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Notes
1. This paper was presented at the ASN 2007 World Convention, 12–14 April 2007, Columbia University, New York, 14 April 2007.
2. The Fereydani Georgian region is known as one of the least criminalized regions in Iran. Rahimi sees a clear relationship between this fact and the preservation of local moral values. See Rahimi, Gorjiha-ye Iran, 15.
3. An Ostan is an Iranian first-order administrative territorial unit.
4. Based on numerous Georgian and Iranian sources, Muliani estimates the number of Georgians that (were) moved to Iran during the Safavid until the Qajar periods (the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries, with a peak during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries), to be 240,000–297,000. See Said Muliani. Jaygah-e Gorjiha dar Tarikh va Farhang va Tamaddon-e Iran, 203–04.
5. These estimations are based on the information and official statistics offered by Mr. Mohammad Gugunani at the Fereydan's farmandari office in Daran (summer 2000). The number of Georgians (in 1998) could be estimated, at (over) 22,000 in the sub-unit (Bakhsh) of Buin-Miandasht (total population 33,257). Georgians comprise approximately 90% of Shahrestan of Fereydunshahr (total population 44,177 in 1996), i.e. more than 39,000. These numbers include the number of Fereydani Georgians who do not speak Georgian as their first language (any more).
6. Many locals/experts found this estimation an exaggerated one, but many others agreed with it. Although there are no official statistics, given the fact that there have been waves of emigration from Fereydan to the large cities in Iran, this estimation is not necessarily an exaggerated one.
7. Although there has been large-scale Georgian migration since the twentieth century to Iran's largest cities, notably Esfahan and Tehran, the migrants have not abandoned their Fereydani homeland. Only a few Georgians left for Georgia in the 1970s because of mainly economic reasons. According to Mr. Mohammad Gugunani of the Governorate of Fereydan, fewer than 1,000 Fereydani Georgians left for Georgia and most of them returned immediately or some time later. Even those few who migrated to Georgia and did not return still preserve a sense of Iranianness, and maintain contacts with their community in Fereydan. According to Sepiani, the numbers have been even more modest. He estimates that only 18 families having emigrated to Georgia, of which 15 were poor peasant families. Sepiani, like Rahimi and Muliani, is a Fereydani Georgian and has reliable “insider information” at his disposal. See Sepiani. Iranian-e Gorji, 127. This is in sharp contrast to the case of Armenians who were settled in the region in the same period and under similar conditions. In Iran, in 1856, only the region of West Azerbaijan had a larger Armenian population than the region of Esfahan. Within the region of Esfahan, Fereydan—with its 21 Armenian villages—was still one of the largest, if not the largest, rural Iranian Armenian centre. Hovian. Armanian-e Iran, 210. Although, according to the locals, many Armenians left the region after the Second World War and before the Islamic Revolution (and moved to the Iranian cities but also foreign countries, including Armenia), in 1979 Sepiani (the same source) counts 17 Armenian villages and one mixed Armenian/Turkic-speaking village in Fereydan. Although the emigration from Fereydan has been steady, some villages, notably Zarne and Khoygan, are still important for Iranian Armenians due to the presence of important Armenian churches there, and it is unlikely that they will become totally deserted.
8. Quoted from an article, by Fereydani Georgians, about the Fereydani Georgians: “Ghowmi Gomnam ba Tarikhi Derakhshan” [An Unknown Ethnic Group with a Bright History], included as an appendix to Muliani, Jaygah-e Gorjiha dar Tarikh va Farhang va Tamaddon-e Iran.
9. This Persian text is also available online as “Ghowm-e Gorji” [The Georgian Group], the web log of “Gorjian-e Iran dar Tarikh” [The Georgians of Iran in the Course of History], 2005; 23-9-1384, available at http://www.kartvelebi.blogsky.com/?PostID=120 (accessed 2 February 2007).
10. The website of Persian Historical Documents, preserved at the K. Kekelidze Institute of Manuscripts of the Georgian Academy of Science, Iranian–Georgian Relations in the 16th–19th Centuries, http://www.persian-doc.org.ge/relations.html (accessed 16 March 2007).
11. See, for example, Amir-Ahmadian, Gorjestan dar Gozar-e Tarikh, 86.
12. See, for example, Muliani, Jaygah-e Gorjiha dar Tarikh va Farhang va Tamaddon-e Iran, 240.
13. Hitchins, “History of Iranian–Georgian Relations,” 264–70. Also available online at http://www.iranica.com/articles/v10f5/v10f504b.html (accessed 16 March 2007).
