Teimuraz I of Kakheti
Encyclopedia
Bagrationi Dynasty
The Bagrationi dynasty was the ruling family of Georgia. Their ascendency lasted from the early Middle Ages until the early 19th century. In modern usage, this royal line is frequently referred to as the Georgian Bagratids, a Hellenized form of their dynastic name.The origin of the Bagrationi...
, was a Georgian
Georgia (country)
Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
monarch who ruled, with intermissions, as King of Kakheti
Kingdom of Kakheti
The Kingdom of Kakheti was a late medieval/early modern monarchy in eastern Georgia, centered at the province of Kakheti, with its capital first at Gremi and then at Telavi...
from 1605 to 1648 and also of Kartli
Kartli
Kartli is a historical region in central-to-eastern Georgia traversed by the river Mtkvari , on which Georgia's capital, Tbilisi, is situated. Known to the Classical authors as Iberia, Kartli played a crucial role in ethnic and political consolidation of the Georgians in the Middle Ages...
from 1625 to 1633. The eldest son of David I
David I of Kakheti
David I , of the Bagrationi Dynasty, was a king of Kakheti in eastern Georgia from October 1601 until his death in October 1602....
and Ketevan
Ketevan the Martyr
Ketevan, "the Martyr" was a queen of Kakheti, a kingdom in eastern Georgia. She was killed at Shiraz, Iran, after prolonged tortures for refusing to give up the Christian faith and embrace Islam.-Life:...
, Teimuraz spent most of his childhood at the court of Shah of Iran
Safavid dynasty
The Safavid dynasty was one of the most significant ruling dynasties of Iran. They ruled one of the greatest Persian empires since the Muslim conquest of Persia and established the Twelver school of Shi'a Islam as the official religion of their empire, marking one of the most important turning...
and was made king of Kakheti following the nobles' revolt against his reigning uncle, Constantine I
Constantine I of Kakheti
Constantine I or Constantine Khan , of the Bagrationi Dynasty, was a king of Kakheti in eastern Georgia from March to October 1605....
, in 1605. From 1614 on, he waged a five-decade long struggle against the Safavid Iranian domination of Georgia in the course of which he lost several members of his family and ended up his life as the shah's prisoner at Astarabad at the age of 74.
A versatile poet and admirer of Persian poetry
Persian literature
Persian literature spans two-and-a-half millennia, though much of the pre-Islamic material has been lost. Its sources have been within historical Persia including present-day Iran as well as regions of Central Asia where the Persian language has historically been the national language...
, Teimuraz translated into Georgian several Persian love-stories and transformed the personal experiences of his long and difficult reign into a series of original poems influenced by the contemporary Persian tradition.
Early life
Teimuraz was the son of David I of KakhetiDavid I of Kakheti
David I , of the Bagrationi Dynasty, was a king of Kakheti in eastern Georgia from October 1601 until his death in October 1602....
by his wife Ketevan
Ketevan the Martyr
Ketevan, "the Martyr" was a queen of Kakheti, a kingdom in eastern Georgia. She was killed at Shiraz, Iran, after prolonged tortures for refusing to give up the Christian faith and embrace Islam.-Life:...
née Bagration-Mukhraneli
House of Mukhrani
The house of Mukhrani is a Georgian princely family, a collateral branch of the former royal dynasty of Bagrationi of which it sprung early in the 16th century, and received in appanage the domain of Mukhrani located in Kartli, central Georgia...
