 On the other hand, they seem to have had little difficulty distinguishing Mingrelians and Samurzaq’anoans, who are regularly listed living side by side".According to the 1897 census there were 58,697 people in Abkhazia who listed Abkhaz as their mother tongue, 23,810 people listed Mingrelian as their mother tongue, 1,971 people listed Georgian (including Imeretian dialect) as their mother tongue.The population of the Sukhumi district (Abkhazia) was about 100,000 at that time.