Surameli

The Surameli (Georgian: სურამელი; pl. სურამელები, suramelebi) were a noble family in the medieval Kingdom of Georgia, with notable members from the 12th century to the 14th. At the height of their influence and prestige in the 13th century, the Surameli were hereditary eristavi ("duke") of Kartli and msakhurt-ukhutsesi ("Lord High Chamberlain") of Georgia.

The origin of the Surameli family has not been fully elucidated. Their surname derives from a territorial epithet, meaning "of/from Surami", a castle in the central Georgian province of Shida Kartli. Based on similarities in personal names and titles, the 19th-century French Orientalist Marie-Félicité Brosset identified the Surameli of the Georgian annals as possible members of the house of Orbeli. This hypothesis has been accepted by Cyril Toumanoff, who considers the "Orbelianis of Surami" as the cousins of those Orbeli who, exiled by George III of Georgia in 1177, later established themselves as the princely dynasty of Siunia.

An alternative view, more popular in Georgia and first advanced by Tedo Zhordania in the 1890s, links the Surameli to the family of Pavneli, which first appears in records in a deed given to the Mghvime monastery. The document, traditionally dated to the 9th or 10th century, has recently been redated to 1121.

The first known Surameli is Bega or Beka, a companion of the Georgian king George III in his campaign against the Shaddadids of Ani in 1161. Bega's descendants appear, first with his son Rati, as the hereditary eristavi of Kartli, succeeding to that office on the downfall of the Orbeli clan in 1177. Under King David VII of Georgia, c. 1250, Rati's grandson, Grigol, acceded to the dignity of the chief royal chamberlain, which also became hereditary in the family for nearly a century.

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