mentioning Machabel Tavkhelidze, a purported forefather of the family. The origin of the family is not clear. According to a traditional account, they descended from one of the princes of the Abkhaz-Georgian feudal clan of
Anchabadze who had fled the disorders in
Abkhazia. Another version holds it that the Machabeli were an offshoot of the
Tavkhelidze family who adopted their dynastic name after the village of on the
Great Liakhvi River where their initial domain was located. Beginning with the 15th century, the Machabeli grew in prominence and held various important posts at the court of the Georgian kings of
Kartli. Their fiefdom, Samachablo, covered a significant portion of what is now breakaway region of the so called "
South Ossetia", and enjoyed a degree of autonomy within the Kingdom of
Kartli from c. 1470 to 1800 when Georgia was annexed to
Imperial Russia. The Machabeli house was confirmed in princely dignity by the Russian
Tsar in 1850. == See also ==