Arms Production in Adjaro-Gurian region in the end of 18th – early 20th Сentury

Abstract

Arms produced in Adjara and Guria have long been barely described in Russian studies of Cauсasian historical arms, although there are numerous items of Adjarian and Gurian production in private and museum collections. The region of Adjara and Guria (located in the southwestern part of Georgia on the eastern coast of the Black Sea) included a part of historical territory of Shavsheti Machakheli, Adjara, Lower and Upper Guria, eastern Lazistan (currently part of Georgia) and a part of modern Turkey. There are numerous traces of medieval iron production by smelting local ores in the region. By the second half of the XVIII century, arms production had already been at a sufficiently high level. In the XIX century, there was a dozen arms production centres which were reflected in toponyms and surnames. Produced arms were sold both in local and external markets. Later, arms production was reduced and then completely disappeared due to three reasons: radical reforms in Ottoman Empire; a phenomenon of Muhajirism; increasing import of foreign arms which practically destroyed domestic trade. The author examines the history of arms production in Adjara and Guria, analyses its specific features arising from local political and religious factors and lists production centres.

Keywords

• rms of caucasus
• daggers
• arms production
• adjara
• guria