Chapter 5. 'The Abkhazians: A Handbook' by George Hewitt (Editor) Richmond, Surrey: The Curzon Press 1999.

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Author(s) : Kazanski Michel (14/09/2007)
Translation : Makripoulias Christos
For citation: Kazanski Michel, "Byzantine culture influences on the people of North ",
Encyclopaedia of the Hellenic World, Black Sea
URL: <http://www.ehw.gr/l.aspx?id=11995>

Western travellers to the Caucasus, in J. Speake (ed.) The Literature of Travel and Exploration, 1, 199-202. 2003. Fitzroy Dearbon.

Mongols held suzerainty and Genoese Black Sea trading-posts were established when Dominican Johannes de Galonifontibus, Bishop of Nakhichevan from 1377 (Archbishop of Sultanieh from 1398), completed in 1404 an account of his oriental experiences. Enumerating the Caucasian peoples and languages, he perspicaciously demarcated Circassia (Zyquia sive Tarquasia), Abkhazia, Mingrelia and Georgia (J/Ioriania – the form Georgiania is known from the mid-13th century) as countries with separate languages. Constantinople's fall (1453) subsequently hampered communion with the West.

Stanislav Lakoba | Special to Abkhaz World

The venerable Abkhazian princely family Shervashidze (Chachba) is renowned for having produced many famous personalities. The genealogy of the Shervashidze family is discussed in considerable detail in the fourth volume of the book “Noble Families of the Russian Empire”
(Moscow, 1998).

Chapter 4. History: Ist-XVIIIth Century, Oleg Bgazhba - 'The Abkhazians: A Handbook' by George Hewitt (Editor) Richmond, Surrey: The Curzon Press 1999.