Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani’s "Journey to Europe"

“I'm impressed by Geoffrey's version of Sulkhan-Saba's Journey. When finished, it should find a publisher, since it is of considerable historic interest even outside Georgia.”

Donald Rayfield, Emeritus Professor of Russian and Georgian at Queen Mary University of London

Written in the early 18th century, Journey to Europe (mogzauroba evropashi) documents a diplomatic mission undertaken by Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani – a nobleman, monk, and literary figure perhaps best known for his Book of Wisdom and Lies (tsigni sibrdzne-sitsruisa) – in the hope of obtaining the assistance of Louis XIV of France and Pope Clement XI in securing the release of Orbeliani’s nephew, Vakhtang VI of Kartli, who was at that time the detainee of Shah Hosein of Iran following his refusal to convert to Islam. The extant second half of the text covers Sulkhan-Saba’s return to Georgia via Rome, where he is received by the Pope, Malta, where he meets with the Grand Master, and Constantinople, where he remains for some time under the protection of the French ambassador before embarking on the final, treacherous stretch of his homeward journey. Along the way he records the many locations that he visits, often doing so in extraordinary detail.

A full English translation of Journey to Europe – as far as we are aware, the first to be produced – is currently being prepared by Dr Geoffrey Gosby, who began attending Georgian lessons at Oxford as an undergraduate and went on to defend his DPhil thesis, Information Structure in Georgian (2016), after receiving support for his postgraduate research from the Marjory Wardrop Fund. In the years since he has translated several books from Georgian to English, including The Man in the Panther’s Skin: A Condensed Prose Retelling (Artanuji Publishing, 2018), The State Controller’s Office of the Democratic Republic of Georgia (The State Audit Office of Georgia, 2020), and Life in Soviet Georgia: 70 Stories (Artanuji Publishing, 2021).

Dr Gosby has recently received financial support for the translation, which he is working on under the supervision of Lia Chokoshvili, from the Job Carroll Henning Fund at American Friends of Georgia.  

An interactive online map of Orbeliani’s travels will be developed by the Rustaveli Foundation’s first visiting Georgian Fellow at the Bodleian Library, Dr Irina Lobzhanidze.