14. He refers here to Berdzenishvili et al., Istoriya Gruzii, 358.
15. He refers here to Oberling “Georgians and Circassians in Iran,” 128–43 and to Sharashenidze, Akhali masalebi pereidneli kartvelebis shesakheb.
16. The Arabic-based Persian alphabet causes some ambiguity, mainly with regard to vowels, and there were, therefore, many versions of pronunciations of the same words.
17. The website “Phereidani, P'at'ara Sakartvelo” was launched in and is operated from Georgia. Nevertheless, this does not mean that it operates as a propaganda machine in order to assimilate the Fereydani Georgians into Christian Georgians. The initiative was motivated by sheer interest in this community, and the whole website is a non-political one and is not intended to undermine the Fereydani Georgian identity. In fact, a few Fereydani Georgians from Iran actively cooperate with this website (http://fereidani.site.ge).
18. This claim is based on a passage in Tarikh-e Alam-Ara-ye Abbasi, written by Eskandar Beyg Monshi, the Safavid court historian in the seventeenth century. See Eskandar Beyg Monshi, Tarikh-e Alam-Ara-ye Abbasi, 1588–89, vol. 2. As it can also be read in this paper, such a claim based on this passage can be challenged. In addition, there are no signs of Christianity existing among the Fereydani Georgians today, nor has any evidence or “hard” historical indications been found that a Christian Georgian community once existed in Fereydan. A more detailed discussion is included in this paper.
19. M. M. Esfahani is referred to in Rahimi, Gorjiha-ye Iran, 10. The original source is Esfahani, Nesf-e Jahan Fi Tarif-e Esfahan. An older published version is Esfahani, Nesf-e Jahan Fi Tarif-e Esfahan, edited by M. Sotudeh.
20. In the Shi'ite vocabulary, unlike that of many Western societies, Imam does not mean an Islamic cleric. In Shi'ite Islam an Imam is a saint appointed directly by God to lead the Shi'ite believers.
21. For a full description of Fereydani Georgian religious traditions and rituals see Sepiani, Iranian-e Gorji, 144–53, 194–98.
22. Dijkink has discussed the influence of peak experiences on the national orientation of different peoples both regarding their own identity and regarding the outside world. As national identity is not the only source of identity in multi-ethnic identities, it is apt to assume that historical peak experiences at an ethnic and regional level do matter in the (representation) of identity and sources of pride and pain at the corresponding levels. For a more elaborate discussion of this concept see Dijkink, National Identity and Geopolitical Visions.
23. Written references to these events are rare. Rahimi therefore relied on the oral traditions of elderly individuals, especially on Gholam-Ali Ioseliani, who was more than 90 years old at the time. I was told the same when I interviewed the Fereydani Georgian elderly. Even the elderly, who were illiterate and were therefore unable to read Rahimi's book, narrate these events (more or less) in the same fashion as they are written by Rahimi. For a more elaborate description of both events see Rahimi, Gorjiha-ye Iran, 24–45.
24. Ibid., 31.
25. It should be noted that the arguments and statements in this paper are only used for a description of a discrepancy in the historical convictions and facts. The scope of this paper does not cover showing that the Georgians of Georgia disrespect the Shi'ite Moslem Fereydani Georgians. In fact they do respect the Fereydani Georgians as ethnic kin.
26. See, for example, Suny, The Making of the Georgian Nation, 51; Amir-Ahmadian, Gorjestan dar Gozar-e Tarikh, 86–87.
27. I interviewed (at least) 38 Georgians (both academicians and ordinary people) from Georgia (from 1998 until 2007). All of them stated that the ancestors of the Fereydani Georgians were Kakhetians. Five people referred to south-eastern Kartli and three referred to Kartli (in general). Only one person referred to Gare-Kakheti (the Outer Kakheti) as the possible homeland, without concretizing the location of Gare-Kakheti. Of these, all believed that the Fereydani Georgians' ancestors were forcefully Islamized in Iran, 21 believed that they underwent harsh treatment and were enslaved and seven people stated that they had to re-convert to Orthodox Christianity like “true Georgians.” They base their argument on the fact that many Georgians were “gholams” of the Iranian Royal Court. Gholam is often (mistakenly) translated as slave. Gholam of the Royal Court, however, is not the same as slave. Although these gholams were loyal, dependent and dependable, they had the opportunities that accompanied upward mobility and were able to progress to important political and military positions. Of course, a deportation, or even a voluntary relocation, is harsh. However, as we will read in this paper, the history of Fereydani Georgians is not characterized by harsh treatment. In fact, the opposite appears to be true.
