Oljath

Oljath (Öljätäi; Georgian: ოლჯათი) (fl. 1289–1302) was a Queen consort of Georgia as the wife of two successive kings, Vakhtang II (r. 1289–1292) and David VIII (r. 1292–1311). She was a daughter of Abaqa Khan, the Mongol Ilkhan of Iran.

Origin

Oljath was a younger daughter of Abaqa. Her mother was either Abaqa's wife Maria Palaiologina, an illegitimate daughter of the Byzantine emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos, or Bulujin egechi, a concubine. She was, thus, a great-great-granddaughter of Genghis Khan.^[1][2][3]

First marriage

The anonymous 14th-century Chronicle of a Hundred Years, part of the Georgian Chronicles, relates that, after having Demetrius II of Georgia put to death in 1289, the Ilkhan Arghun sent the influential Georgian nobleman Khutlu-Bugha to David I of Imereti, an uncle of the executed monarch, bidding him send his son Vakhtang, whom he intended to put on the throne of Georgia, and to give him his sister Oljath in marriage.^[4] Vakhtang's reign was short-lived and died in 1292, without known issue.

Second marriage

After the death of her husband, Oljath married, with the consent of the Ilkhan, Vakhtang's cousin and successor, David VIII, a son of Demetrius II. David soon raised a rebellion against the Mongol hegemony and entrenched himself in the mountains of Mtiuleti. In 1298, Oljath was part of the delegation sent by David for negotiations with the Mongol commander Kutlushah, who treated the queen with special honor, she being a Mongol princess. Oljath was given assurances for the king's safety, as well as the ring and the napkin, the latter being a gage of pardon, while Sibuchi, son of Kutlushah, was offered as a hostage. The queen, however, was detained and, after David refused to arrive at negotiations in person, carried off to Iran. The Ilkhan determined that she should not again return to her husband. When David learned this, he, in 1302, married the daughter of Hamada Surameli.^[5]

No children are reported in the medieval annals from the union of Oljath with David, but a modern hypothesis makes Melchizedek and Andronicus, the 13th-century princes of Alastani, known from the contemporaneous documents, their sons.^[6][7]

Notes

1. Toumanoff 1976, p. 125.
2. Thackston 1999, p. 516.
3. Rybatzki 2006, p. 177.
4. Howorth 1888, pp. 329–330.
5. Howorth 1888, pp. 423–426.
6. Mikaberidze 2007, p. 107.
7. Dumin 1996, p. 38.

References

• Dumin, SV, ed. (1996). Дворянские роды Российской империи. Том 3. Князья [Noble families of the Russian Empire. Volume 3: the Princes] (in Russian). Moscow: Linkominvest.
• Howorth, Henry H. (1888). History of the Mongols from the 9th to the 19th century. Part III. London: Longmans, Green, And Co.
• Mikaberidze, Alexander (2007). Historical Dictionary of Georgia. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 0-8108-5580-1.
• Rybatzki, Volker (2006). "Genealogischer Stammbaum der Mongolen" [Genealogical family tree of the Mongols]. In Sinor D.; Boĭkova E.V.; Stary G. Florilegia Altaistica: Studies in Honour of Denis Sinor on the Occasion of His 90th Birthday. Asiatische Forschungen, Volume 149 (in German). Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. ISBN 3-447-05396-8.
• Thackston, Wheeler M. (1999). Rashiduddin Fazlullah’s Jamiʿu’t-tawarikh, A Compendium of Chronicles: A History of the Mongols. Part two. Cambridge: Harvard University.
• Toumanoff, Cyrille (1976). Manuel de Généalogie et de Chronologie pour l'histoire de la Caucasie chrétienne (Arménie, Géorgie, Albanie) [Manual of Genealogy and Chronology of Christian Caucasian History (Armenia, Georgia, Albania)] (in French). Rome: Edizioni Aquila.