George XI (Georgian: გიორგი XI, George XI) (1651 – April 21, 1709) was a Georgian monarch who ruled Eastern Georgia from 1676 to 1688 and again from 1703 to 1709. He is best known for his struggle against the Safavid Persia which dominated his weakened kingdom and later as a Safavid commander-in-chief in Afghanistan. Being an Eastern Orthodox Christian, he converted to Islam prior to his appointment as governor of Qandahar.[1] He later converted to Roman Catholicism in an attempt to court Western support in the face of increasingly assertive Islamic forces.[2]
Contents |
He was the son of Vakhtang V, whom he succeeded as a ruler of Kartli in 1676. As with many other Georgian rulers, he had to nominally accept Islam[3] and take the name of Shahnawaz II before being able to be confirmed as a viceroy by Shah Solayman I. However, Georgians continued to consider him as their king under his Christian name George (George).
When nearly half-century-long peaceful relations between Kartli and its Persian suzerains significantly deteriorated. George attempted to centralise loose royal authority in Kartli and weaken the Persian influence. He patronised Catholic missioners and had correspondence with Innocent XI. After the liberation of Vienna of the siege of the Ottomans hoped George XI first on weakening of Ottomans. In the letter to Innocent XI from April 29 1687 he vowed to be a Catholic King and declared the readiness and willingness of him and his troops to obey any order of the Roman Pope. According to Catholic missionaries George remained until his death a faithful Catholic.
In 1688, George headed an abortive coup against the Persian governor of the neighboring Georgian region of Kakheti, and attempted, though vainly, to gain an Ottoman support against the Saffavid overlordship. In response, Shah Solayman deposed George and gave his crown to the rival Kakhetian prince Erekle I, who embraced, on this occasion, Islam and took the name Nazar-Ali Khan. Abbas-Quli Khan, the former beglarbeg (governor general) of Ganja, was placed in charge of the government in Kakheti and commissioned to reinforce Erekle’s positions in Kartli. George fled to Racha in western Georgia, whence he made several attempts to reclaim his possession. In 1696, he managed to stage a temporary comeback and helped his brother Archil to temporarily regain the crown of Imereti in western Georgia, but was eventually forced to withdraw from Kartli again. In 1694, following the death of Solayman, there was a change in the government in Georgia: Abbas-Quli Khan was accused by his rivals of supporting George XI. On the orders of the new shah Soltan Hosayn, he was promptly arrested by Erekle and sent to Isfahan under guard, while of his possessions were confiscated. Qalb-Ali Khan was appointed Abbas-Quli Khan’s successor as Persian governor of Kakheti. However, the strife in Georgia as well as the Saffavid empire in general forced Husayn to make peace with George who was summoned to Isfahan in 1696. The shah entrusted him with restoring order along the eastern frontiers of the empire and appointed him beglarbeg of Kerman in 1699. It was the beginning of an illustrious but, ultimately, tragic career in the service of the Saffavids.
George, aided by his brother Levan, by 1700 had reestablished the shah's sovereignty in Kerman. As a reward, George was restored to the throne of Kartli in 1703, but was not allowed to return to his country. Instead, he was soon assigned to suppress the Afghan rebellion in May 1704. He was granted the title of Gurgin Khan by the Shah and was appointed the viceroy of Kandahar province and sipah salar (commander-in-chief) of the Persian armies. While he was in the field, he entrusted the administration of his country of Kartli to a nephew, the future King Vakhtang VI. Gurgin managed to crush the revolts of Afghan tribes and ruled Kandahar with uncompromising severity. He subdued many of the local leaders and sent Mirwais Khan Hotak, a powerful chieftain of the Ghilzai Afghans (Pashtuns), in chains to Isfahan. However, Mirwais Khan managed to gain the favour of the Shah and even to arouse his suspicion against the beglarbeg. Determined to bring about the overthrow of Gurgin, Mirwais Khan staged a carefully planned coup. On April 21, 1709, when the majority of the Georgian troops under Gurgin’s nephew, Alexander, were away from Kandahar on a raid against the rebels, Mirwais invited Gurgin on a banquet at his country estate at Kokaron in Kandahar City and assassinated him. The assassinator was supposedly an Afghan warrior, Younis Kakar, one of a tribal chiefs of Mirwais Khan Hotak. Gurgin's small escort was also massacred and Mirwais seized the power in Kandahar.[4][5] He sent to Isfahan the cross and psalms, found at the murdered Georgian general, as the proof of the latter’s covert defection.
A punitive expedition into the Afghan lands led by George’s nephew, Kay Khusrau, ended in October 1711 disastrously with his death and the destruction of nearly his entire Persian force of 30,000.[6]
George was married twice. He married first Tamar, daughter of Prince David Davitashvili, 1676. She died on December 4, 1683, and was survived by a son Bagrat and a daughter Maryam. George remarried, in 1687, Khoreshan (died on February 24, 1695), daughter of Prince George Mikeladze. She bore him a daughter, Princess Rwadam who was married, from 1703 to 1714, to the king George VII of Imereti.
| Preceded by Vakhtang V |
King of Kartli 1676-1688 |
Succeeded by Erekle I |
| Preceded by Erekle I |
King of Kartli 1703-1709 |
Succeeded by Kaikhosro |