28. Friedman, “Myth, History and Political Identity,” 207.
29. See, in this regard, Pelkmans, “Religion, Nation and State in Georgia,” 249–73.
30. Of course, Kakheti's and Kartli's territories might have comprised territories which are not known under these names today. Nevertheless, the (ordinary) Georgians of Georgia believe that Iranian Georgians are from the territory of the contemporary region of Kakheti, and some add the south-eastern Kartli as a possibility too. This paper offers evidence and proof that they are from other parts of Georgia and that they were already Shi'ite Moslems when they arrived in Fereydan.
31. According to Muliani, Sheikh Bahai, the Iranian scientist who had planned and engineered Najaf Abad, had himself proposed the Georgian settlement in Najaf Abad. The reason for leaving Najaf Abad was reportedly a conflict between Georgians and other people there. See Muliani, Jaygah-e Gorjiha dar Tarikh va Farhang va Tamaddon-e Iran, 230. It is remarkable that the Fereydani Georgian collective memory still reproduces this event in Najaf Abad. Sepiani (citing Fathollah Ioseliani, one of the Fereydani Georgian elders) even mentions that four locals of Najaf Abad were killed during this conflict. It is remarkable that he refers only to four people and does not want to make the event more sensational by exaggerating the number. See Sepiani, Iranian-e Gorji, 173.
32. Sepiani, Iranian-e Gorji, 257.
33. Ibid., 246.
34. According to Vartan Gregorian the Armenian settlement in Esfahan occurred in the period 1603–1605, and the first Armenian church in Esfahan was built in 1606. See Gregorian. “Minorities of Isfahan,” 39–41. According to Hovian, the Armenians settled in Esfahan in 1605 and the first Armenian church in Esfahan was built in 1607. Hovian, Armanian-e Iran, 141–42.
35. For more information see “Miras Najaf Abad,” the website of the Association of Friends of Najaf Abad's Cultural Heritage (http://www.mirasnjf.com/).
36. One famous rumour tells how, for example, the babies of Chigan, which is traditionally an Armenian village, have red cheeks because their parents give them red wine to drink!
37. Rahimi, Gorjiha-ye Iran, 16.
38. According to many elderly individuals, they were eyewitnesses to the existence of such buildings in their lifetime. Also, many younger locals believe that they have seen rests of gorji-Push in Fereydan.
39. “Gorji-p'oshäsh” is mentioned as a type of Fereydani Georgian building, in a conversation between Y. N. Marr, Jr. and a Fereydani Georgian soldier in Esfahan in 1925 (reported by Basil Nikitin). Although the descriptions are poor, it refers most probably to Gorji-Push, the type of building which is discussed in this paper. See Nikitin, “Life and Work of Y. N. Marr, Jun,” 284–85. Quoted in Oberling, “Georgians and Circassians in Iran,” 131.
40. Muliani, Jaygah-e Gorjiha dar Tarikh va Farhang va Tamaddon-e Iran, 238–39.
41. Lur often serves as an umbrella ethnonym and refers to a variety of ethnic groups, including the Bakhtiari in the western Iranian highlands.
42. Eskandar Beyg Monshi, Tarikh-e Alam-Ara-ye Abbasi, 1588–89, vol. 2.
43. Dhimmi, Zimmi or Zemmi refer to the non-Moslem followers of other Abrahamic religions (i.e. Christians and Jews) and Zoroastrians. They are also called the “Ahl-e Ketab,” the followers of monotheistic religions that have their own holy books.
44. Della Valle, P. Viaggi in Turchia, Persia et India descritti da lui medesimo in 54 lettre famigliari. See also reference list. Pietro Della Valle lived from 1586 to 1652. His “The Travels in Persia” (two parts) were published by his sons after his death. There are Persian translations. See Della Valle, Safarname-ye Pietro Della Valle (Travels of Pietro Della Valle). (Older Persian versions also exist.)
45. Chardin, Siahatname-ye Chardin, jelde 4om, 147. The original source is Voyages (de Monsieur le) (du) Chevalier Chardin, en Perse, et autres lieux de l'Orient (published in the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries).
46. According to Pietro Della Valle there were Georgians in seventeenth-century Iran who en masse chose to convert to Islam because the shah “had given the migrants some financial assistance, which they were required to pay back. Islamization meant that the obligation to pay back was lifted”). Nevertheless, this does not mean that these Georgians were Fereydani Georgians. Pietro Della Valle's statement is discussed in Sepiani, Iranian-e Gorji, 48.
