Artvin

Abstract

Artvin is a town in the northeast of present-day Turkey, in a mountainous area near the border with the Republic of Georgia, on the Çoruh River. During the Middle Ages, its district, Nigali (Armen. Nigal), belonged to the region of Tao-Klardjet‘i (Georgian). From the mid-fourteenth century onwards, the area of Samts‘khe, which comprised Tao-Klardjet‘i and other regions to the northeast, began to acquire a degree of autonomy. Samts‘khe was governed by the Jakeli atabeys (atabeğ), who were unruly...