Alexander ( ka, ალექსანდრე, ''Alek'sandre'') or Eskandar-Mirza ( fa, اسکندرمیرزا) ( – 27 September 1711) was a

Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...

prince royal (''

batonishvili ''Batonishvili'' ( ka, ბატონიშვილი) (literally "a child of batoni (lord or sovereign)" in Georgian) is a title for royal princes and princesses who descend from the kings of Georgia from the Bagrationi dynasty and is suffixe ...

'') of the Bagratid

House of Mukhrani The House of Mukhrani is a Georgian princely family that is a branch of the former royal dynasty of Bagrationi, from which it sprang early in the 16th century, receiving in appanage the domain of Mukhrani, in the Kingdom of Kartli. The family — ...

Kartli Kartli ( ka, ქართლი ) is a historical region in central-to-eastern Georgia traversed by the river Mtkvari (Kura), on which Georgia's capital, Tbilisi, is situated. Known to the Classical authors as Iberia, Kartli played a crucial role ...

. He was killed fighting in the Safavid Iranian ranks against the

Afghan Afghan may refer to: *Something of or related to Afghanistan, a country in Southern-Central Asia *Afghans, people or citizens of Afghanistan, typically of any ethnicity ** Afghan (ethnonym), the historic term applied strictly to people of the Pas ...

rebels.

Biography

According to the 18th-century historian and Alexander's close relative

Prince Vakhushti Vakhushti ( ka, ვახუშტი, tr) (1696–1757) was a Georgian royal prince (''batonishvili''), geographer, historian and cartographer. His principal historical and geographic works, ''Description of the Kingdom of Georgia'' and the ''Geo ...

, Alexander was a son of Prince Luarsab, son of King

Vakhtang V of Kartli Vakhtang V ( ka, ვახტანგ V), born Bakhuta Mukhranbatoni ( ka, ბახუტა მუხრანბატონი) (1618 – September 1675), was the King of Kartli (eastern Georgia) from 1658 until his death, who ruled as a vas ...

(Shah Nawaz Khan). Alternatively, based on the account of Sekhnia Chkheidze, a contemporary historian and a companion of the Georgian royals to Iran, Alexander is considered by the historians

Marie-Félicité Brosset Marie-Félicité Brosset (24 January 1802 – 3 September 1880) was a French orientalist who specialized in Georgian and Armenian studies. He worked mostly in Russia. Early life and first works Marie-Félicité Brosset was born in Paris int ...

and

Cyril Toumanoff Cyril Leo Toumanoff (russian: Кирилл Львович Туманов; 13 October 1913 – 4 February 1997) was a Russian-born Georgian historian and genealogist who mostly specialized in the history and genealogies of medieval Georgia, Armenia, ...

to have been a son of

Levan of Kartli Levan ( ka, ლევანი), also known by his Muslim name Shah-Qoli Khan () (born c. 1653 – 30 May 1709) was a Georgian royal prince (''batonishvili'') and the fourth son of the king of Kartli Shahnawaz (Vakhtang V). He was a titular kin ...

(Shah Quli Khan), Vakhtang V's another son. At that time, the Kingdom of Kartli was under the Safavid vassalage and several Georgian royals occupied important positions in the Iranian military. So did Alexander, who served as a lieutenant to his uncle George XI (Gurgin Khan), a commander-in-chief of the Safavid armies, first in

Kerman Kerman ( fa, كرمان, Kermân ; also romanization of Persian, romanized as Kermun and Karmana), known in ancient times as the satrapy of Carmania, is the capital city of Kerman Province, Iran. At the 2011 census, its population was 821,394, in ...

and then in Afghanistan, where an anti-Iranian rebellion of the

Pashtun Pashtuns (, , ; ps, پښتانه, ), also known as Pakhtuns or Pathans, are an Iranian ethnic group who are native to the geographic region of Pashtunistan in the present-day countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan. They were historically re ...

and Baloch tribes was in progress. The rebel leader

Mir Wais Hotak Mir Ways ibn Shah 'Alam, also known as Mirwais Khan Hotak (Pashto/Dari: ) (1673–1715) was an Afghan ruler from the Ghilji tribe of Kandahar, Afghanistan, and the founder of the Hotak dynasty. In 1709, after overthrowing and assassinating Geor ...

capitalized on the absence of the Georgian troops under Alexander on a raid into a recalcitrant tribal area, murdered Gurgin Khan in

Kandahar Kandahar (; Kandahār, , Qandahār) is a List of cities in Afghanistan, city in Afghanistan, located in the south of the country on the Arghandab River, at an elevation of . It is Afghanistan's second largest city after Kabul, with a population ...

and took control of that city in April 1709. The detachment under Alexander was able to fight its way back to Iran through

Khorasan Khorasan may refer to: * Greater Khorasan, a historical region which lies mostly in modern-day northern/northwestern Afghanistan, northeastern Iran, southern Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan * Khorasan Province, a pre-2004 province of Ira ...

. In 1711, the Safavid government dispatched yet another Georgian royal,

Kaikhosro of Kartli Kaikhosro (also spelled Kay Khusrau, Kai Khusraw; ka, ქაიხოსრო) (January 1, 1674 – September 27, 1711), of the House of Bagrationi, was a titular king (a Persian-appointed wali) of Kartli, eastern Georgia, from 1709 to 1711. He ...

(Kay Khusraw Khan), at the head of a new army, in which Alexander commanded a 2,000-strong Georgian contingent. This army besieged the rebels in Kandahar, but the Afghans resisted successfully. Alexander was killed during the siege and Kaikhosro fell on his disastrous retreat from Kandahar. The same fate would befall on another member of Alexander's family, Rostom (Rustam Khan), in 1722.

References

1680s births 1711 deaths House of Mukhrani (royal line) Georgian princes Safavid generals Iranian people of Georgian descent 17th-century people from Georgia (country) 18th-century people from Georgia (country) 17th-century people of Safavid Iran 18th-century people of Safavid Iran {{Georgia-noble-stub