47. Gregorian, “Minorities of Isfahan,” 29.
48. Rahimi, Gorjiha-ye Iran, 10.
49. According to Rahimi, Georgian inscriptions are found in the Armenian churches of “Surp Minas,” “Surp Nerses,” “Vank” and “Julfa,” in Esfahan. Rahimi, Gorjiha-ye Iran, 23. I have personally seen paper documents in Vank, written in the pre-thirteenth-century old-fashioned Georgian alphabet.
50. Georgians and Armenians belong to two different “churches,” but both are traditionally Orthodox Christians.
51. To date the only living (but assimilating) community of Moslem Armenians is that of Hemshinli. Hemshinli is as an Armenian-speaking community in Turkey which is not regarded as Armenian either by the members of the community themselves or the Christian Armenians. Reportedly there were Hemshinli families among the Meskehtians in Georgia, who Stalin deported to Central Asia.
52. On his gravestone is written: “the resting place of Jahangir Khan Enagolopians Mamigonian, the minister of industry and armament. Born in 1828, died in 1891.” Hovian, Armanian-e Iran, 154.
53. Ibid., 379–81.
54. Ibid., 370.
55. Ibid., Chap. 11.
56. Yephrem Khan Davidian was a revolutionary leader in the Iranian constitutional revolution (1905–1909). Although born in Ganja in the Russian-held Transcaucasia, he later moved to Tabriz in the Iranian Azerbaijan, and was buried in Tehran after a public funeral procession. See Hovian, Armanian-e Iran, 397–403.
57. Ibid., Chap. 11.
58. It is tempting to reconstruct this family name to Ena-galobani (Ena=tongue and Galobani=related to Galoba=vocal singing). This family name, which roughly means related to vocal singing, fits the name Chongur(i), which is a musical instrument. However tempting this reconstruction, it is invalid and the family name should be reconstructed correctly as Enak'olopishvili.
59. However, this multilingualism is consistent with Hovian's claim that this particular family had upper class origins, but in no sense suggests its Armenian ethnicity.
60. Muliani, Jaygah-e Gorjiha dar Tarikh va Farhang va Tamaddon-e Iran, 293.
61. Rahimi, Gorjiha-ye Iran, 86–87.
62. Katouzian, “The Short-Term Society,” 11.
63. For a discussion on “ethnic boundaries” see Barth, Ethnic Groups and Boundaries.
64. Although Armenians could assume political, diplomatic and even military positions in the late nineteenth-century Qajar era, apparently religion still defined the social boundaries of the Christian Armenian and the Moslem Georgian realms in Iran.
65. These days Ghelich Mosalman is a rather negatively loaded designation in modern Fereydan. Some Fereydani Georgians tend to call certain groups (that they somehow dislike) Ghelich Mosalman. These include a certain Georgian family that is said to be stubborn and somewhat aggressive. On the other hand, the merchant Islamized Jews, who have migrated to the Georgian part of Fereydan from the town of Khansar, are not known as Ghelich Mosalman, despite their relatively late Islamization. Therefore, the attribution of Ghelich Mosalman to that Georgian family does not necessarily indicate its Islamized status, but rather its assumed aggressive and stubborn conduct. It should be noted also that these stereotypes and name-callings might be due to recent grudges between a few families, and their antiquity should be doubted.
66. Sepiani, Iranian-e Gorji, 188–9.
67. Basil Nikitin reports a conversation between Y. N. Marr, Jr. and a Fereydani Georgian soldier in Esfahan in 1925, in which the latter informed the former that Armenian musicians played during a Fereydani Georgian wedding ceremony. See Nikitin, “Life and Work of Y.N. Marr, Jun,” 284–85. Quoted in Oberling, “Georgians and Circassians in Iran,” 131.
68. Communications with the locals (2000–2006).
69. Kahl himself held this view first but later reached a more balanced conclusion in his case study of the Islamization of Meglen Vlachs. See Kahl, “The Islamization of the Meglen Vlachs (Megleno-Romanians),” 74.
70. Rahimi, Gorjiha-ye Iran, 10.
71. “Farhang-e Gorjiha dar Behshahr barresi shod” [Georgian Culture is Studied in Behshahr], Iranian Cultural Heritage and Tourism website, 2003; 1-20-1382 Solar Hegira, http://iranmiras.ir/fr_site/newsf/82488.htm (accessed 16 March 2007).
