Amiran-Darejaniani (Georgian: ამირანდარეჯანიანი), translated into English as "The story of Amiran, son of Darejan", is a medieval Georgian romance, dating probably from the early or middle decades of the twelfth century. It is one of those literary works which heralded the emergence of native secular literature after several centuries of domination by patristic tradition. It is a prose tale of battling knights in twelve episodes attributed to Moses of Khoni (Mose Khoneli; მოსე ხონელი). This attribution is found in the epilogue of Vep’khis-tqaosani, an epic poem by Shota Rustaveli, the greatest classic of medieval Georgian literature, and is otherwise unknown. A tradition holds it that Moses came from the town of Khoni in western Georgia, and, like Rustaveli, served at the court of Queen Tamar (r. 1184-1213), who presided over the Georgian Golden Age.[1]
Amiran-Darejaniani was first published by the self-educated Georgian literary critic and bibliophile Zakaria Chichinadze in 1896, followed by several critical editions in the 20th century. The epos was first introduced to the English-speaking world through a translation by Robert Horne Stevenson in 1958.[2] Next appeared a Russian translation by Bidzina Abuladze in 1965.[3]