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Georgia and the Fall of the Ṣafavi Dynasty

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

D. M. Lang
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Extract

Contemporary accounts of the events which led up to the Afghan conquest of Persia in 1722 ascribe some importance to the role played by the Georgians in this catastrophe. The well-known narrative of Jonas Hanway and reports of Catholic missionaries, European travellers, and Consular agents, together with the published documents from Russian archives, indicate that the deterioration of relations between the Shah and the King of K'art'li was among the factors which assisted Mīr Maḥmūd's enterprise. In the present brief study, the archives of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the Quai d'Orsay, as well as Georgian sources, have been drawn on to sketch the history of Georgian relations with the government of Shah Sulṭān Ḥusayn, and follow up some suggestive indications contained in Professor Minorsky's own writings.

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Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 14 , Issue 3 , October 1952 , pp. 523 - 539
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Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1952

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References

page 523 note 1 The writer acknowledges with gratitude the facilities granted to him by the Library and Archive departments of the Ministry.

page 523 note 2 Article ‘Tiflis’ in E.I.; Tadhkirat al-mulūk, London, 1943, pp. 18–19, 23–4Google Scholar, and passim.

page 523 note 3 Berdzenishvili, N., Javakhishvili, I., and Janashia, S., Istoriya Gruzii, i, Tiflis, 1946, p. 354Google Scholar; Minorsky, , Tadhkirat al-mulūk, pp. 18, 112–13Google Scholar; Olearius, , Voyages and Travels, 2nd ed., London, 1669, p. 263Google Scholar. References to their deported compatriots in Iran are found in a number of Georgian writers: lona Khelashvili (d. 1837) composed a prayer, ‘Seek out, O Lord, the blood of Iberia, shed from the time of Mirian up till now, and lead back the people from Feriet'i [Firaydan]’ (Batonishvili, Ioann, Kalmasoba, ed. Dondua, , Tiflis, 1945, p. xx)Google Scholar. An interesting account of a visit to the Georgian villages in Persia was published by Lado Aghniashvili under the title ‘Sparset'i da ik'auri k'art'velebi’ in the journal Moambe, Tiflis, 1896Google Scholar. The late Y. N. Marr was able to collect a number of specimens of the Persianized Georgian spoken there, with details of the way of life in these villages (summary in Nikitin, B., ‘The Life and Work of Y. N. Marr, Jun.,’ in Georgica, 4–5, 1937, pp. 284–5).Google Scholar

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page 525 note 1 Martinière, Bruzen la, Introduction à l'Histoire de l'Asie, 2nd ed., Amsterdam, 1739, i, pp. 426–8Google Scholar. This passage is a summary of Chardin, , Voyages en Perse, Amsterdam, 1711, vi, pp. 15–18.Google Scholar

page 525 note 2 Don Juan of Persia, ed. Le Strange, G., London (Broadway Travellers), 1926, p. 209.Google Scholar

page 525 note 3 A Chronicle of the Carmelites in Persia, London, 1939, i, p. 160.Google Scholar

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page 525 note 6 Les voyages et observations du Sieur de la Boullaye-le-Gouz, Paris, 1657, p. 127.Google Scholar

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page 526 note 1 Minorsky, , Tadhkirat al-mulūk, p. 113.Google Scholar

page 526 note 2 Voyages et observations, pp. 93–5, 111.Google Scholar

page 526 note 3 Tavernier, J.-B., Voyages en Perse, ed. Pia, P., Paris, 1930, pp. 125, 222.Google Scholar

page 526 note 4 Voyages et observations, p. 75.Google Scholar

page 526 note 5 Voyages en Perse, ed. Pia, p. 229.Google Scholar

page 526 note 6 Fryer, , East India and Persia, ii, p. 290.Google Scholar

page 526 note 7 ‘Extraits de l'histoire de Pharsadan Giorgidjanidze,’ in Brosset, , Histoire de la Géorgie, ii, 1Google Scholar, add. vi. There is a more recent edition of the Georgian text by S. Kakabadze, published by the University of Tiflis, 1924.

page 526 note 8 Fryer, , East India and Persia, ii, p. 290.Google Scholar

page 526 note 9 Gemelli-Careri, Giovanni Francesco, Voyage round the worldGoogle Scholar, in Churchill, , Collection of Voyages and Travels, London, 1732, iv, pp. 119–120.Google Scholar

