Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. The Principality of Abkhazia emerged as a separate feudal entity in the 15th-16th centuries, amid the civil wars in the Kingdom of Georgia that concluded with the dissolution of the unified Georgian monarchy. The principality retained a degree of autonomy under the Ottoman, and then the Russian rule, but was eventually absorbed into the Russian Empire in 1864.Abkhazia, as a duchy (saeristavo) within Georgia, was ruled by the clan of Shervashidze (aka Sharvashidze, Chachba, or Sharashia) since the 12th century. The sources are very scarce about the Abkhazian history of that time. The Genoese established their trading factories along the Abkhazian coastline in the 14th century, but they functioned for a short time.