Anchabadze

Anchabadze (Georgian: ანჩაბაძე), also known as Achba (Abkhaz: А́чба), is an Abkhaz-Georgian family, and the oldest surviving noble house originating in Abkhazia.

The Anchabadze family is supposed to have its roots in the early medieval ruling dynasty of Abasgia. After the break-up of the Kingdom of Georgia in the late 15th century, Abkhazia came under the influence of the Ottoman Empire and Islam, forcing several members of the family into flight to the eastern Georgian lands – Kartli and Kakheti. Thus, they formed the three principal branches: the Abkhazian line of the princes Anchabadze, the Kartlian Machabeli, and the Kakhetian Abkhazi. All these three families were later integrated into the Imperial Russian princely nobility: Machabeli and Abkhazi in 1826/1850, and Anchabadze in 1903.

The descendants of this family have survived in Abkhazia and Tbilisi, and bear the surnames based on the two letter Abkhazian root Ach (Abkhaz: А́ч) (Achba) and on the three letter Georgian root Anch (Georgian: ანჩ) (Anchabadze).

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