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page 527 note 2 Minorsky, V., Tadhkirat al-mulūk, p. 24Google Scholar; Mattinière, Bruzen la, Introduction à l'Histoire de l'Asie, i, pp. 440–5.Google Scholar

page 527 note 3 Wakhusht, , Histoire du KarthliGoogle Scholar, in Brosset, , Histoire de la Georgie, ii, 1, pp. 97–8Google Scholar; Clairac, La Mamye, Histoire de Perse depuis le commencement de ce Siècle, Paris, 1750, i, bk. 1Google Scholar; Krusinski, Father T., Revolutions of Persia (ed. Du Cerceau, ), 2nd ed., London, 1740, i, pp. 143–4Google Scholar; Hanway, , Revolutions of Persia, London, 1753, pp. 26–7.Google Scholar

page 527 note 4 Sekhnia Chkheidze, in Brosset, , Histoire de la, Géorgie, ii, 2, pp. 16–23.Google Scholar

page 528 note 1 Chkheidze, Sekhnia, Chronique, p. 25.Google Scholar

page 528 note 2 Archives of the French Foreign Ministry, Correspondance Politique, Perse, vi, 1721–1725.Google Scholar

page 528 note 3 This memorandum is quite distinct from the official report of the Ambassador, Aḥmad Durrī Efendi, which was translated into Latin by Krusinski under the title: Prodromus ad Tragicam vertentis belli Persici Historiam, Leopoli (Typis Coll: Soc: Jesu), 1734, and into French by Langlès, under the title: Relation de Dourry Efendy, Ambassadeur de la Porte Ottomane auprès du Boi de Perse, Paris, 1810.Google Scholar (See the bibliography in Babinger, , Die Geschichtsschreiber der Osmanen, Leipzig, 1927, p. 326.)Google Scholar

page 528 note 4 La Mamye Clairac was personally acquainted with Joseph, who assisted him in his researches (Histoire de Perse, i, p. vi).Google Scholar Hanway drew freely on La Mamye Clairac's work, and thus made use of Joseph's information at second hand. In addition to Joseph's French chronicle, a Turkish version of his memoirs was made for the Grand Vazīr, a manuscript of which is preserved in the Hunterian Library of the University of Glasgow. A summary of this was published by Weir, T. H., ‘The Revolution in Persia at the beginning of the 18th century,’ in A Volume of Oriental Studies presented to Edward G. Browne, Cambridge, 1922, pp. 480–490.Google Scholar (For details of Joseph's life, see p. 481 of this article.) (I owe this indication to Professor B. Lewis.)

page 529 note 1 A detailed account of the various editions and adaptations of Krusinski's memoirs is given in Estreicher, K., Bibliografia Polska, xx, Krakow, 1905, pp. 304–6Google Scholar, and in Babinger, F., Stambuler Buchwesen im 18. Jahrhundert, Leipzig, 1919, pp. 13–14.Google Scholar Babinger does not, however, make it sufficiently clear here that the narrative of Durrī Efendi, translated by Krusinski as Prodromus ad Tragicam vertentis belli Persici Historiam, is quite separate and distinct from Krusinski's own memoirs, both the Du Cerceau compilation and the ‘Ta'rīkh-i-Sayyāḥ’.

page 529 note 2 The copy of the combined work in the British Museum is bound in one volume. First appears the Prodromus, stated on the title-page to be the second edition and printed at Lemberg in 1740; this is followed by the Latin memoirs of Krusinski, Tragica Vertentis belli Persici Historia, which have a separate title-page, uniform with that of the Prodromus. This juxtaposition is highly appropriate, since Durrī Efendi predicts in his report the impending doom of the Persian monarchy.

page 529 note 3 Soymonov, Th. I., Opisanie Kaspiyskogo morya i chinennīkh na onom rossiyskikh zavoevaniy, ed. Müller, G. F., St. Petersburg, 1763.Google Scholar

page 530 note 1 According to the account of Ismā'īl Beg, relations between the Persian and Georgian contingents were exceedingly bad, which accounted for the disbanding of the former. This source gives the numbers of the Persian troops as 12,000 (Soymonov, , Opisanie, p. 137).Google Scholar

page 530 note 2 It emerges from the account of Sekhnia Chkheidze that Mīr Vays pretended for a time to co-operate with the Georgians, and was not sent to Isfahan until 1706, two years after Giorgi's occupation of Qandahār (Brosset, , Histoire de la Géorgie, ii, 2, p. 26).Google Scholar

page 530 note 3 Archives of the French Foreign Ministry, Perse, vi, pp. 263–4.Google Scholar This passage was paraphrased by Clairac, La Mamye, Histoire de Perse, i, p. 22.Google Scholar

page 530 note 4 Archives of the French Foreign Ministry, Perse, vi, p. 254.Google Scholar

page 531 note 1 Archives of the French Foreign Ministry, Perse, viGoogle Scholar, chronicle of Joseph; Clairac, La Mamye, Histoire de Perse, i, pp. 31–4, 43–6Google Scholar; Krusinski, , Revolutions, i, p. 159Google Scholar; Chronicles of a Traveller, trans. Mitford, pp. 34–9Google Scholar; Martinière, Brazen la, Introduction à l'Histoire de l'Asie, i, pp. 446–450.Google Scholar