. Kakheti, the easternmost Georgian polity that emerged after the fragmentation of the Kingdom of Georgia
Kingdom of Georgia
The Kingdom of Georgia was a medieval monarchy established in AD 978 by Bagrat III.It flourished during the 11th and 12th centuries, the so-called "golden age" of the history of Georgia. It fell to the Mongol invasions of the 13th century, but managed to re-assert sovereignty by 1327...
in the late 15th century, was within the sphere of influence
Sphere of influence
In the field of international relations, a sphere of influence is a spatial region or conceptual division over which a state or organization has significant cultural, economic, military or political influence....
of the Safavid dynasty of Iran. Until the early years of the 17th century, the kings of Kakheti had maintained peaceful relations with their Iranian suzerains, but their independent foreign policy and diplomacy with the Tsardom of Russia
Tsardom of Russia
The Tsardom of Russia was the name of the centralized Russian state from Ivan IV's assumption of the title of Tsar in 1547 till Peter the Great's foundation of the Russian Empire in 1721.From 1550 to 1700, Russia grew 35,000 km2 a year...
had long irked the shahs of Iran. Teimuraz himself was held as a political hostage at the Safavid court and raised in Esfahan, capital of Iran, under the tutelage of Shah
Safavid dynasty
The Safavid dynasty was one of the most significant ruling dynasties of Iran. They ruled one of the greatest Persian empires since the Muslim conquest of Persia and established the Twelver school of Shi'a Islam as the official religion of their empire, marking one of the most important turning...
Abbas I
Abbas I of Persia
Shāh ‘Abbās the Great was Shah of Iran, and generally considered the greatest ruler of the Safavid dynasty. He was the third son of Shah Mohammad....
.
He returned home in 1605, after Christian Kakhetians, rallied by Teimuraz’s mother Ketevan, revolted and overthrew their Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
king, Constantine I
Constantine I of Kakheti
Constantine I or Constantine Khan , of the Bagrationi Dynasty, was a king of Kakheti in eastern Georgia from March to October 1605....
, who had killed his own father, King Alexander II of Kakheti
Alexander II of Kakheti
Alexander II , of the Bagrationi Dynasty, was a king of Kakheti in eastern Georgia from 1574 to 1605. In spite of a precarious international situation, he managed to retain relative economic stability in his kingdom and tried to establish contacts with the Tsardom of Russia...
, in an Iranian-sponsored coup. The nobles of Kakheti requested that Shah Abbas I confirmed Teimuraz, who was Alexander II’s grandson, on the throne. Abbas, frustrated by the rebellion and preoccupied with his new war with the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
, acceded to the Kakhetians’ demand. Teimuraz was crowned King of Kakheti and began a long and difficult reign in conflict with his Safavid overlords.
Since the new monarch was still underage, Queen Ketevan temporarily assumed the function of a regent and arranged, in 1606, Teimuraz’s marriage to Ana, daughter of Mamia II Gurieli, Prince of Guria on Georgia's Black Sea
Black Sea
The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...
coast. In 1609, Ana died and Teimuraz remarried, with Shah Abbas’s consent, Khorashan, sister of Luarsab II of Kartli
Luarsab II of Kartli
The Holy Martyr Luarsab II , of the Bagrationi dynasty, was a king of Kartli from 1606 to 1615. He is known for his martyr’s death at the hands of the Persian shah Abbas I...
, Kakheti’s western neighbor, while the shah himself married Teimuraz's sister Helene.
Iranian invasion
Once the hostilities with the Ottomans had ceased momentarily in 1614 with the Iranian army at its acme, Abbas I sent in his troops against the Georgian kingdoms. This time he was aided by the Georgian nobleman, Giorgi Saakadze
Giorgi Saakadze
Giorgi Saakadze was a Georgian politician and military commander who played an important but contradictory role in the politics of the early 17th-century Georgia...
, an able fighter who had formerly enjoyed much influence in the service of Luarsab II of Kartli until a threat to his life had led him to defect to the shah. The Iranians drove both Teimuraz and Luarsab from their realms into the western Georgian kingdom of Imereti
Imereti
Imereti is a province in Georgia situated along the middle and upper reaches of the Rioni river. It consists of the following Georgian administrative-territorial units:#Kutaisi #Baghdati region#Vani region#Zestafoni region...
