armenian, Coptic, Greek, and others; hence most of the Georgian Christians recognise the Armenian patriarch, while a few are "Uniates" - that is, united to Rome.