Aghsartan I ( ka, აღსართან I; died 1084) was a

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

of Kakheti and Hereti in eastern

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

from 1058 until his death in 1084.

Life

He succeeded on the death of his father

Gagik of Kakheti Gagik ( ka, გაგიკი) (died 1058) was a King of Kakheti and Hereti in eastern Georgia from 1039 to 1058. Life He was a son of the Armenian Bagratid king David I of Lorri and his Georgian wife, sister of King Kvirike III of Kakheti w ...

. His reign coincided with the Seljuk invasions in the Georgian lands and persistent attempts by the Georgian Bagratid kings to bring all Georgian polities into their unified realm. In 1068, Aghsartan submitted to the Seljuk sultan

Alp Arslan Alp Arslan was the second Sultan of the Seljuk Empire and great-grandson of Seljuk, the eponymous founder of the dynasty. He greatly expanded the Seljuk territory and consolidated his power, defeating rivals to the south and northwest, and his v ...

, agreed to pay tribute, and secured the Turkish support against King

Bagrat IV of Georgia Bagrat IV ( ka, ბაგრატ IV; 101824 November 1072), of the Bagrationi dynasty, was the King of Georgia from 1027 to 1072. During his long and eventful reign, Bagrat sought to repress the great nobility and to secure Georgia's sovereign ...

who had seized part of the Kakhetian territory. He continued his struggle against the centralizing policy of the Georgian crown under Bagrat’s successor

George II George II or 2 may refer to: People * George II of Antioch (seventh century AD) * George II of Armenia (late ninth century) * George II of Abkhazia (916–960) * Patriarch George II of Alexandria (1021–1051) * George II of Georgia (1072–1089) * ...

and allied himself with the rebellious Liparitid clan, but then transferred his loyalty to George and helped him counter the feudal opposition, and then fight the 1074 invasion by the Seljuk sultan

Malik Shah I Jalāl al-Dawla Mu'izz al-Dunyā Wa'l-Din Abu'l-Fatḥ ibn Alp Arslān (8 August 1055 – 19 November 1092, full name: fa, ), better known by his regnal name of Malik-Shah I ( fa, ), was the third sultan of the Great Seljuk Empire from 1072 to ...

. However, when George II made peace with the sultan early in the 1080s, the latter recognized the king of Georgia as the only legitimate master of Kakheti and gave him a Seljuk force to conquer the region. George, at the head of a combined Georgian-Seljuk army, laid a siege to the Kakhetian fortress of Vezhini, but failed to take it and withdrew. Aghsartan immediately seized the opportunity to pledge his loyalty to the Seljuks, went to Malik Shah and embraced

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

, thus winning a Seljuk protection against the aspirations of the king of Georgia. He died in 1084, and was succeeded by his son Kvirike IV.

References

* Toumanoff, Cyrille (1976, Rome). Manuel de Généalogie et de Chronologie pour le Caucase chrétien (Arménie, Géorgie, Albanie). * Вахушти Багратиони
История царства грузинского. Возникновение и жизнь Кахети и Эрети. Ч.1.
1084 deaths Kings of Kakheti and Hereti Converts to Islam from Eastern Orthodoxy Former Georgian Orthodox Christians Muslims from Georgia (country) Year of birth unknown {{Georgia-royal-stub