, and Abbas I replaced them with Georgian converts to Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
. Bagrat VII
Bagrat VII of Kartli
Bagrat Khan also known as Bagrat VII , was king of Kartli, eastern Georgia, effectively serving as a khan for the Persian shah Abbas I from 1615 to 1619....
was installed in Kartli, while Kakheti was given to Teimuraz’s cousin Isa Khan
Jesse of Kakheti
Jesse or Isā Khān , of the Bagrationi Dynasty, was a ruler of Kakheti in eastern Georgia from 1614 to 1615....
. George III of Imereti
George III of Imereti
George III , of the Bagrationi Dynasty, was a king of Imereti from 1605 to 1639. George succeeded on the death of his brother, Rostom of Imereti, but his authority was seriously challenged by the energetic prince of Mingrelia, Levan II Dadiani, whose increasing influence over the western Georgian...
, under the Ottoman protection, refused to give up the refugees and the shah retaliated by giving Kartli and Kakheti over to his troops for pillage. Then Luarsab chose to surrender, but rejected the shah's request to renounce Christianity. Abbas exiled him to Iran and had him strangled at Shiraz
Shiraz
Shiraz may refer to:* Shiraz, Iran, a city in Iran* Shiraz County, an administrative subdivision of Iran* Vosketap, Armenia, formerly called ShirazPeople:* Hovhannes Shiraz, Armenian poet* Ara Shiraz, Armenian sculptor...
in 1622.
While in exile in Imereti in 1615, Teimuraz I joined George III of Imereti in sending a letter to Tsar
Tsar
Tsar is a title used to designate certain European Slavic monarchs or supreme rulers. As a system of government in the Tsardom of Russia and Russian Empire, it is known as Tsarist autocracy, or Tsarism...
Michael of Russia
Michael of Russia
Mikhail I Fyodorovich Romanov Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov was the first Russian Tsar of the house of Romanov. He was the son of Feodor Nikitich Romanov and Xenia...
, informing him of their opposition to the Iranian shah and requesting aid. Recovering from the Time of Troubles
Time of Troubles
The Time of Troubles was a period of Russian history comprising the years of interregnum between the death of the last Russian Tsar of the Rurik Dynasty, Feodor Ivanovich, in 1598, and the establishment of the Romanov Dynasty in 1613. In 1601-1603, Russia suffered a famine that killed one-third...
, Russians were not prepared and did not intend to intervene in the Caucasian affairs, however. Left to their own devices, the Kakhetian nobles rallied behind David Jandieri
Jandieri
Jandieri was a Georgian noble family known from the seventeenth century as grandees in the Kingdom of Kakheti.According to the genealogical treatise by Prince Ioann of Georgia , the family was elevated, in 1628, to the princely rank by the king Teimuraz I of Kakheti...
and revolted against Isa Khan on September 15, 1615. The rebellion quickly spread to Kartli, and the Georgian nobles proposed Teimuraz I as king of all of eastern Georgia. A punitive Iranian expedition under the command of Ali Quli-Khan was routed by Teimuraz’s forces at Tsitsamuri
Tsitsamuri
Tsitsamuri is a small village outside Mtskheta, Georgia. It is known as the place where the nation's famous writer and poet, Ilia Chavchavadze, was assassinated in 1907....
, leading Shah Abbas to personally lead the next invasion in 1616. The rebellion was quashed, and Teimuraz once again fled to western Georgia. Kakheti was subjected to a complete devastation from which this kingdom never fully recovered. As the official history of Shah Abbas's reign, the Alam-ara proclaims: "Since the beginning of Islam no such events have taken place under any king."
Once flourishing towns of Kakheti, like Gremi
Gremi
Gremi is a 16th-century architectural monument – the royal citadel and the Church of the Archangels – in Kakheti, Georgia. The complex is what has survived from the once flourishing town of Gremi and is located east of the present-day village of the same name in the Kvareli district, 175...
and Zagemi, shrank to villages and several settlements disappeared. Sixty to seventy thousand people were killed, and more than one hundred thousand Kakhetian peasants were deported into the Safavid possessions. Their descendants make up the bulk of the ethnic Georgian population of present-day Iran, and a Georgian dialect is still spoken in and around Fereydoon Shahr
Fereydoon Shahr
Fereydunshahr is a city in and the capital of Fereydunshahr County, Isfahan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 13,475, in 3,622 families....
