Kaikhosro of Kartli

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Kaikhosro (also spelled Kay Khusrau, Kai Khusraw; Georgian: ქაიხოსრო) (January 1, 1674 – October 27, 1711), of the House of Bagrationi, was a king (actually a Persian-appointed wali, i.e. viceroy) of Kartli, eastern Georgia, from 1709 to 1711. However, he never ruled due to his permanent absence at the Persian military service.

He was the son of Prince Levan, and accompanied his father during the service in the Saffavid empire. Since 1703, Kaikhosro himself served on high posts in the Persian administration, including being a darougha (prefect) of the capital city of Isfahan and a naib (deputy) to the divanbeg (chief justice). On the death of his uncle, Gurgin Khan (George XI), in 1709, he was confirmed as a wali/king of Kartli and a sipah-salar (commander-in-chief) of the Persian armies in Afghanistan, and granted Tabriz and Barda in possession. He spent the whole of this period in field, and Kartli was administered by his brother Vakhtang.

In November 1709, he led a Persian-Georgian army to take revenge for the murder of Gurgin Khan by Mir Wais, a rebel Afghan chieftain of the Ghilzai tribe. His efforts to take Kandahar, however, went in vain. A fragile truce ensued, but in the summer of 1711 the hostilities were resumed. Kaikhosro forced the rebels within the walls of Kandahar which was placed under siege. However, the positions of the besiegers soon became precarious due to the attacks by the Baluchi tribesmen and, on October 26, Kaikhosro ordered a retreat from the city. The Ghilzais attacked the retreating army and won a crushing victory, killing Kaikhosro and his 25,000 soldiers in the battle.

[edit] Further reading

Martin Sicker, The Islamic World in Decline: From the Treaty of Karlowitz to the Disintegration of the Ottoman Empire (Hardcover) (2000), Praeger/Greenwood, ISBN 0-275-96891-X, page 44