Population of Georgia
I didn't write about this in my main suggestion post on the first page or in the old thread, since it's such a contentious topic, but I can't keep ignoring the issue forever, so here goes:
The subject of Georgia's historical demography is widely debated, both in Georgian scholarly circles and by foreign historians. However, this is most often only in the context of ethnic-linguistic boundaries and religious divisions in parts of Georgia like Abkhazia, Tao-Klarjeti, Inner Kartli, and Hereti.
Unfortunately, not much thought is given to the population of Georgia as a whole. When searching for material about this matter, the only literature I could find were
nearly 100-year-old observations by
Ivane Javakhishvili and some works about
regional censuses in the 18th century.
Regarding the time frame in question, the singular source we can use to determine the population of the kingdom is the widely cited, but barely understood, Mongol census of 1254. According to Roin Metreveli in
"The Cambridge History of the Mongol Empire":
The Georgian source (
Zamtaaghmtsereli)
stresses that from the 1250s the Mongols began to introduce order into the taxation system. They attempted to determine the scale of income the subordinated countries could give and the number of troops they could supply. To this end the Mongols conducted a census in their dominions (evidence on this is also found in the Armenian historians Kirakos Ganjaketsi, Grigor Aknertsi, and Vardan Areweltsi). The census was conducted in 1254, under Möngke Qa’an (r. 1251–1259), and directed by his governor Argun Aqa: “the whole population of David’s kingdom was in great distress. And lists of everything were made, starting with people and ending with beasts, from fields to vineyards, and from orchards to vegetable gardens. And from every nine well-off peasants they took one for military service.” By this rule, the Gurjistan Vilayet had to supply 90,000 warriors.
This number of "90,000 men per every 9 families" has been interpreted differently by different authors, and depending on their background, have been transformed into population estimates of varying accuracy. The real issue lies in estimating family sizes in that time frame.
Donald Rayfield, one of the most renowned and respected Kartvelologists, in his "
Edge of empires" suggests a number of 2,5 million inhabitants in Georgia, a rather conservative estimate:
"Worst of all was qalani, or conscription, which, after the 1254 census, was set at one soldier per nine registered male householders. (The Georgian army could field 90,000 men, which puts the population of Georgia and Christian Armenia then at around two and a half million.)"
Ivane Javakhishvili, "the father of Georgian historiography", places the number as high as 5 million, according to Mzia Shelia in
"Ivane Javakhishvili’s Contribution to the Formation and Development of Demographic Science in Georgia":
"Despite this difficulty, Iv. Javakhishvili was the person who attempted, for the first time, to determine the number of the population of Georgia in the 13th century. According to his estimation based on the population census carried out by the Mongols in 1254, “there must have been at least 5 million inhabitants in the Kingdom of Georgia at that time. This number, of course, included not only Georgians, but also representatives of other nationalities who belonged to Georgia. It can be seen from these reports, how dense the population was in Georgia at that time, despite the fact that the country had already experienced the horrors of two invasions by Jalaleddin and Genghis Khan, which resulted in a quite large number of casualties”
Above: the Mongol division of Georgia into administrative units, between 1245-47
According to me,
a literal who, I think the truth lies somewhere between those two estimates. Considering the fact that under Giorgi V the extortionate nature of Mongol taxation ceased, and taxation/tribute was no longer paid at all since 1330, we can say that population growth definitely began to recover in ~1320 at the latest. Hence, considering everything stated above,
I think a population of 2,5-3 million pops in Georgia would be best.
Some other notes:
- Primarily increase the number of rural settlements/pops: even at the height of Georgia's golden age, it's believed that 90% of the population was still rural. The sizes of cities as per the old thread are mostly fine (though Akhaltsikhe and "Sukhumi" are arguably too small).
- Increase the population in Tao-Klarjeti (province of Meskheti): one of the key reasons as to why Samtskhe succeeded in establishing peace and prosperity within its borders was due to its geographic location, being far from the steppes of Azerbaijan or inner Anatolia (in many ways mirroring the success of the Kingdom of the Iberians). Hence, I think its population should be more numerous than it currently is.
- Development: it's mostly fine, though I would, again, increase it slightly in the province of Meskheti, along with parts of coastal western Georgia, primarily in "Sukhumi" (which should be renamed to Tskhumi).