, Isfahan Province.
The rebel king
Teimuraz continued to seek a Russian and Ottoman aid against Iran and remained a rallying point for opposition to the Safavids, encouraging his subjects to reject a Muslim replacement for him. Shah Abbas took revenge by torturing to death the king's mother, Ketevan, on September 13, 1624, and castrating his sons, Alexander and Leon.Meanwhile, Abbas I's appointed governor of Kakheti, Selim Khan of Ganja, embarked on a campaign to resettle the depopulated areas of eastern Georgia with Turkic
Turkic peoples
The Turkic peoples are peoples residing in northern, central and western Asia, southern Siberia and northwestern China and parts of eastern Europe. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family. They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds...
nomads, sparking a rebellion by the remaining Georgian population. The shah's former Georgian ally, Giorgi Saakadze, or Mourav-Beg as he was known in Iran, joined the revolt and led the Georgians to a victory over the Iranian army at the Battle of Martqopi
Battle of Martqopi
The Battle of Martqopi was a 1625 military confrontation between Georgia and Iran. The Georgians 15 000 men strong force, led by general Giorgi Saakadze, anhilated a 30 000 men strong Iranian detachment of Shah-Abbas I....
on March 25, 1625. Saakadze went on to annihilate the Turkic migrants and reinstated Teimuraz as king of Kartli and Kakheti. The shah failed to crush the uprising despite the costly victory over the Georgians at the Battle of Marabda
Battle of Marabda
The Battle of Marabda , when the Iranian army defeated a Georgian force. This battle occurred after the Battle of Martqopi in the same year, when the Iranian army was routed.-References:...
on July 1, 1625. Faced by guerrilla resistance in the highlands of Georgia, Abbas gave in to the urging of Moscow and recognized the rebel king’s right to rule.
The Georgian nobility, however, soon divided into two opposing camps. On one side stood Saakadze and his followers who objected to Teimuraz’s control of Kartli and intended to invite the Imeretian prince Alexander (the future King Alexander III of Imereti
Alexander III of Imereti
Alexander III , of the Bagrationi Dynasty, was a king of Imereti from 1639 to 1660.Alexander succeeded upon the death of his father, George III of Imereti, in 1639. Most of his reign was spent in the struggle against the powerful prince of Mingrelia, Levan II Dadiani, who refused to acknowledge...
) as a new king. On the other, Teimuraz and his loyal Kakhetian party who gained an influential supporter in Saakadze’s brother-in-law and erstwhile associate Zurab, eristavi
Eristavi
Eristavi was a Georgian feudal office, roughly equivalent to the Byzantine strategos and normally translated into English as "duke". In the Georgian aristocratic hierarchy, it was the title of the third rank of prince and governor of a large province...
("duke") of Aragvi
Duchy of Aragvi
The Duchy of Aragvi was an important fiefdom in medieval and early modern Georgia, strategically located in the upper Aragvi valley, in the foothills of the eastern Greater Caucasus crest, and ruled by a succession of eristavi from c...
. Shah Abbas I, suspicious of Saakadze’s diplomacy with the Ottomans, also encouraged Teimuraz to deal a final blow to the ambitious general. Later in 1626, the rivalry among the Georgian leaders culminated in the battle at Lake Bazaleti in which the royal army won a decisive victory, driving Saakadze into exile to Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
where he was put to death in 1629 after serving a brief military career under Sultan
Sultan
Sultan is a title with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic language abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", and "dictatorship", derived from the masdar سلطة , meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be used as the title of certain rulers who...
Ibrahim I
Ibrahim I
Ibrahim I was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1640 until 1648. He was born in Istanbul the son of Ahmed I by Valide Sultan Kadinefendi Kösem Sultan, an ethnic Greek originally named Anastasia...
.
