Bektash Khan ( fa, بکتاش خان), also known as Bektash Khan Gorji ( fa, links=no, بکتاش خان گرجی) (died 1639), was a

Safavid Safavid Iran or Safavid Persia (), also referred to as the Safavid Empire, '. was one of the greatest Iranian empires after the 7th-century Muslim conquest of Persia, which was ruled from 1501 to 1736 by the Safavid dynasty. It is often conside ...

official and ''

gholam Ghulam ( ar, غلام, ) is an Arabic word meaning ''servant'', ''assistant'', ''boy'', or ''youth''. It is used to describe young servants in paradise. It is also used to refer to slave-soldiers in the Abbasid, Ottoman, Safavid and to a lesse ...

'' who served as the governor (''beglarbeg'') of

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...

between 1631 and 1638, during the reign of

Shah Shah (; fa, شاه, , ) is a royal title that was historically used by the leading figures of Iranian monarchies.Yarshater, EhsaPersia or Iran, Persian or Farsi, ''Iranian Studies'', vol. XXII no. 1 (1989) It was also used by a variety of ...

(King) Safi (r. 1629–1642). His tenure was brought to an end in 1638 when the Ottomans captured the city during the ongoing Ottoman-Safavid War of 1623-39.

Biography

Bektash Khan was a member of the

Mirimanidze The Mirimanidze ("sons of Miriman") were a Georgian noble family of Armenian ethnicity whose members rose in prominence in the service of Safavid Iran. Hailing from Somkhiti, the clan produced numerous high-ranking figures in the Safavid state, an ...

clan, whose members had steadily risen through the Safavid ranks with the advent of the reign of Shah Abbas I (1588-1629), but had held influential positions priorly as well. After the death of his nephew Safiqoli Khan (Mirman Mirimanidze), Bektash Khan succeeded him to the governorship of Baghdad. Bektash Khan made considerable repairs to the fortifications that were damaged in the previous sieges. He also built extensive outworks to prevent the enemy from approaching the walls. During the decisive Ottoman siege of 1638, Bektash Khan offered tough resistance, and it took them almost six weeks to take the city. Bektash Khan died a year after the fall of Baghdad; the modern historian Giorgio Rota notes that he died either by suicide, being murdered on order of Ottoman

Sultan Sultan (; ar, سلطان ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it ...

Murad IV Murad IV ( ota, مراد رابع, ''Murād-ı Rābiʿ''; tr, IV. Murad, was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1623 to 1640, known both for restoring the authority of the state and for the brutality of his methods. Murad IV was born in Cons ...

, poisoned by his wife or of natural causes.

References

Sources

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mirimanidze, Bektash Khan Bektash 1639 deaths Iranian people of Georgian descent Persian Armenians Safavid governors of Baghdad Ethnic Armenian Shia Muslims Shia Muslims from Georgia (country) Safavid generals 17th-century people of Safavid Iran Safavid ghilman