72. Rahimi, Gorjiha-ye Iran, 11. Rahimi most probably bases this claim on local oral traditions. Until now I have not seen that Koran with my own eyes. As stated previously, Rahimi's book is, however, reliable in the sense that there is a high degree of consensus among the elderly on most of its content.
73. It can be seen further on in this paper that the event of presenting pigs (ad 1617 or 1618) surpasses the date of possible migration of northern Georgians to Iran (1614) and pre-dates the passage on (hypothetical) Islamization (ad 1619 or 1620). However, the Tarikh-e Alam-Ara-ye Abbasi's passage which mentions “the stop in Fereydan before marching to Georgia” (ad 1614) could have preceded the settlement of Georgians in Fereydan. Presenting pigs to Mazandaran and not to Fereydan would seem to be very shallow evidence of the Fereydani Georgians adhering to the Islamic confession. After all, the fact that there are no reports does not necessarily mean that Shah Abbas I did not act in the same way as regards the Fereydani Georgians. Nevertheless, it is fair to state that it was very likely that if these Fereydani Georgians were Christians, Shah Abbas most likely did send pigs to them as gifts and that, owing to the proximity of this region to the capital of Esfahan, this event was more likely to be reported. It is therefore fair to state that this event can be interpreted as evidence that the Fereydani Georgians were (already) Moslems at that time.
74. Eskandar Beyg Monshi, Tarikh-e Alam-Ara-ye Abbasi, 1433–34, vol. 2.
75. It should be noted that Georgians were not the only Christians in Mazandaran. Armenians lived there too. Della Valle speaks of Armenians, Georgians, Jews and Moslems (in Farah Abad, Mazandaran) as separate categories, which implicitly indicates that those Georgians were not Moslems. Della Valle, Safarname-ye Pietro Della Valle, 170–74; Falsafi, Zendegani-ye Shah Abbas-e Avval. 5 Mojallad, 1138, vol. 3; referred to in Muliani, Jaygah-e Gorjiha dar Tarikh va Farhang va Tamaddon-e Iran, 227–28.
76. Rahimi, Gorjiha-ye Iran, 26.
77. It is very remarkable that even the elderly with limited knowledge of Esfahan remember Abbas Abad and that, traditionally, only the Abbas Abad neighbourhood (of such a large city as Esfahan) is mentioned as the first residential area of the Fereydani Georgians' ancestors. Those outsiders or (younger) Fereydani Georgians who state that Fereydani Georgians' ancestors might have lived in New Julfa base their argument on their assumption that they were Christians and do not base their statement on any evidences. There are also other examples of “reasoning the other way around.” For example, one Fereydani Georgian informant referred to the existence of a Christian community in the past in Khong, near Fereydunshahr, as evidence of the existence of Christians among Fereydani Georgians, but others reminded him that that village was inhabited by Armenians (communication with locals in Fereydunshahr, 2003). In general, there is no evidence of the existence of Christian Georgians in Fereydan, and those who believe in such statements disregard the Fereydani Georgian oral tradition which is kept by the elderly from generation to generation.
78. Eskandar Beyg Monshi uses the terms Tianat and Erzad.
79. Eskandar Beyg Monshi, Tarikh-e Alam-Ara-ye Abbasi, 1443, vol. 2. Muliani refers to this event too, but (even) he does not link it, in his book, to the Fereydani Georgians. See Muliani, Jaygah-e Gorjiha dar Tarikh va Farhang va Tamaddon-e Iran, 140, 238–39.
80. Eskandar Beyg Monshi, Tarikh-e Alam-Ara-ye Abbasi, 1433–46, vol. 2.
81. Ibid., 1443.
82. Ibid., 1436–44.
83. Ibid., 1445. Eskandar Beyg Monshi speaks about a Christian people called O(w)s. Interestingly, O(w)s-i is the designation used by Georgians as an ethnonym for Ossetians!
84. The Persian long a (ā) vowel often inclines towards o.
85. Georgians contest an (exclusive) Ossetian “ownership” of this area and this area is therefore often called the Tskhinvali region or Samachablo in Georgia.
86. There is another area in northern Georgia, of which the dialect shows similar peculiarities, and of which the toponym has the same meaning, namely Mtiuleti.