After the defeat of Saakadze and the death of Shah Abbas I in 1629, Teimuraz proceeded to strengthen his authority in eastern Georgia. He instigated Zurab of Aragvi to murder Semayun Khan
Simon II of Kartli
Simon II , also known as Svimon or Semayun Khan , was a Persian-appointed king of Kartli, eastern Georgia, from 1619 to 1630/1631.A son of Bagrat Khan, Simon was a Georgian convert to Islam...
, an Iranian-appointed rival king of Kartli in 1630, and then had Zurab assassinated, thereby getting rid of them both. By the early 1630s, Teimuraz I had gained more or less stable control of both Kartli and Kakheti. Determined to eliminate the Safavid hegemony over Georgia, Teimuraz sent his ambassador, Niciphores Irbachi
Nikoloz Cholokashvili
Nikoloz Cholokashvili , known in Europe as Niceforo Irbachi, , was a Georgian Orthodox priest, politician and diplomat....
, to Western Europe
Western Europe
Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...
and requested the aid from Philip IV of Spain
Philip IV of Spain
Philip IV was King of Spain between 1621 and 1665, sovereign of the Spanish Netherlands, and King of Portugal until 1640...
and Pope Urban VIII
Pope Urban VIII
Pope Urban VIII , born Maffeo Barberini, was pope from 1623 to 1644. He was the last pope to expand the papal territory by force of arms, and was a prominent patron of the arts and reformer of Church missions...
. However, the rulers of Europe were too involved in the Thirty Years' War
Thirty Years' War
The Thirty Years' War was fought primarily in what is now Germany, and at various points involved most countries in Europe. It was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history....
(1618-1648) to be concerned about the fate of a small Caucasian kingdom, and nothing came of this mission, the publication of the first Georgian printed book Dittionario giorgiano e italiano ("Georgian-Italian Dictionary"; Rome, 1629) by Stefano Paolini and Niciphores Irbachi being the only result of this embassy.
End of reign
Meanwhile, Teimuraz relations with the new Iranian shah, SafiSafi of Persia
Shah Safi was Shah of Iran from 1629 to 1642. He was the sixth ruler of the Safavid dynasty.Safi was given the name Sam Mirza when he was born. He was the son of Mohammed Baqir Mirza, the eldest son of Shah Abbas I, and Dilaram Khanum, a Georgian wife. In 1615, Abbas had Mohammed Baqir killed,...
, progressively deteriorated. In 1631, Teimuraz avenged the mountainous tribes of Dagestan
Dagestan
The Republic of Dagestan is a federal subject of Russia, located in the North Caucasus region. Its capital and the largest city is Makhachkala, located at the center of Dagestan on the Caspian Sea...
for having joined Shah Abbas in the destruction of Kakheti, and devastated several of their settlements (aul
Aul
An aul is a type of fortified village found throughout the Caucasus mountains, especially in Dagestan.The word itself is of Turkic origine and means simply village in many Turkic languages....
s). In 1633, he gave shelter to his brother-in-law Daud Khan
Daud Khan Undiladze
Daud-Khan an Iranian military commander and politician of Georgian origin who served as governor of Ganja and Karabakh from 1625 to 1630....
, the Iranian governor (beglarbeg) of Ganja
Ganja, Azerbaijan
Ganja is Azerbaijan's second-largest city with a population of around 313,300. It was named Yelizavetpol in the Russian Empire period. The city regained its original name—Ganja—from 1920–1935 during the first part of its incorporation into the Soviet Union. However, its name was changed again and...
and Karabakh
Karabakh
The Karabakh horse , also known as Karabakh, is a mountain-steppe racing and riding horse. It is named after the geographic region where the horse was originally developed, Karabakh in the Southern Caucasus, an area that is de jure part of Azerbaijan but the highland part of which is currently...
of Georgian extraction, who had fled Shah Safi’s crackdown on the family of his brother Imam-Quli Khan
Imam-Quli Khan
Imam-Quli Khan was an Iranian military and political leader of Georgian origin who served as a governor of Fars, Lar and Bahrain for the shahs Abbas I and Safi.-Biography:...