page 531 note 2 Chronicle of the Carmelites in Persia, pp. 564–8Google Scholar; Chronicles of a Traveller, trans. Mitford, pp. 42–4.Google Scholar

page 531 note 3 Archives of the French Foreign Ministry, Perse, vi, pp. 254–5.Google Scholar

page 532 note 1 Cf. the account of the disaster given in Joseph's Turkish narrative, as summarized by Weir, T. H., A Volume of Oriental Studies presented to Edward G. Browne, p. 484.Google Scholar

page 532 note 2 Wakhusht, , Histoire du Karthli, pp. 102–3Google Scholar; Chkheidze, Sekhnia, Chronique, pp. 29–30.Google Scholar The Chronicles of a Traveller, trans. Mitford, p. 46Google Scholar, also speak of a surprise attack.

page 532 note 3 Soymonov, , Opisanie, p. 138.Google Scholar

page 533 note 1 These allegations, first made by Krusinski, are discussed by Clairac, La Mamye, i, pp. 93–4.Google Scholar See also the Turkish recension of Krusinski, in Mitford, 's translation, Chronicles of a Traveller, p. 54.Google Scholar

page 533 note 2 The Georgians also lost a number of men in guerilla warfarẹ, including K'aikhosro's cousin Alexander (Soymonov, , Opisanie, p. 142Google Scholar; Chkheidze, Sekhnia, Chronique, p. 31).Google Scholar

page 533 note 3 Prince Wakhusht notes that even K'aikhosro's brother lese deserted him on the battlefield and fled (Histoire du Karthli, p. 108).Google Scholar

page 533 note 4 Archives of the French Foreign Ministry, Perse, vi, pp. 268–9Google Scholar, ‘Memoir of the Georgian scribe Joseph’. For further details of the Afghan revolt, see Lockhart, L., Nadir Shah, London, pp. 2–3Google Scholar; La Mamye Clairac, bk. ii; SirMalcolm, John, History of Persia, i, pp. 601–611.Google Scholar There exists a brochure of the time, more curious than veracious, entitled: ‘The Persian Cromwell, being An Account of the Life and Surprizing Atchievements and Successes of Miri-Ways, Great Duke of Candahar, and Protector of the Persian Empire, written by a Swedish Officer who, for many years, was Domestick Slave to Miri-Ways,’ London, 1724. It would be interesting to trace the authorship of this odd compound of fact and fancy, copies of which are in the India Office and Cambridge University Libraries. Professor B. Lewis points out to me that the Danish dramatist and historian Ludvig Holberg included a biography of Mir Vays in his Helles Sammenlignede Historier (1739).Google Scholar This account derives principally from Krusinski. (Ludvig Holbergs Samlede Skrifter, Bind 11, Copenhagen, 1931, pp. 325–354Google Scholar: ‘Myrr-Weis, Myrr-Maghmud.’)

page 534 note 1 Letter of the missionary Père Pierre d'Issoudun, Archives of the French Foreign Ministry, Perse, iii, pp. 170–1.Google Scholar

page 534 note 2 aWakhusht, , Histoire du Karthli, pp. 111–13Google Scholar; Archives of the French Foreign Ministry, Perse, iii, pp. 19–47Google Scholar; Brosset, , ‘Documents originaux sur les relations diplomatiques de la Géorgie avec la France,’ in Nouveau Journal Asiatique, 1832Google Scholar; Tamarati, M., L'Eglise Géorgienne, Rome, 1910, pp. 592–605Google Scholar; Lang, D. M., ‘Georgian Relations with France during the reign of Wakhtang VI,’ in J.R.A.S., 10, 1950.Google Scholar

page 534 note 3 On lese's incompetence, cf. a farmān addressed to him by the Shah in 1714, published in Aktï sobrannïe Kavkaz. Arkh. Kom., i, Tiflis, 1866, pp. 70–1.Google Scholar

page 535 note 1 Lebedev, V. I., ‘Posol'stvo Artemiya Volīnskogo v Persiyu,’ in Izvestiya Akad. Nauk S.S.S.R., Ser. Ist. Fil., V, 1948, No. 6, pp. 528–539Google Scholar; Solov'ev, S. M., Istoriya Rossii, 2nd ed., bk. iv, pp. 665–6Google Scholar; Minorsky, V., Tadhkirat al-mulūk, p. 19Google Scholar; Sumner, B. H., Peter the Great and the Emergence of Russia, London, 1950, p. 175.Google Scholar

