Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani

Writer, lexicographer, diplomat

1658–1725

Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani (1658–1725) was born in Tandzia near Bolnisi into the princely House of Orbeliani, closely tied to the royal Bagrationi. He grew up at the court of King George XI, studied in the great palace library, and later tutored the future King Vakhtang VI, around whom a whole Georgian revival of learning took shape.

While still young he wrote “A Book of Wisdom and Lies”, a collection of fables and parables. His life's work was the “Georgian Dictionary”, which joins a lexicon to an encyclopaedia and did much to fix the norms of literary Georgian. In 1698 Orbeliani took monastic vows at David Gareja and the name Saba.

In 1713–1714 he travelled to Europe, to Pope Clement XI and King Louis XIV, to seek help for Vakhtang VI and for the Catholics of Kartli: he had secretly become a Catholic as early as 1692. France promised support, but Louis XIV soon died and the mission came to nothing. In 1724 Orbeliani followed Vakhtang VI into exile in Russia and died in Moscow early the next year.