87. Although Tuite does not make such a claim and places Fereydani Georgian in the category of central and eastern lowlands, he remarkably highlights the similarities between Fereydani and some northern dialects, especially Mokhevian, Mtiulian and Ingiloian, when he discusses the atypical usage of the particle -q'e. See Tuite. Kartvelian Morphosyntax Number Agreement and Morphopolosyntactic Orientation in the South Caucasian Languages, 64, http://www.mapageweb.umontreal.ca/tuitekj/publications/TuiteThesis.pdf#search=%22%20Georgian%20babunashvili%20tuite%22 (accessed 27 August 2006).
88. The verb dileba is possible too. Many verbs in Georgian end with -eba, while at the same time can have nouns derived from it ending with -oba (e.g. Sheneba=to build, and Shenoba=building).
89. In Fereydani and north Georgian dialects Q is pronounced half way between gh and kh. This consonant (as pronounced this way) is absent in the Armenian, Bakhtiari, Persian and Turkic dialects of Fereydan. In contrast to the standard Georgian q', q is pronounced without a glottal stop.
90. There is a city with the same name in Daghestan, Russia and is often spelled today as Derbent in a Russian fashion.
91. This name also shows a resemblance to Chokhur Saad (or Chokhur-e Sa'd), the name which was used in the seventeenth century for the territory of roughly present-day Armenia and adjacent areas in Turkey. There might be a connection between all these names.
92. Sepiani, Iranian-e Gorji, 218.
93. Muliani, Jaygah-e Gorjiha dar Tarikh va Farhang va Tamaddon-e Iran, 236.
94. Ibid., 151.
95. Kala is derived from the Turkic and Persian Qale or Qala (castle). Tsikhe is its Georgian equivalent.
96. This combination can also be found in the Persian word Jeghele, which means a small and physically weak person. Jeghele might be from the (hypothetical) Georgian Jghili, because Persian does not use -ili (and not even -ele) to make adjectives, while Georgian does.
97. Elguja Khintibidze discusses elaborately how the ethnonym(s) of Georgians is related to Kart. Khintibidze, Kartvelta sakhelts' odebebi da mati et'imologia. In this regard see also Amir-Ahmadian, Gorjestan dar Gozar-e Tarikh, 46. A popular Persian belief is that the ethnonym Gorj (i.e. Georgian) is derived from the Persian word Gord (strong warrior), which in turn is related (by them) to the English word guardian. Although Khintibidze does not refer to it, Kart is phonetically very close to Gord.
98. Azna-uri is itself an adjective, and hence its root is Az(na). Azna-v-el-i, then, means originating from Az(na). Az-na could be a corruption of Az-ni, the plural of Az (nobility). The same root is preserved in the Persian word Az-ad=free.
99. Eskandar Beyg Monshi, Tarikh-e Alam-Ara-ye Abbasi, 1433–46, vol. 2.
100. Racha is spelled as Racheh in Standard Persian. Words in Standard Persian cannot end in a short a. The Bakhtiari and Georgian locals, however, (used to) pronounce it as Racha.
101. Shahyurdi was officially renamed Ghaem Abad following the abolition of the monarchy in Iran, after Hazrat-e Ghaem, a religious name of Imam Zaman, the Shi'ite Lord of the Times. Similarly, the Imamzadeh Kaj-Ali on the outskirts of Fereydunshahr used to be called Imamzadeh Taj-Ali (Crown-Ali). See Sepiani, Iranian-e Gorji, 197.
102. Eskandar Beyg Monshi, Tarikh-e Alam-Ara-ye Abbasi, 1443, vol. 2.
103. Some other family names, although ending with -ani, resemble family names in Georgia, which end in -dze, e.g. Lomidani (Lomidze), and Moliani and Muliani (Molidze).
104. Oddly, I know an Iranian Georgian who has lived in Georgia for a long time and whose family name has been changed to Onikashvili, a family name that ends with -shvili and therefore sounds Kakhetian.
105. Although it is very intriguing to state that those assertions should be totally rejected, it would be very arrogant to say so. On the contrary, the author of this paper invites all researchers to research this issue better. Indeed, the final word has not yet been spoken.
106. Although hypothetical to a certain degree, the aforementioned conclusions are more in accordance with facts and evidence, and they can therefore be regarded as very fair conclusions.
107. In the report entitled Gorjiha-ye Esfahan Jazabei Nashenakhte [The Georgians of Esfahan, an Unknown Source of Attraction], Iranian Cultural Heritage News Agency, 2005; 19-9-1384 Solar Hegira. This report states that, besides the natural attraction of the region, Georgian culture and traditions are attractive aspects of the Georgian Fereydan. The report is available at http://www.chn.ir/news/?section=1&id=12613 (accessed 16 March 2007).