page 535 note 2 Muḥammad Muḥsin, quoted by Lockhart, , Nadir Shah, pp. 3–4.Google Scholar The Turkish Ambassador who visited Persia in 1720 also commented trenchantly on the incompetence of the Persian ministers: ‘Enfin le malheur et la disgrace se sont attachés à eux, la tristesse est toujours peinte sur leur visage, et ils disent tous d'une commune voix et ouvertement: le Cheykh Oghlou, c'est-à-dire le chah, a fourni sa carrière, son empire est perdu, il touche au terme fatal’ (Relation de Dourry Efendy, ed. Langlès, , Paris, 1810, p. 55).Google Scholar

page 535 note 3 Wakhusht, , Histoire du Karthli, pp. 115–16Google Scholar; ‘Dispatches from the French consul Padéry’, J.R.A.S., 1950, p. 125.Google Scholar Sekhnia Chkheidze places the defeat of the Beglarbegī in the following year.

page 536 note 1 Chkheidze, Sekhnia, Chronique, p. 35Google Scholar; Krusinski, , Revolutions, i, p. 269Google Scholar; Krusinski, , Tragica Vertentis belli Persici Historia, pp. 147–9.Google Scholar

page 536 note 2 Carmelites, i, pp. 556–7Google Scholar; Clairac, La Mamye, i, pp. 143–6.Google Scholar

page 536 note 3 Martinière, Bruzen La, Introduction à l'Histoire de l'Asie, i, p. 465.Google Scholar

page 536 note 4 Butkov, P. G., Materialï dlya novoy istorii Kavkaza, s 1722 po 1803 god, St. Petersburg, 1869, pp. 3–9, 17Google Scholar; Clairac, La Mamye, i, pp. 202–9.Google Scholar Peter the Great's manifesto states the Russian merchants to have been despoiled in 1712; whether this refers to a different incident, or is simply a slip, it is hard to say. At any rate, it is scarcely conceivable that the report on Russian commercial losses sent to St. Petersburg by the Governor of Astrakhan in September, 1721, could refer to events that happened in 1712 (cf. Butkov, , i, p. 3Google Scholar, note). For further details of the sack, see the letter of the Baehoud, Père, in Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses: Mémoires du Levant, iv, Paris, 1780, pp. 113–124.Google Scholar

page 536 note 5 Brosset, , Perepiska Gruzinskikh Tsarey s Bossiyskimi Gosudaryami, St. Petersburg, 1861, p. 138Google Scholar; Brosset, , ‘Notice, historique sur les trois dernières années du règne de Wakhtang VI,’ in Bulletin Historico-Philologique, iii, St. Petersburg, 1847, pp. 323–5Google Scholar; Solov'ev, , Istoriya Rossii, iv, p. 703.Google Scholar

page 537 note 1 ‘Mémoire sur la dernière révolution de Perse,’ in Archives of the French Foreign Ministry, Perse, vi, p. 353.Google Scholar

page 537 note 2 ‘Relation de la bataille des Perses avec les Arrevans,’ from Consul Gardanne, 19th March, 1722, in Perse, vi, pp. 148–9.Google Scholar

page 537 note 3 Perse, vi, pp. 277–8.Google Scholar Cf. Clairac, La Mamye, i, pp. 238–245Google Scholar; Chronicles of a Traveller, trans. Mitford, pp. 94–5Google Scholar; T. H. Weir's summary of the Turkish narrative by Joseph, in A Volume of Oriental Studies presented to Edward G. Browne, pp. 486–8.Google Scholar

page 537 note 4 Clairac, La Mamye, i, p. 295.Google Scholar

page 538 note 1 Krusinski, , Tragica Vertentis belli Persici Historia, p. 150.Google Scholar

page 538 note 2 Chkheidze, Sekhnia, Chronique, p. 36.Google Scholar

page 538 note 3 Krusinski, , Revolutions, i, p. 198.Google Scholar

page 538 note 4 Archives of the French Foreign Ministry, Perse, vi, p. 184Google Scholar: Gardanne to the French Secretary of State, 16th June, 1722. Krusinski, (Tragica, Vertentis belli Persici Historia, p. 151)Google Scholar asserts that Mīr Maḥmūd had promised his troops that he would raise the siege of Isfahan if Wakhtang set out, and points out that Georgia's best interests would have been served by this course of action.

page 538 note 5 See the very complete account in Lockhart, Nadir Shah, pp. 8–16.Google Scholar Extracts from the British factory records in the India Office, describing the Afghan invasion, are printed in the Asiatic Quarterly Review, ii, 1886.Google Scholar

page 538 note 6 Wakhtang's accommodating brother lese, however, governed for a time on behalf of the Turks under the title of Muṣṭafā Pāshā.

page 539 note 1 Introduction, pp. 23–4.