Turkoman Tribes in Late Medieval Eastern Georgia: Settlements, Demography and Political History

Abstract

Abstract The purpose of this article is to study the ancestry of Georgian Azerbaijanis, represented as Turkoman tribes, their settlement in Georgia, and to look into different aspects of their history in the Late Middle Ages. A variety of materials have been studied and critically analyzed, using both quantitative and qualitative methods. This article presents several stages of the Turkoman tribes’ settlement in Eastern Georgia, the circumstances in which the geographical area inhabited by them was created, and the demographic history. The article also studies the forms of dependence of the Turkoman tribes on Georgian political entities in the Late Middle Ages, as well as their role in the political and military history of the country. Moreover, the paper describes various details of the Turkoman tribes’ daily life. The article is a significant step forward in the historical study of the Turkoman tribes in Eastern Georgia in the Late Middle Ages, but further research should be conducted in order to provide a complete study of the Georgian Azerbaijanis’ past and the specifics of their development.