Abamelik

The House of Abamelik (Armenian: Աբամելիք, Georgian: აბამელიქი, Russian: Абамелик; also rendered as Abamelek, Abymelikov) was a noble family of Armenian origin in the Kingdom of Georgia, and then in the Russian Empire.

According to the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary (1890–1906), the family attained to the dignity of princes of the 3rd rank when the Georgian crown prince David (1767–1819) married Helene (1770–1836), daughter of the priest Simon Abamelik, in 1800. After annexation of Georgia by Russia in 1801, the family was incorporated into the Russian nobility and officially included in the List of Georgian Princes of the Russian Empire in 1850.^[1][2]

In 1873, Major-General Semyon Abamelik (1815–1888) was granted the right to assume the surname of his late father-in-law, Khristofor Yakimovich Lazarev (1789–1871), for himself and his descendants — the princes Abamelik-Lazarev (Абамелик-Лазаревы). By 1906, both the Abamelik and Abamelik-Lazarev lines were registered in the governorates of Moscow, Podolsk, and Tula.^[1] His son, Prince Semyon Abamelek-Lazarev, was married Princess Moina (Maria) Demidova (1877-1955), a daughter of the 2nd Prince of San Donato.

The Armenian composer Makar Yekmalyan dedicated his Nocturne for piano to Prince Semyon Abamelek-Lazarev.

On the Moika Embankment in St Petersburg there is a palace that once belonged to Abamelik-Lazarev family. There is also Villa Abamelek in Rome, which nowadays, is the residence of the Russian ambassador to the Italian Republic.

• List of Georgian princely families

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Абамелик" . Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary (in Russian). 1906.