The House of Sharvashidze or Shervashidze (შარვაშიძე-შერვაშიძე) was a Georgian-Abkhazian ruling family of the Principality of Abkhazia. The family was later recognized as one of the princely families of the Russian Empire at the request of King Heraclius II of Georgia in accordance with the list of Georgian noblemen presented in the Treaty of Georgievsk.

History

Although the surname is given in a standard Georgian form (particularly, the typical –dze suffix meaning "a son"), in the 12th century the family is said to have derived its original name from Shirvanshahs, a dynasty of Shirvan. Anchabadze disputes this genealogy and argues that Sharvashidze was a local dynasty (they had another purely Abkhazian name Chachba) that had invented a foreign ancestry which is not unusual in feudal genealogies. The first representative of the dynasty assumed the princely powers under the authority of the Georgian kings circa 1325. It was not, however, until the final decomposition of the unified Georgian feudal state in the late 15th century, when the Abkhazian princes obtained their full independence, only to soon become vassals of the Ottoman Empire. In the late 18th century, the Sharvashidze princes embraced Islam, but shifted back and forth across the religious divide, as the Russians and Ottomans struggled for controlling the area. The pro-Russian orientation prevailed, and Abkhazia joined Imperial Russia in 1810 while the Sharvashidzes were confirmed in the Russian princely rank in accordance with the Russo-Georgian Treaty of Georgievsk. According to Nikoloz Sharvashidze (Head of the House of Sharvashidze) the elder descendants of the Aslan-Bey branch of the family live in Georgia, while the junior branch is said to have gone extinct in Turkey. Nikoloz is currently a student at the University of Texas at Austin in the McCombs School of Business and as such resides in Austin, Texas.

Princes of Abkhazia

Abkhazia incorporated into the Russian Empire (1864) 22. Giorgi Sharvashidze (George) (1866–1918) 23. Aleksandr Sharvashidze (Alexander) (1918–1968) Direct descendants through the elder line of Aslan Bey Sharvashidze 24. George Konstantinovich Sharvashidze (1973–2010) 25. Teimuraz Georgievitch Sharvashidze (2010-) 26. Nikoloz Sharvashidze

Notable members of the family

Sources