Anchabadze

The House of Anchabadze (Abkhazian:Ачба, ), is a Georgian and Abkhazian family, and the oldest surviving noble house originating in Abkhazia.

== History == thumb|263x263px|950s Church facade slab with a Georgian language|Georgian inscription in the [[Asomtavruli alphabet mentioning the king of Abkhazia George II Anchabadze and his daughter Gurandukht.]] The Anchabadze family is supposed to have its roots in the early medieval ruling dynasty of Abasgia. According to a traditional account, 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 to flee to the eastern Georgian lands of Kartli and Kakheti. Thus, they formed two principal branches: the Abkhazian line of the princes Anchabadze and the Kartlian Machabeli. However, there is another version, according to which the Machabeli was 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. Both of these families were later integrated into the Imperial Russian princely nobility: Machabeli in 1826 and Anchabadze in 1903.