Otar Beg Orbeliani

Otar Beg Orbeliani, also known as Otar Khan, later known as Zu al-Faqar (born circa. 1583,^[1] fl. 17th century), was a Safavid royal gholam from the Georgian Baratashvili-Orbelishvili or Orbeliani clan. His family continued to flourish until Nader Shah's time.

Biography

Not much is known about the early life of Otar Beg. His original family name was Baratashvili-Orbelishvili, which is also referred to as Orbeliani, and Qaplanshvili.^[2] His father's name was Aslamaz.^[1] He had two younger brothers, Vakhushti and Gorjasbi (later also called Mansur), who also held high positions like him. According to Alexander Orbeliani (1802-1869), Otar had one more brother named Kaykhosrow.^[3] He furthermore had a known younger cousin named Qaplan Baratashili-Orbelishvili (Orbeliani) (?-1671), who had fled to mainland Iran in the early 17th century after the death of his father Erizbar Baratashvili-Orbelishvili, the latter being therefore Otar's uncle.^[3] Otar was mentioned for the first time in the Iranian sources in 1626, when he held the function of darugha (prefect) of New Julfa, having succeeded Mirman Mirimanidze on this post. When king Abbas I died (1629), he had already been the governor of Semnan. He was later given the governorship of Kandahar in the easternmost territories under king Abbas II. As Prof. Maedo Hirotake adds, when Kandahar was surrounded by the Mughal forces in 1653, due to the protracted siege, the city nearly fell, and Otar was blamed for his soft attitude. Otar however answered that the would fight alone till the end, and after he would have died in battle, behave as generals liked to do. He is quoted: "I have served the Safavid kings for seventy years. My bones are made from Shah's (kings) different kinds of graces."^[1] He was succeeded as governor of Kandahar by his brother Gorjasbi.

References

Sources

• Floor & Herzig (2015). Iran and the World in the Safavid Age p. 481. I.B.Tauris. ISBN 978-1780769905.
• Maeda, Hirotake (2003). "On the Ethno-Social Background of Four Gholām Families from Georgia in Safavid Iran". Studia Iranica (32).