Jesse of Kartli

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Jesse (Georgian: იესე, Iese), also known by his Muslim names Ali-Quli Khan and Mustafa Pasha, (1680 or 1681 – 1727), of the Bagrationi dynasty, was a king of Kartli (Georgia), acting actually as a Safavid Persian and later Ottoman viceroy (wali) from 1714 to 1716 and from 1724 until his death, respectively.

He was a son of Prince Levan by his second wife, Tinatin Avalishvili. Jese accompanied his father during his service in Persia where he converted to Islam and took the name of Ali-Quli Khan. He held several high positions along the eastern frontiers of the empire and fought, from 1705 to 1714, under his uncle Gurgin Khan and later brother Kai Khosraw against the Afghan rebels. He was appointed a naib of Kerman (1708-1709), beylerbey of Kerman (1709-1711), and finally a top’chibash (general in charge of artillery) of the Persian armies (1711-1714).

In March 1714, he was confirmed a wali/king of Kartli in place of his brother Vakhtang VI who had refused to accept Islam. With his ascend to the throne, Ali Quli-Khan allied with another Georgian ruler David II of Kakheti (Imamquli-Khan) to repel the attacks from the marauding Dagestani clans but his own positions was shattered by a noble opposition. He proved to be incompentent and addicted to alcohol. Unable to maintain order in his possessions, he was replaced, in June 1716, by Shah Husayn with a brother Vakhtang, who had finally agreed to renounce Christianity. Ali fled to Telavi, Kakheti, but was surrendered to Vakhtang’s son Bakar, regent of Kartli. He was put under arrest at Tbilisi, where he reconverted to Christianity. Released in 1721 by Vakhtang VI, he was granted Mukhrani in possession and appointed mdivanbeg (chief justice) of Kartli. When Constantine II of Kakheti (Mahmad Quli-Khan) moved with a Persian army to remove Vakhtang from the position in 1723, Iese defected to the approaching Ottoman army, became Sunni Muslim and was restored as king of Kartli under the name of Mustapha Pasha. His power, however, was largely nominal and the government was actually run by a Turkish commander. Mustapha remained loyal to the Sublime Porte when the Georgians staged an abortive uprising in 1724. However, the Ottomans abolished the kingdom of Kartli on his death in 1727, imposing their direct administration.

[edit] Family and children

He married in 1712 Maryam nee Kaplanishvili-Orbeliani. She died in 1714, surviving by a son, Archil (Abdullah Beg). Iese remarried, in 1715, a daughter of Erekle I of Kakheti Elene (died 1745), who would finally retire to a monastery under the name of Elizabeth. She bore him six sons and two daughters. Among them were Theimuraz (the future Catholicos Anton I of Georgia) and Alexander who was a grandfather of Pyotr Bagration, a famous Russian hero of the Napoleonic Wars.