Vakhtang I Gurieli ( ka, ვახტანგ I გურიელი; died 1587), of the

House of Gurieli The House of Gurieli () was a Georgian princely (''mtavari'') family and a ruling dynasty (dukes) of the southwestern Georgian province of Guria, which was autonomous and later, for a few centuries, independent. A few ducal rulers of the dynasty ...

, was

Prince of Guria The Principality of Guria ( ka, გურიის სამთავრო, tr) was a historical state in Georgia. Centered on modern-day Guria, a southwestern region in Georgia, it was located between the Black Sea and Lesser Caucasus, and was r ...

from 1583 to 1587. He ruled Guria, a small state in southwestern Georgia, as a client of Mamia IV Dadiani,

Prince of Mingrelia Principalities Princes and dukes of Guria * Kakhaber I Gurieli c. 1385–1410 *Mamia Gurieli c. 1450–1469 *Kakhaber II Gurieli 1469–1483 * Giorgi I Gurieli 1483–1512 *Mamia I Gurieli 1512–1534 *Rostom Gurieli 1534–1564 *Giorgi II Guriel ...

, who had deposed

Giorgi II Gurieli Giorgi II Gurieli ( ka, გიორგი II გურიელი; died 1600), of the House of Gurieli, was Prince of Guria from 1564 to 1583 and again from 1587 to 1600. Succeeding on the death of his father Rostom Gurieli, Giorgi's rule over hi ...

. Vakhtang was one of the sponsors of the

Shemokmedi Monastery The Shemokmedi monastery ( ka, შემოქმედის მონასტერი) is a Georgian Orthodox monastery located at the village of Shemokmedi in Georgia's southwestern region of Guria. Founded in the 15th century, the Shemokmed ...

, Guria's principal cathedral.

Biography

The ancestry of Vakhtang Gurieli is poorly documented.

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 ...

's chronicle, one of the principal sources on Georgia's early modern history, refers to him as being "of a Gurieli stock", without elucidating his parentage. Contemporary documents suggest Vakhtang might have been a son of

Rostom Gurieli Rostom Gurieli ( ka, როსტომ გურიელი; died 1564), of the House of Gurieli, was Prince of Guria from 1534 until his death in 1564. Alongside his royal suzerain, Bagrat III of Imereti, Rostom fought against the expanding Ottom ...

and brother of

, a genealogy accepted in mainstream Georgian scholarship. On the other hand, the historian

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, ...

regarded him as a son of Giorgi II Gurieli. Vakhtang was installed as prince-regnant of Guria by the neighboring ruler, Mamia IV Dadiani, Prince of Mingrelia, who had invaded Guria and expelled his brother-in-law Giorgi II Gurieli in 1583. Prior to his accession, Vakhtang was in possession of the canton of

Kobuleti Kobuleti ( ka, ქობულეთი ) is a town in Adjara, western Georgia, situated on the eastern coast of the Black Sea. It is the seat of Kobuleti Municipality and a seaside resort, visited annually by Georgians and many former Soviet Unio ...

. Giorgi Gurieli fled to

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...

to solicit the Ottoman support. He was in the Ottoman-controlled town of

Gonio Gonio fortress ( ka, გონიოს ციხე, previously called Apsarus or Apsaros ( grc, Ἄψαρος) and Apsyrtus or Apsyrtos (Ἄψυρτος)) is a Roman fortification in Adjara, Georgia, on the Black Sea, 15 km south of Batumi, ...

in 1587, when Vakhtang died, enabling Giorgi to reclaim Guria with the help of the Ottoman government. Vakhtang was buried at the Transfiguration Church in the Shemokmedi Monastery, which he had built. He married, in 1583, Tamar (born 1561), a daughter of

Kaikhosro II Jaqeli Kaikhosro II Jaqeli ( ka, ქაიხოსრო II ჯაყელი; b. 1522 – d. 1573), of the House of Jaqeli, son of Qvarqvare III, was prince of Samtskhe (styled with the hereditary title of atabeg), ruling nominally in 1545–1573. I ...

atabag Atabeg, Atabek, or Atabey is a hereditary title of nobility of Turkic origin, indicating a governor of a nation or province who was subordinate to a monarch and charged with raising the crown prince. The first instance of the title's use was wit ...

Samtskhe Meskheti ( ka, მესხეთი) or Samtskhe ( ka, სამცხე) (Moschia in ancient sources), is a mountainous area in southwestern Georgia. History Ancient tribes known as the Mushki (or Moschi) and Mosiniks (or Mossynoeci) were the ...

, and former wife of the nobleman Kaikhosro Oravzhandashvili. Widowed, she remarried

Manuchar I Dadiani Manuchar I Dadiani ( ka, მანუჩარ I დადიანი; died 1611) was Prince of Mingrelia, of the House of Dadiani, from 1590 until his death. A younger son of Levan I Dadiani, he succeeded on the death of his elder brother, Mami ...

in 1592. Vakhtang had a son: * Prince Kaikhosro I (died 1660), Prince of Guria (1626–1658);

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vakhtang 01 Gurieli 1587 deaths House of Gurieli 16th-century people from Georgia (country)