Archil of Kakheti

Who was Archil of Kakheti?

Archil was a Christian prince of the eastern Georgian region of Kakheti who flourished in the eighth century and was executed by the Arabs for having refused to convert to Islam. Historians are divided as to the years of his activity and death, but Professor Cyril Toumanoff of Georgetown University has relatively reliably established 736 to 786 as the period of his princely rule.

Archil's biography is related in the medieval corpus of Georgian chronicles known as The Life of Kartli. One of its parts, the c. 800 history by Pseudo-Juansher, terminates with a brief account of Archil's tenure as prince, while another one – The Martyrdom of Archil, a brief text of uncertain age inserted just after Ps.-Juansher’s chronicle – narrowly focuses on Archil's martyrdom.

Archil was a scion of the former royal dynasty of Iberia – the Chosroids – and a son of Prince Step’anoz II. His rule coincided with the Arab conquests in Caucasia. The 735-737 expedition by Marwan ibn Muhammad forced Archil and his brother Mihr to flee to the west through Egrisi into Abasgia where they joined the local dynast Leon I in the defense of Anacopia against the invading Arabs. Returning to Kakheti, Archil launched a program of reconstruction and Christianization of his mountainous pagan subjects. The Georgian texts also relate the rise of the Georgian Bagratids, a future royal dynasty, during the time of Archil.