, the influential governor of Fars, Lar and Bahrain
Bahrain
' , officially the Kingdom of Bahrain , is a small island state near the western shores of the Persian Gulf. It is ruled by the Al Khalifa royal family. The population in 2010 stood at 1,214,705, including 235,108 non-nationals. Formerly an emirate, Bahrain was declared a kingdom in 2002.Bahrain is...
. Teimuraz refused to surrender the fugitive, and, fully appreciating the consequences of this refusal, gathered his forces in haste. Shah Safi retaliated by declaring Teimuraz deposed and replacing him with his favorite, a Muslim Georgian prince Rostom
Rostom of Kartli
Rostom or Rustam Khan was a ruler of Kartli, eastern Georgia, from 1633 until his death. Appointed by a Persian shah as a Wāli of Kartli, he styled himself king of kings and sovereign.- Life :...
, who had played an important role in consolidating Safi’s hold of power after Shah Abbas’s death.
Rostom led the Iranian army into Georgia and took control of Kartli and Kakheti in 1633. Teimuraz escaped into yet another exile to Imereti, but re-established himself in Kakheti in 1634. In 1638, through Rostom’s mediation, Teimuraz was pardoned and reconfirmed as king of Kakheti by the shah. He resumed his quest for alliance with Russia, however, and took an oath of allegiance to Tsar Michael on April 23, 1639, but the Russian protectorate never materialized in practice.
In 1641, Teimuraz, who was intent upon uniting all of eastern Georgia under his rule, backed a nobles' conspiracy against Rostom, which finally ruined his relations with the ruler of Kartli. The plot collapsed and the king of Kakheti, who had already advanced with his troops to the walls of Tbilisi
Tbilisi
Tbilisi is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Mt'k'vari River. The name is derived from an early Georgian form T'pilisi and it was officially known as Tiflis until 1936...
, Rostom’s capital, had to withdraw. In 1648, Rostom, joined by an Iranian force, marched against Kakheti and routed Teimuraz’s army at Magharo. Having lost his last surviving son, David, on the battlefield, Teimuraz fled to Imereti whence he endeavored to regain the crown with the Russian aid. He sent his grandson and the only heir, Heraclius
Erekle I of Kakheti
Heraclius I or Nazar Alī Khān , of the Bagrationi Dynasty, was a Georgian monarch who ruled the kingdoms of Kakheti and Kartli under the protection of the Safavid dynasty of Iran....
, to Moscow in 1653, and personally visited Tsar Alexis of Russia in June 1658.
In the meantime, Rostom’s willingness to cooperate with his Safavid suzerains won for Kartli a large measure of autonomy and relative peace and prosperity. However, the nobles and the populace of Kakheti continued to rally around the exiled Teimuraz in the hope of ending their subjection to Iran. In order to end resistance in Kakheti once and for all, Shah Abbas II
Abbas II of Persia
Shah Abbas II was Shah of Iran from 1642 to 1666. He was the seventh Shah of the Safavid Dynasty. He was the son of Shah Safi I and a Circassian, Anna Khanum, and originally bore the name Sultan Muhammed Mirza before his coronation on May 15, 1642...
revived a plan to populate the country with the Turkic nomads, a measure that incited a general uprising in 1659. The rebels succeeded in expelling the nomads but still had to grudgingly accept the shah’s suzerainty.
Unable to garner the Russian support for his cause, Teimuraz concluded that the prospects for recovering the crown were nil and returned to Imereti to retire to a monastery in 1661, the same year when Rostom’s successor to the throne of Kartli, Vakhtang V
Vakhtang V of Kartli
Vakhtang V was the king of Kartli from 1658 until his death, who ruled as a vassal wali for the Persian shah. He is also known under the name of Shah Nawaz, which he assumed on being obliged outwardly to conform to Islam.-Life:...
