Mepe

 ( Royal Titles ) 

Mepe (Old Georgian: ႫႴ; მეფე ; ) is a royalRapp, p. 472 title used to designate the Georgian monarch, whether it is referring to a king or a queen regnant.Rayfield, location: 1292Rapp, p. 263 The title was originally a male ruling title.Eastmond, p. 178

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Etymology The word is derived from Georgian word მეუფე ( meupe)Klimov, p. 120 which literally means sovereign and lord.Rapp, p. 265Klimov, p. 196 Some Georgian dialects has the term as ნეფე ( nepe), all derived from common Proto-Kartvelian მფ/მეფე/მაფა ( mp/mepe/mapa).Klimov, pp. 195-215 Even though mepe has a female equivalent, დედოფალი ( dedopali; )Rapp, p. 286 it is only applied to the king's consort and does not have a meaning of a ruling monarch.Eastmond, p. 109

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History The term mepe was utilized since pre-Christian beginnings with Azo, but the role would get more structured during the reign of Pharnavaz IRapp, p. 182 in the 3rd century BC.Rapp, p. 153 His successors, the Pharnavazid mepes would be titled as goliathRapp, p. 155 who would possess 𐬓𐬀𐬭𐬆𐬥𐬀𐬵 ( pharnah; ),Rapp, p. 205 the divinely endowed glory believed by ancient Persians to mark only a legitimate ruler,Rapp, p. 276 accompanied with დიდებაჲ ( didebay; ) and სუე ( sue; ).Rapp (2014), p. 228 Georgian monarch's reign was known as მეფობაჲ ( mepobay; ).Rapp, p. 261Bakhtadze, pp. 1-4 Loss of pharnah and sue led to imminent death or overthrow of mepe.Rapp (2014), p. 230

In the late 6th century, the Sassanid Empire would abolish the Georgian kingship of the Kingdom of Iberia resulting in the interregnum stretching from 580 to 888 as a demoted principality.Rapp, pp. 372-451Eastmond, pp. 5-6 Despite the monarchy was in abeyance, and that royal governing disintegrated, the principality rulers would still continue to claim to be referred to as mepes and ჴელმწიფე ( helmts'ipe; ).Bakhtadze, p. 3 After 888Rayfield, location: 1337Rapp, p. 337 (or 889)Bakhtadze, pp. 5-9 restoration under next successive dynasty of mepe Adarnase IV, the new kingdom would emerge as the fusion of many lands and territories, that would lead towards a total Georgian unification, culminating in 1008.Rapp, p. 231

In the 12th century,Rapp, p. 187 the Bagrationi mepe David IV the Builder, who had established himself as the region's superlative political and military force,Rapp, p. 338 with his ambitious and sophisticated push for his kingdom's royal imagery promotion,Eastmond, pp. 70-71 the official style of a king would become imperialEastmond, pp. 59-60 თჳთმპყრობელი ( tuitmp'q'robeli; Rapp, p. 396 i.e. autokratōr)Eastmond (2017), p. 114 and მეფეთამეფე ( mepetamepe;Eastmond, p. 134Rayfield, location: 2194 ), similar to the Byzantine βασιλεὺς βασιλέων ( basileus basileōn) and Persian شاهنشاه ( shahanshah).Rapp, p. 372 David IV's royal projection of his grandiose title was partly aimed at a non-Georgian audience.Eastmond, pp. 67-70 Title Shahanshah was later totally usurpedEastmond, p. 92 and consistently used by Georgian monarchs, denoting sovereignty over several Persianate subjects such as Shirvanshahs, the Shaddadids and the Eldiguzids.Rayfield, location: 2199 The royal cult of a monarch would reach its zenith with a female ruler, Tamar, whose execution of power would inaugurate the Georgian Golden Age, her being styled as Tamar, the mepe.Eastmond, p. 97 Tamar was given the longest and more elaborate titles on the , listing all the peoples and lands that she ruled as a semi-saint mepetamepe.Eastmond, pp. 162-178 The Bagrationi mepe, with its royal legitimacy and ideological pillar, would rule Georgia for a millennium, from its medieval elevation down to the Russian conquest in the early 19th century.Rapp, pp. 234-338

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See also

• Caesar, Roman title
• Basileus, Greek title
• Shah, Persian title
• Tsar, Slavic title

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Notes

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Bibliography

• Rapp, Stephen H. (2014) The Sasanian World through Georgian Eyes: Caucasia and the Iranian Commonwealth in Late Antique Georgian Literature, Ashgate Publishing,
• Rapp, Stephen H. (2003) Studies In Medieval Georgian Historiography: Early Texts And Eurasian Contexts; Peeters Bvba
• Eastmond, A. (2017) Eastern Approaches to Byzantium: Papers from the Thirty-Third Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, University of Warwick, Routledge,
• Eastmond, A. (1998) Royal imagery in medieval Georgia, Pennsylvania State University,
• Rayfield, D. (2013) Edge of Empires: A History of Georgia, Reaktion Books,
• Bakhtadze, M. (2015) Georgian titulature of Tao-Klarjeti ruling Bagrationi dynasty, Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Institute of Georgian History Proceedings, IX, Tbilisi, Publishing Meridiani
• Georgy Klimov (1998) Etymological Dictionary of the Kartvelian Languages; Walter de Gruyter GmbH;

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