Tinatin Gurieli

Born of the Gurieli, one of the leading princely families of western Georgia with marital ties to the Trapezuntine Komnenos dynasty, Tinatin was a daughter of Mamia I, Prince of Guria. She had a brother, Rostom, subsequently Mamia's successor to the throne of Guria. Around 1520, King Levan of Kakheti, who had recently recovered his father's kingdom in eastern Georgia from the occupation of David X, King of Kartli, and was then besieged by David's army in a fortress at Maghrani, clandestinely dispatched emissaries to Mamia with the request that he send military aid and also his daughter in marriage to cement the alliance. The prince of Guria promised both. Levan succeeded in defeating David's superior force with his own army at Magharo in 1520, while Mamia victoriously advanced into Kartli. The three rulers eventually met for negotiations at Mukhrani and Mamia persuaded both David and Levan to make peace. Thereafter, Levan send his men to bring his bride from Guria.^[1]

As the 18th-century Georgian chronicler Prince Vakhushti relates, Tinatin had a dream foretelling that a noble man would take her as his wife and she would see, on her way to the groom's home, a white dogwood tree on a hill, a place where she was told to build a monastery in honor of the Mother of the God. Once brought in Kakheti, Tinatin saw the dogwood from her dream at Shuamta, vowed to build a monastery there, and proceeded to celebrate her wedding with King Levan at Gremi.^[1]

The union produced at least two sons, Alexander and Jesse. Tinatin may also have been the mother of Levan's two other sons, George and Nikoloz, the future Catholicos of the Georgian Orthodox Church.^[2]

Levan was, in the words of the Georgian chronicles, "a lover of whoring and fornication". His subjects, whom Levan's reign brought relative peace and prosperity, were inclined to overlook his frailties. Tinatin was not, however. She requested and was granted a divorce in 1529. The queen retired to the Shuamta nunnery, built at her behest and on her dowry.^[3] The monastery came to be known as Akhali Shuamta, that is, "the new Shuamta", in contrast to Dzveli Shuamta, "the old Shuamta", a nearby located medieval convent, which had been abandoned by Tinatin's time. The monastery, which the queen built, has been functional into the 21st century, except for the hiatus of the Soviet rule.^[4]

After the divorce, Levan married a daughter of the shamkhal of Tarki. Incensed at Tinatin's decision, he further disowned her children and favored his offspring of his second marriage, giving rise to a family feud after his death in 1574. His son by Tinatin, Alexander II, eventually emerged victorious. Tinatin continued to live at the Shuamta convent until her death there in 1591. She was buried in that monastery, far from her ex-husband, as she had requested.^[3][5][1]