What is "chichua"

The Chichua is a Georgian family, formerly a noble one, hailing from Mingrelia, a western Georgian region.

According to the late 18th-century version recorded by Prince Ioann of Georgia, the Chichua claimed descent from the Princes Chikovani. Most of the modern authorities such as Cyril Toumanoff and Simon Janashia considered Chichua of the same stock as the Chijavadze, a noble family in Imereti. Toumanoff further ascribed them the origin from the medieval Georgian clan of the Kakhaberidze of Racha.

The first known members of the Chichua family appear in the early 17th-century documents. They were prominent in the politics of the Principality of Mingrelia and had their princely fief between the rivers of Chanistskali and Khobi. Their influence at the court of the Mingrelian rulers, Dadiani, began to decline in the latter half of the 18th century and vanished in 1838, with the loss of their hereditary office of Grand Master of the Court (sakhlt-ukhutsesi) to the rival clan of Chikovani. The Chichua attempted a revolt, but failed. After the final incorporation of Mingrelia into the Russian Empire in 1857, the Chichua became part of the Russian nobility, their status confirmed, according to Toumanoff, in 1903.