Georgian Feudalism

A random page from The Knight in the Panther Skin (image from the Georgian National Center for Manuscripts)

Georgia’s feudal system seems complicated but is fundamentally similar to that in Western Europe especially during the period from the 10th to the 13th centuries. Later, in the smaller kingdoms formed in the wake of the Mongols most of the distinctions were lost as most peasants and even the minor nobles lost some of their rights. As a quick aside - while the famous Georgian literary work is always translated as The Knight in the Panther Skin the word knight refers to a noble behaving chivalrously and not to a title or rank. Georgia seems not to have had the profusion of noble titles that some other countries had.

Peasants

There are multiple classes of peasants with differing rights. The most important distinctions were as follows.

Msakhuri (მსახური – servant): The mshakhuris stood at the top of the hierarchy of the serf class in Georgia. It was a group of servants endowed with a number of privileges, fulfilling mostly military and administrative duties to the lord, and joining his guard. They received land in exchange for their service.

Glekhi (გლეხი – peasant): Glekhi is both the generic name for peasants as a whole and the name of a specific class of land-dependent serving their lord on the land that they occupied. Traditionally they had their own set of rights to their property. Roughly equal to villeins in medieval England.

Mkvidri (მკვიდრი): The mkvidris were hereditary peasants. Tied to the land and living in the same place for generations. The main characteristic of the mkvidri was that he had his own land, which passed from father to son by inheritance. Similarly to the msakhuri, they could occupy local administrative positions of natsvals, mouravs and mamasakhlis. This class is sometimes referred to as Mkvidri Glekhi. The distinction seems to be that the mkvidri could be free peasants owning, buying, and selling land as a form of gentry class although without the rights of true nobility.

Kma (ყმა – vassal, serf, slave): A confusing term. Technically it means a person who sold themselves into serfdom. However at times it is used as a generic term for all serfs and, during the later medieval and early modern period when the rights of peasants declined, all peasants. Yet it can also be used with the meaning of vassal and refer to the status of a lesser noble with respect to a higher one.

Mojalabe (მოჯალაბე): The mojalabes were the least privileged among the various types of serfs in medieval Georgia. They did not possess any plot of land and lived in the house of their lord performing the most humiliating duties such as looking after the cattle
and cattle-shed, fetching woods, cleaning yards, etc.

There are many other names referring to types of serfs such as serfs belonging to the Church as opposed to a feudal lord, serfs who had left one lord and were serving another, and serfs who did not own or have rights to land but the terms above give the general feeling. 

The msakhuri were tied to the lord. It is unclear to me if they are hereditary families or if it is a form of (probably lifetime) position that did not automatically lead to a similar status for children. If I had to guess I'd say that the msakhuri have some connection to the idea of the comitatus but evolved into a more hierarchical nature as the Kartavelian people became more settled and agrarian.

The glekhi and mkvidri were tied to the land but had various rights to the land. Because they were tied to the land, glekhi could be transferred to another lord if the village or land was transferred but they could not be legally separated from their land. The mojalabe had no protection at all

Note that peasants or serfs could have serfs. Thus mojalabe, khizani (ხიზანი), and bogano (ბოგანო) [the later two being classes of serfs too poor to be glekhi who seem to have been closest to tenant farmers] could serve a msakhuri, glekhi, or mkvidri instead of serving a lord directly.

Nobility

As with all feudal systems there were a number of different types of nobility. However these can be broadly broken into higher and lower nobility. Higher nobility were called mtvari, tavadi or eristavi with mtvari being the earliest term. All three were hereditary terms often translated as prince or duke and denote the most significant families. The term didebuli, sometimes translated as one who holds a title, is considered a generic term for higher nobility although I have also seen it used to mean “one who holds an office” is a way that implies it could be used to describe a lesser untitled noble who is performing a specific high ranking job.

The vast majority of nobles were lesser, untitled nobles called aznauri with further distinctions of natesavit aznauri (nobles by birth or nobles from ancient times) and aghzeebul aznauri (nobles through the act of the king). Aznauri are similar to Spanish hidalgo although, as time went on especially in the 15th century and later, the status of the aznauri became more dependent on being connected to a higher lord. So much so that there is a disagreement among scholars as to whether their status was closer to servant or slave of the higher lord.

Much of this information is from “On Some Peculiarities of Serfdom in Georgia (From the Middle Ages to the Early Modern Period)” by Gor Margaryan (DOI: 10.56549/29537819-2022.3-189) Any misinterpretation is my own.