On Understanding of One Strange Passage of the „Martyrdom of David and Constantine“ I.E.Why Did the Georgian Hagiographer Declare the „King“ of the Koman-Kipchaks Be an Ally of Emperor Heraclius

In the hagiographic work of an anonymous author of the 12th century, „The Martyrdom of David and Constantine,“ which describes the events of the 7th-8th centuries, there is a very strange account. In describing the exploits of the By­za­n­tine emperor Heraclius I (610-641), who was engaged in a war against the Pe­r­sians, the author tells us how „...by the command of God he marched against the Pe­r­sians and entered the land of the Komans, where the Kipchaks are, and gave his daughter in marriage to the king of the Kipchaks and took her with all his might for his own. And he entered Persia and killed Khosrow, the king of the Persians, and he ca­ptured and ravaged the land of Persia.“ The strangeness of the information lies in the fact that it is completely inconceivable that the Koman-Kipchaks participated in the events of the 620s. It is quite obvious that in this case we are dealing with an anachronism, since history does not know the Koman-Kipchaks and their „king“, to whom the powerful Byzantine emperor Heraclius I allegedly gave his daughter in marriage.        In the presented work, based on the analysis of the written sources and hi­sto­rio­g­raphical data about the problem, the author concludes that in this case, instead of the actual Turks (the Western Turkic Khaganate, or their subordinate Khazars) re­co­r­ded in Byzantine and Armenian sources, the Georgian hagiographer deliberately brings to the forefront the Koman-Kipchaks, who, as is known, appeared actively on the international arena almost four centuries after these events.      The author of „The Martyrdom“, as an apologist for the political course of David the Builder, in the narrative of the failed marriage between the “pagan” ruler of the Turks and the Byzantine princess (the initiator of which was Heracles Caesar, the mighty and recognized savior of the Christian world), needed to replace the Turk-Kha­zars with the Koman-Kipchaks in order to justify the „sacrilegious“ marriage of Da­vid the Builder to the daughter of the „pagan“ Kipchaks’ supreme leader Atrak, son of Sharaghan, which, apparently, caused a certain protest among the Orthodox ci­rcles of the Georgian Church and certain representatives of the political elite.