MINGRELIA, a former principality of Transcaucasia, which became subject to Russia in 1804, and since 1867 has constituted three circles of the government of Ku tais— Letchgum, Senakh, and Zugdidi. The country corresponds to the ancient Colchis; and Izgaur or Iskuriah on the Black Sea coast, which was the capital during the period of Mingrelian independence under the Dadian dynasty, is to be identified with the ancient Dioscurias, a colony of Miletus. The Mingrelians (still almost exclusively confined to the Mingrelian territory, and numbering 197,000) are closely akin to the Georgians. See Caucasus, vol. v. p. 257, and Georgia.