, crossed into western Georgia to enthrone his son, Archil
Archil of Imereti
Archil , was a Georgian prince of the Bagrationi Dynasty and poet. He ruled as king of Imereti in western Georgia and of Kakheti in eastern Georgia...
, as king of Imereti. Vakhtang V sent Teimuraz to Isfahan and the old Georgian ex-monarch was honorably received by Abbas II, but cast into prison when his grandson Heraclius returned from Russia and made a failed attempt at taking control of Kakheti. Teimuraz died in captivity at the fortress of Astarabad in January 1663. His remains were transported to Georgia and interred at the Alaverdi Cathedral.
Poetry
Teimuraz I’s literary works addresses a wide range of topics and includes his original poems as well as translations and adaptations from Persian. This king-poet had such a universal knowledge of Persian and Georgian literature and was so proud of his innovations into the Georgian poetry, that, in his old age, Teimuraz proclaimed himself the greatest poet of Georgia and thought himself superior to the celebrated medieval Georgian author Shota RustaveliShota Rustaveli
Shota Rustaveli was a Georgian poet of the 12th century, and one of the greatest contributors to Georgian literature. He is author of "The Knight in the Panther's Skin" , the Georgian national epic poem....
. Although no such claim has ever been accepted by the critics of Georgian literature, there can be no doubt that his courtly and rather mannered lyricism had a certain influence on the 17th-19th-century Georgian poetry. Educated at the Safavid court, he was proficiently fluent in Persian, and his poetic language was full of Persian imagery and allusions, loanwords, and phraseology. Commenting on his interest in Persian poetry, he wrote: "The sweetness of Persian speech urged me to compose the music of verse." During his first creative period, 1629-34, when he was relatively secure on his throne, Teimuraz translated and adapted from Persian the romances of Layla and Majnun
Layla and Majnun
Layla and Majnun, also known as The Madman and Layla – in Arabic مجنون ليلى or قيس وليلى , in , Leyli və Məcnun in Azeri, Leyla ile Mecnun in Turkish, in Urdu and Hindi – is a classical Arab story, popularized by Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi's...
(Georgian: ლეილმაჯნუნიანი, Leilmajnuniani), Yusuf and Zulaikha
Yusuf and Zulaikha
Yusuf and Zulaikha is the Quranic verse of Yusuf and Zulaikha . It has been told and retold countless times in many languages spoken by Muslims, especially Persian. Its most famous version was written in Persian by Jami , in his Haft Awrang...
(იოსებზილიხანიანი, Iosebzilikhaniani), The Rose and the Nightingale (ვარდბულბულიანი, Vardbulbuliani), and The Candle and the Moth (შამიფარვანიანი, Shamiparvaniani).
The second period, 1649-56, was in exile at the court of his brother-in-law, Alexander III of Imereti, when Teimuraz, in his own words, used poetry as therapy: "Tears flowed mercilessly like the Nile from my eyes. To overcome I wrote from time to time, I threw my heart into it." In his poems, Teimuraz laments the destruction of his kingdom, condemning the "transient and perfidious world", and mourns the fate of his family and friends, cursing the cause of his own and his people’s misfortunes, the "bloodthirsty king of Persia."
Teimuraz's most elaborate and painful poem, however, is his first, The Book and Passion of Queen Ketevan (წიგნი და წამება ქეთევან დედოფლისა, ts'igni da ts'ameba k'et'evan dedop'lisa) written in 1625, seven months after his mother, Ketevan
Ketevan the Martyr
Ketevan, "the Martyr" was a queen of Kakheti, a kingdom in eastern Georgia. She was killed at Shiraz, Iran, after prolonged tortures for refusing to give up the Christian faith and embrace Islam.-Life:...
