David XI of Kartli

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Although some contemporary Georgian sources refer to him as David XI (Ge: დავით XI), king of Kartli (kingdom in eastern Georgia), Daud Khan (died ca. 1579), a convert to Islam, was actually a puppet ruler (khan) of Kartli for the Persian shah Tahmasp I from 1562 (effectively from 1569) to 1578.

David was a brother of the Kartlian king Simon I, who led a long-lasting liberation war against the Safavid Persian and Ottoman empires. David submitted in 1562 to Tahmasp at Kazvin, renounced Christianity and was named Daud Khan. The shah appointed him ruler in Kartli and sent with a Persian army to claim the power. Relying on the Persian occupation forces and a few loyal nobles, he was invested with the Georgian capital Tbilisi and the province of Lower Kartli, while the rest of the kingdom remained faithful to Simon. The rival brothers met on battlefield on several occasions. The hostilities took place mainly around Tbilisi, which was blockaded by Simon’s forces from 1567 to 1569. Although the king won the battles at Dighomi (1567) and Samadlo (1569), the Persians eventually prevailed and took Simon captive at the Battle of Partskhisi, 1569. He was sent in chains to the fortress of Alamut, and Daud Khan assumed full control of Kartli. As previously, he relied on the Persians and paid an annual tribute to the Shah. A patriotic alliance of nobles led by Prince Sachino Baratashvili continued, however, resistance to the renegade Georgian ruler. In 1578, a peace between the Safavids and the Ottomans collapsed. The Turkish army commanded by Lala Mustafa Pasha overran much of Georgia and dislodged Daud Khan, who had burnt the citadel of Tbilisi and taken shelter at Lorri. The Shah presently freed Simon to fight against the Ottomans and reinstated him as king of Kartli. In retaliation, Daud Khan handed the control over Lorri to the Turks and fled to Istanbul, where he was welcomed and granted a lordship over two sanjaks. His sons, Bagart and Khosro, took shelter in Persia. During his stay in Turkey, Daud Khan compiled two Ottoman-era medical treatises (qarabadin) and translated it into Georgian, sending a copy to his motherland.