When did the Principality of Iberia exist?

The Principality of Iberia existed 580/588–888. On this map it is drawn AD 682–740.

How large was the Principality of Iberia?

At its greatest extent drawn on this map, the Principality of Iberia covered about 35,000 km². That is the largest area the border data gives it across the years it is drawn, not necessarily its greatest extent in history.

Europe · The successor kingdoms

Principality of Iberia

580/588–888

See it on the map → Wikipedia ↗

Existed: 580/588–888
Shown on the map: AD 682–740
Peak area: 35k km²
Region: Europe

Overview

The Principality of Iberia was the Georgian (Kartlian) polity that governed eastern Georgia after the abolition of the Iberian monarchy. When King Bakur III died around 580, the Sasanian government under Hormizd IV abolished the Chosroid monarchy, and Iberia became a Persian province under a marzpan. In 588 the Byzantine emperor Maurice restored native rule by installing Guaram I of the Guaramids — not as king but as presiding prince (erismtavari), with the Byzantine court title of curopalates; the Byzantine–Sasanian treaty of 591 confirmed this and divided Iberia at Tbilisi.

The presiding prince (variously erismtavari, eristavt-mtavari) was the leading local authority but had to be confirmed by Constantinople; notably, 8 of the 14 presiding princes held the dignity of curopalates. Their power was limited — the chronicles note they could not remove the hereditary dukes (eristavis) who held charters from both the Persian Great King and the Byzantine emperor. The sequence ran through Guaramid, Chosroid, and Nersianid princes: Guaram I (588–c. 590), Stephen I (c. 590–627, killed when Heraclius took Tbilisi), Adarnase I, Stephen II (who recognized Arab Caliphate suzerainty in the 640s), and others down to a vacancy of 786–813.

The Arabs first reached Kartli in 645; in 735 Marwan ibn Muhammad (the future caliph Marwan II) invaded and took Tbilisi, and the Emirate of Tbilisi was established around 736, ruling parts of eastern Georgia until 1080 (nominally to 1122, when David IV recaptured the city). The principality was not abolished by the Arabs; the princes relocated their seat from Tbilisi to Uplistsikhe (c. 736–813) and then to Artanuji in Tao-Klarjeti. The first Bagrationi (Bagratid) to hold the office was Ashot I the Great (presiding prince c. 813–826/830), who bore the title kouropalates and restored the castle of Artanuji. The principality ended in 888 when a Bagratid — known as Adarnase (styled Adarnase IV in Bagrationi dynastic numbering; the same person the Principality of Iberia article body sometimes calls Adarnase I) — assumed the title King of the Georgians (Iberians), reviving Georgian kingship.

Historiographical note

The scholarship rests heavily on the standard authorities Cyril Toumanoff (1963) and Ronald Grigor Suny, The Making of the Georgian Nation (1994). Regnal numbering of the Bagratids is inconsistent between sources.

Common questions

What was the Principality of Iberia?: The Principality of Iberia was the Georgian (Kartlian) polity that governed eastern Georgia after the abolition of the Iberian monarchy. When King Bakur III died around 580, the Sasanian government under Hormizd IV abolished the Chosroid monarchy, and Iberia became a Persian province under a marzpan.
When did the Principality of Iberia exist?: The Principality of Iberia existed 580/588–888. On this map it is drawn AD 682–740.
How large was the Principality of Iberia?: At its greatest extent drawn on this map, the Principality of Iberia covered about 35,000 km². That is the largest area the border data gives it across the years it is drawn, not necessarily its greatest extent in history.

Sources

This compendium cites its sources once for the whole document rather than per territory. Its bibliography names the English Wikipedia articles for each polity as the primary basis, cross-checked against Encyclopædia Britannica and the World History Encyclopedia, while flagging entries built on thin or contested evidence — Samo's Empire on a single Fredegar passage, Venice's 697 founding date as legendary, the Pacta conventa as a probable forgery. The article this entry is anchored on:

Wikipedia — Principality of Iberia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Iberia

This entry was last updated 27 September 2026.

This entry was researched and drafted with AI from the sources above, and has not been reviewed by a historian. How entries are made

Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.

Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).

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