George ( ka, გიორგი, Giorgi; c. 1529 – 6 April 1561) 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 ('' batonishvili'') of the

royal house A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family,''Oxford English Dictionary'', "dynasty, ''n''." Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1897. usually in the context of a monarchy, monarchical system, but sometimes also appearing in repu ...

Kakheti Kakheti ( ka, კახეთი ''K’akheti''; ) is a region (mkhare) formed in the 1990s in eastern Georgia from the historical province of Kakheti and the small, mountainous province of Tusheti. Telavi is its capital. The region comprises eigh ...

, a son of King Levan of Kakheti by his second wife, a daughter of Kamal Kara-Musel,

Shamkhal of Tarki The Shamkhalate of Tarki, or Tarki Shamkhalate (also Shawhalate, or Shevkalate, ') was a Kumyk state in the eastern part of the North Caucasus, with its capital in the ancient town of Tarki. It formed on the territory populated by Kumyks and i ...

. He was killed in 1561 in a battle with the Safavid Iranian army, fighting on the side of his brother-in-law, King Simon I of Kartli.

Biography

George was born of Levan of Kakheti's second marriage to a daughter of Kamal Kara-Musel, the shamkhal of Tarku in

Dagestan Dagestan ( ; rus, Дагеста́н, , dəɡʲɪˈstan, links=yes), officially the Republic of Dagestan (russian: Респу́блика Дагеста́н, Respúblika Dagestán, links=no), is a republic of Russia situated in the North C ...

. He was the eldest of the fourteen children born of this union. According to the 18th-century Georgian historian Prince Vakhushti, Georgewas intended by his father as heir to the throne (Levan had disowned his children by his first marriage to

Tinatin Gurieli Tinatin Gurieli ( ka, თინათინ გურიელი; died 1591) was queen consort of Kakheti, a kingdom in eastern Georgia, as the first wife of King Levan. A daughter of Mamia I Gurieli, Prince of Guria, she married Levan c. 1520 a ...

). In 1561, Simon I of Kartli, ruler of a neighboring Georgian polity, offered Levan—his father-in-law—an alliance against the Safavid Iranian hegemony. Levan, anxious to preserve peace at home, was reluctant, but his son George volunteered with the Kakhetian army for Simon's cause. Arriving at Dzegvi to join the Kartlians, George's troops were attacked and annihilated, on the Easter Day on 6 April 1561, by the Safavid army under

Shahverdi Sultan Gokcheh Sultan Ziyadoghlu Qajar ( fa, گکچه سلطان زیاداوغلی قاجار), better known as Shahverdi Sultan (), was a Safavid military leader of Turkoman origin, who served as the governor of Karabakh and Ganja during the reign of ...

, a Qajar

beylerbey ''Beylerbey'' ( ota, بكلربكی, beylerbeyi, lit=bey of beys, meaning the 'commander of commanders' or 'lord of lords') was a high rank in the western Islamic world in the late Middle Ages and early modern period, from the Anatolian Seljuks ...

of Karabakh, at the battle of Tsikhedidi. George himself was killed in action.

Family

Prince George was married to an anonymous daughter of King Luarsab I of Kartli. He had three sons, George, Vakhtang, and Khosro. Not much is known about them. Khosro was married to the certain Mariam.

Ancestry

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:George, Prince of Kakheti (died 1561) 1520s births 1561 deaths Bagrationi dynasty of the Kingdom of Kakheti Georgian princes People from Kakheti Military personnel killed in action 16th-century people from Georgia (country) Heirs apparent who never acceded