, was martyred in Shiraz
Shiraz
Shiraz may refer to:* Shiraz, Iran, a city in Iran* Shiraz County, an administrative subdivision of Iran* Vosketap, Armenia, formerly called ShirazPeople:* Hovhannes Shiraz, Armenian poet* Ara Shiraz, Armenian sculptor...
on September 22, 1624. The poem, which in the words of Professor Donald Rayfield
Donald Rayfield
Donald Rayfield is professor of Russian and Georgian at Queen Mary, University of London. He is an author of books about Russian and Georgian literature, and about Joseph Stalin and his secret police...
proves that "whatever Georgia lost in the king, it gained in the poet", is influenced by the medieval Georgian hagiographic
Hagiography
Hagiography is the study of saints.From the Greek and , it refers literally to writings on the subject of such holy people, and specifically to the biographies of saints and ecclesiastical leaders. The term hagiology, the study of hagiography, is also current in English, though less common...
genre, vividly describing the tortures to which the queen mother is subjected after she refuses to follow Shah Abbas’s order to renounce Christianity. Teimuraz quotes her prayer to the Holy Trinity and the Archangel Gabriel for the strength to endure and spares the reader nothing of the horrors of Ketevan’s execution. Teimuraz's immediate source were the eyewitnesses of the event, the Augustinian missionaries from Iran, who brought the king his mother's remains. The same source is shared by another description of Ketevan's martyrdom, the classical tragedy Katharine von Georgien by the German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
author Andreas Gryphius
Andreas Gryphius
Andreas Gryphius was a German lyric poet and dramatist.Asteroid 496 Gryphia is named in his honour.-Life and career:...
(1657).
Family
Teimuraz I was married twice; first to Anna of the western Georgian princely house of GurieliGurieli
Gurieli was a Georgian noble family and a ruling dynasty of the southwestern Georgian province of Guria which was autonomous and later for a few centuries independent, as well as a few ducal rulers of the dynasty rose in the 17th-18th centuries to be kings of the whole western Caucasus in place...
(1606), and then to Khorashan of the Bagrationi branch of Kartli (1612).
He fathered three sons and two daughters:
By Anna
- PrinceBatonishviliBatonishvili was a title for princes and princesses of the blood royal in the Transcaucasian kingdom of Georgia, and was suffixed to the Christian name e.g., Alexandre Batonishvili, Ioane Batonishvili...
Leon (Levan) (1606-1624) - Prince Alexander (1609-1620)
Both of them were taken in hostage by Abbas I in 1614 and castrated in an act of revenge in 1620. The young princes did not survive the mutilation and died shortly thereafter.
By Khorashan
- Prince David (1612-1648), created Prince of MukhraniMukhraniMukhrani is a historical lowland district in eastern Georgia, currently within the borders of Mtskheta-Mtianeti region, north of the town of Mtskheta...
in 1627. He died in the battle with the Iranian army, and the dynasty was continued by his son, HeracliusErekle I of KakhetiHeraclius I or Nazar Alī Khān , of the Bagrationi Dynasty, was a Georgian monarch who ruled the kingdoms of Kakheti and Kartli under the protection of the Safavid dynasty of Iran....
. - Princess Darejan (died 1668), married successively to Duke Zurab of Aragvi (1623), Alexander III of ImeretiAlexander III of ImeretiAlexander III , of the Bagrationi Dynasty, was a king of Imereti from 1639 to 1660.Alexander succeeded upon the death of his father, George III of Imereti, in 1639. Most of his reign was spent in the struggle against the powerful prince of Mingrelia, Levan II Dadiani, who refused to acknowledge...
(1630), and Vakhtang of ImeretiVakhtang TchutchunashviliVakhtang Tchutchunashvili was a Georgian adventurer who usurped the crown of Imereti, western Georgia, in the years of 1660-1661 and 1668....
(1661), and notorious for her controversial role in the politics of western Georgia. - Princess T'inat'in (1611-1642). She married Shah Safi in 1637.
External links
ქართული ლიტერატურა: მეფე, თეიმურაზ I (A collection of Teimuraz I's poems). National Parliamentary Library of GeorgiaNational Parliamentary Library of Georgia
The National Parliamentary Library of Georgia is a governmental organization under the Parliament of Georgia. It is the main book depository of Georgia, as well as the most important cultural, educational, scientific, informational and methodological centre....
.