Somkhiti

Somkhiti ( _ka. სომხითი, IPA2|sɔmxitʰi) was an ambiguous geographic term used in medieval and early modern Georgian historical sources to refer to Armenia on one hand and to the Armeno-Georgian marchlands along the river valleys of Debed and Khrami on the other hand. In the 18th century, "Somkhiti" was largely replaced with "Somkheti" (სომხეთი, /sɔmxɛtʰi/) as a Georgian exonym for Armenia, but it continued, for some time, to denote the frontier region which is currently divided between Lori, Armenia, and Kvemo Kartli, Georgia. The populace of Somkhiti – in its regional sense – was called Somkhitari (sing., სომხითარი), while Armenians in general were (and are) referred to in Georgian as Somekhi (sing., სომეხი). [Rapp, Stephen H. (2003), "Studies In Medieval Georgian Historiography: Early Texts And Eurasian Contexts", pp. 137, 176, 224, 270, 315, 371. Peeters Publishers, ISBN 90-429-1318-5.]

Etymology

The term "Somkhiti"/"Somkheti" is presumed by modern scholars to have been derived from "Sukhmi" or "Sokhmi", the name of an ancient land located by the Assyrian and Urartian records along the upper Euphrates. [G. Melikishvili, Nairi-Urartu (Tbilisi, 1954), pp. 418-19, cited in Suny, Ronald Grigor (1994), "The Making of the Georgian Nation", p. 344, n. 20. Indiana University Press, ISBN 0253209153.] According to Professor David Marshall Lang,

References