LA GEORGIE ENTRE PERSE ET EUROPE. Sous la direction de F. Helliot-Bellier et I. Natchkebia. Paris: l'Harmattan, 2009. 358 p.* The Tsereteli Institute of Oriental Studies of Georgia, together with the French National Center for Scientific Research Mondes-Iranien etindien, has published a collection of studies of Georgian and French Orientalists in French. It includes works by Georgian researchers G. Sanikidze, I. Nachkebia, G. Beradze, M. Gabashvili, M. Svanidze, M. Alexidze, N. Ter-Oganov (now living in Israel), French scientists F. Hellot-Bellier, T. Zarkone, S. Urzhevich and Japanese scientist Hirotaki Maeda (Hokkaido University). G. Sanikidze's work "Islam and Muslims in Georgian modernity" examines the areas of compact settlement of Muslims in the historical and ethnographic regions of Georgia-Adjara, Kvemo Kartli, Meskheti, Abkhazia, and the Pankisi Gorge. The author mentions the French traveler P. de D. Tournefort, who in 1701 noted the growth of the Muslim population in Tbilisi during the Safavid period. Describing the current conditions and historical situation during the adoption of Islam in this part of Georgia, G. Sanikidze notes that during the struggle of Ottoman Turkey and Safavid Iran in the XVI-XVIII centuries. The pressure on the Georgians of Adjara to change their faith and denomination has especially increased. It is known that after the Treaty of Amasi in 1555, which established peace between Turkey and Iran after a 40-year war, Western Georgia was recognized as the sphere of interests of the Ottoman Empire [Istoriya Vostoka, 1999, p. 72, 115 - 116]. Turks began to actively infiltrate Adjara and Meskheti (Javakheti), the Akhaltsikhe Pashalyk was created, the construction of mosques and the forced conversion of local Georgians to Islam began. However, proselytism has not been able to spread throughout Georgia, and despite intense pressure from its powerful Muslim neighbors, Georgians have remained largely Christian. However, in Adjara, Meskheti an ... Read more