The Testament of David the Builder

From 26 December 2016, the Georgian National Museum, has displayed the only surviving testament of David the Builder, written in Shirvan before he went into combat. There is also a copy of its glass negative made by Aleksandre Roinashvili in 1895.

The Georgian National Museum, National Archives of Georgia and Korneli Kekelidze National Centre of Manuscripts are exhibiting the Testament of David the Builder in the basement’s Treasury section.

The exhibition will also showcase paleographical blades of David the Builder's handicrafts created by Sargis Kakabadze in 1911, and the embellished gospel "Ceremonial" (Sazeimo) which may have belonged to Queen Tamar. Georgia is one of the first countries that adopted Christianity and recognized it as their national religion. Hence the exhibition includes Georgian Christian art, based on pre-Christian traditions, which eventually formed the nation of Georgia.

David the Builder is David IV (David the Fourth) – Davit Aghmashenebeli – who lived from 1073 to 1125. He was King of Georgia during the Bagrationi dynasty, from 1089 until his death. He is considered to be the greatest and most successful Georgian ruler in history and an original architect of the Georgian Golden Age. He succeeded in ousting the Seljuk Turks from the country, winning the Battle of Didgori in 1121. He was canonized by the Georgian Orthodox Church.

The Colophon (Brief Statement) of King David was written while he was visiting the Shiomghvime Monastery. The document had autographic inscriptions. It was preserved in its complete form of five pages of more than two metres in length, written in 165 lines.

In 1915, during World War I, the colophon was taken to Romanovsky in the North Caucasus together with other documents. In 1919, more than 3,000 documents were destroyed. A fragment of the colophon, and a fragment from the document of King Giorgi II, were rescued by Abram Evangulov, a local resident, and given to Sargis Kakabadze in 1923. The fragment is 26 centimetres by 28 centimetres in Georgian Nuskhuri Script and is the left part of the upper half of page 4 of the original document.

King David’s text, in cursive, begins ‘With the Lord’s help, I, David, began (to write).’ The end is ‘Lord, affirmation of all, (this) firm (will) turn into an immutable.’

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).