Shalva of Akhaltsikhe

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Shalva of Akhaltsikhe, St (Georgian: შალვა ახალციხელი, Shalva Akhaltsikheli) (died 1227; commemoration day on June 17/June 30 (O.S.)) was a Georgian general executed by the Khwarezmian invaders for having refused to serve them and to denounce Christianity.

He was a member of influential noble family having Akhaltsikhe in hereditary possession. Under Tamar of Georgia, he held top posts of Lord High Treasurer and Lord High Mandator consecutively. He was titled as Grand Duke (eristavteristavi) and served as a governor general in the southern province of Javakheti.

Shalva distinguished himself particularly in the Battle of Shamkor against the Seljuk atabek of Azerbaijan, 1195, when he fought in vanguard and captured a war banner of the Caliph. In 1206/1207, he together with Sargis of Tmogvi commanded a Georgian army that took Kars from the Seljuk Turks. At the Battle of Basian (1203) Shalva and his brother Iwane were put in command of Meskhetian vanguard and played a decisive role in the Georgian victory. The brothers commanded a Georgian vanguard again in the Battle of Garni against the Khwarezmians, 1225. The battle was lost however. Iwane fell on the battlefield and Shalva, grievously wounded, was captured. Shah Mingburnu offered him a position in his army provided he would convert into Islam. Shalva refused however and was martyred in June 1227.

According to traditional accounts, Shalva is praised in a Georgian folk song, Shavlego (listen). The song became especially popular in the late 1980s when it was used virtually as an unofficial anthem of Georgian national movement against the Soviet rule.