Page 177 - Vinkler, Jonatan, Ana Beguš and Marcello Potocco. Eds. 2019. Ideology in the 20th Century: Studies of literary and social discourses and practices. Koper: University of Primorska Press
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The Forbidden Homeland: Viktor Nozadze’s Scholarly Activity 177
li studies. In his romance, Rustaveli is quite reserved regarding religious
issues, and the ritual side of Christianity is not emphasized. Although it
is clear that the protagonists of the poem are religious, the name of their
deity is never made explicit. Consequently, there hardly remained any
historically known religious system in Asia Minor that the author of The
Knight in the Panther’s Skin was not declared to be an adherent and repre-
sentative of. In the first half of the twentieth century, many pseudo-schol-
arly theories were created concerning the religious belief and worldview
of Rustaveli. Noteworthy among these are the theory of Mohammedan-
ism of Rustaveli argued by Nikolas Marr in his study The Georgian Poem
The Knight in the Panther’s Skin by Shota Rustaveli and a New Cultur-
al and Historical Problem (1917); the theory of Manichaeism stressed by
Pavle Ingoroqva in the book Rustveliana, published in 1926; the theo-
ry of Solarism (Pavle Ingoroqva), which was very popular in the years of
the First All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers (1934) and the First An-
niversary of Rustaveli (1937); and linking the poet’s worldview with Sa-
favid philosophy, advocated by Iustine Abuladze (1914). There were also
attempts at a pantheistic interpretation of Rustaveli’s world outlook
(by Ivane Javakhishvili and Shalva Khidasheli). These theories had one
purpose: to deny the traditional and fundamental thesis regarding the
Christian faith of Rustaveli, the foundation for which was laid as early
as in 1721, when Georgian King Vakhtang VI (1675–1737) published The
Knight in the Panther’s Skin. This was the first time that The Knight in the
Panther’s Skin was printed by a publishing house, and in his commentar-
ies on the poem Vakhtang VI offered a scholarly substantiated viewpoint
on its author’s Christian belief. Vakhtang VI proposed a religious-mysti-
cal explanation of the main motif of The Knight in the Panther’s Skin, love,
and the entire contents of the romance. Hence, he viewed The Knight in
the Panther’s Skin simultaneously as an ‘ecclesiastical’ and ‘secular’ work,
and by means of allegorism sought the divine meaning in the romance.
According to his explanation, The Knight in the Panther’s Skin is secular
in its plot, whereas in its meaning it is ecclesiastical (by means of demon-
stration of love between a woman and man, the work expresses a human
being’s worship of and reverence for God)—thus, Stanza 32, in which the
suffering, shedding of tears, and wandering over the fields by a man in
love is interpreted by Vakhtang VI in the following way:5 “If a man is cry-
5 Stanza 32 reads: “If the lover cries and weeps for his love, tears are the lover’s due. /
Solitude suits him, the roaming of plains and forests suits him, too. / When he’s by
himself, his thought should be of how to worship anew. / But when a lover is in the
world, he should hide his love from view” (Rustaveli, 2015, 15).
li studies. In his romance, Rustaveli is quite reserved regarding religious
issues, and the ritual side of Christianity is not emphasized. Although it
is clear that the protagonists of the poem are religious, the name of their
deity is never made explicit. Consequently, there hardly remained any
historically known religious system in Asia Minor that the author of The
Knight in the Panther’s Skin was not declared to be an adherent and repre-
sentative of. In the first half of the twentieth century, many pseudo-schol-
arly theories were created concerning the religious belief and worldview
of Rustaveli. Noteworthy among these are the theory of Mohammedan-
ism of Rustaveli argued by Nikolas Marr in his study The Georgian Poem
The Knight in the Panther’s Skin by Shota Rustaveli and a New Cultur-
al and Historical Problem (1917); the theory of Manichaeism stressed by
Pavle Ingoroqva in the book Rustveliana, published in 1926; the theo-
ry of Solarism (Pavle Ingoroqva), which was very popular in the years of
the First All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers (1934) and the First An-
niversary of Rustaveli (1937); and linking the poet’s worldview with Sa-
favid philosophy, advocated by Iustine Abuladze (1914). There were also
attempts at a pantheistic interpretation of Rustaveli’s world outlook
(by Ivane Javakhishvili and Shalva Khidasheli). These theories had one
purpose: to deny the traditional and fundamental thesis regarding the
Christian faith of Rustaveli, the foundation for which was laid as early
as in 1721, when Georgian King Vakhtang VI (1675–1737) published The
Knight in the Panther’s Skin. This was the first time that The Knight in the
Panther’s Skin was printed by a publishing house, and in his commentar-
ies on the poem Vakhtang VI offered a scholarly substantiated viewpoint
on its author’s Christian belief. Vakhtang VI proposed a religious-mysti-
cal explanation of the main motif of The Knight in the Panther’s Skin, love,
and the entire contents of the romance. Hence, he viewed The Knight in
the Panther’s Skin simultaneously as an ‘ecclesiastical’ and ‘secular’ work,
and by means of allegorism sought the divine meaning in the romance.
According to his explanation, The Knight in the Panther’s Skin is secular
in its plot, whereas in its meaning it is ecclesiastical (by means of demon-
stration of love between a woman and man, the work expresses a human
being’s worship of and reverence for God)—thus, Stanza 32, in which the
suffering, shedding of tears, and wandering over the fields by a man in
love is interpreted by Vakhtang VI in the following way:5 “If a man is cry-
5 Stanza 32 reads: “If the lover cries and weeps for his love, tears are the lover’s due. /
Solitude suits him, the roaming of plains and forests suits him, too. / When he’s by
himself, his thought should be of how to worship anew. / But when a lover is in the
world, he should hide his love from view” (Rustaveli, 2015, 15).
