it has been some time since I read Shota Rustavelli's Vephkhistqaosani (English- The Knight in the Panther's Skin; in Polish the title is translated beautifully as 'Witeź w tygrysiej skórze' ) and looking at the Wiki Commons I find a nice gallery of different illustrations to the Georgian XII century epic.
Below poet Shota Rustavelli as imagined by the artist
-I have never been to Georgia in the Caucasus, perhaps one day, but I like their national epic, and the music of various Georgian Karvelian ethnic groups (nota bene there is the Kartvelian Laz - albeit Muslim - population in Turkey, but they mostly lost their language and culture during the last century).
The epic is still important for the Georgians, as some of the articles on academia seem to suggest and underline.
The XVII century artist Mamuka Tavaqarashvili painted illustrations for a copy of manuscript in AD 1646, when he was at the court of mtavri Levan II Dadiani, ruler of Mingrelia ( Christian Georgian principality).
the illuminations show accurate weaponry, armor, and horse tack and many other aspects of the Georgian life during the XVII century.
You can read the epic work directly from the net - eg here.
This 1912 translation was done by Marjory Scott Wardrop.
some of the plates showing horses and warriors
Valete,
ps
There is a very important academic researcher from the present Georgia Mamuka Tsutsurmia, whose research on the Medieval warfare in context of Georgia etc can be read on academia. eg the articles on the so called Krakow Wawel Castle helmet (first & second).
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