National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

244. GIORGIANIE

çorcia, çorgia, zorcia L iorgienie F zorzai VL
georgia LT jorgane FA zorzania Pˢ, V, VA, VL; R
giorgia TA¹, TA³ jorganie FA, FB zoziannia Pr
giorgies VB jorgia Z zozzannia P
gorgyana, gyorgiana G jourganie FBr

Georgia. Plan Carpine writes « Georgiana » (Wy, 87); Hethum, « Jorgie »; Clavijo, « Gorgania ».
On Rubrouck's forms, see « Giorgiens ». The Persian name is Gurjistān; the Russian, Gruzya.
HALLBERG, 235, 306, quotes « Gursey » and « Kursi » as forms of the name of Georgia, but
does not mention his sources, and there is no notice on Georgia in his book.


245. GIORGIENS

georgiani LT gorgyani G zorzani Pˢ, V, VA, VL
giorgens TA¹ iorgans FA, FB zorzens, zorzini VB
giorgiani R jorgensis, jorgienses Z zorziani VL
giorgiens Fr, t, TA¹r, TA³ jorgiani L zozzani P
girogian, iogiens, iorgiens, zaonichi V
ioriens F

Georgians. Plan Carpine writes « Georgiani » (Wy, 1, 89, 112); Clavijo, « Gorganos ».
Rubrouck (Wy, 319) speaks of the river « Cur [= Kur, كُر Kurr], a quo dicuntur Curgi, quos
nos dicimus Georgianos », and, immediately afterwards, of Tiflis, « que est civitas metropolis Gurgi-
norum ». In the following pages, there is a desperate mixture of « Curgia », « Gurgia » and « Gorgia »
for the name of the country; as to the inhabitants, they are once called « Georgini » (var. « Gorgoni »),
and several times « Gurgini ». Rubrouck is, like Polo, a very accurate transcriber, and he can not
have used all these different spellings. His etymology is absurd (perhaps, coming from a Turkish
speaking country, he took the final of the name as the mongolo-turkish suffix of the nomen agentis,
-či or -ji); but it implies the reading « Curgi » which his text gives in that passage; nevertheless,
it really corresponds to گرجی Gurji, « Georgian », and « Gurginus » would be a normal Latin deri-
vative, just as Russ. « Gruzin » is a normal Russian derivative of « Gruzya ». « Georgini » is a
misreading, perhaps for « Georgiani », more probably for « Gurgini ». In the same way, I think
that Rubrouck's real form for Georgia was « Gurgia ». Otherwise, « Curgi » stand alone as the native
name, and we ought to read « Georgia » and « Georgiani » everywhere else.
The Chinese had heard of Georgia at the time of the Mongol conquests, and we find 曲 兒 只