Vakhushti Abashidze ( ka, ვახუშტი აბაშიძე; fl. 1709 – died 1751) 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 ...

nobleman, prominent in the politics of the

Kingdom of Kartli The Kingdom of Kartli ( ka, ქართლის სამეფო, tr) was a late medieval/ early modern monarchy in eastern Georgia, centred on the province of Kartli, with its capital at Tbilisi. It emerged in the process of a triparti ...

and one of the leaders of an insurrection against the

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

ian hegemony in the 1740s. Vakhushti Abashidze came from an influential

princely family A royal family is the immediate family of kings/queens, emirs/emiras, sultans/ sultanas, or raja/rani and sometimes their extended family. The term imperial family appropriately describes the family of an emperor or empress, and the term papa ...

from

Imereti Imereti ( Georgian: იმერეთი) is a region of Georgia situated in the central-western part of the republic along the middle and upper reaches of the Rioni River. Imereti is the most populous region in Georgia. It consists of 11 munic ...

, a kingdom in western Georgia. His name Vakhushti derives from

Old Iranian The Iranian languages or Iranic languages are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family that are spoken natively by the Iranian peoples, predominantly in the Iranian plateau, Iranian Pl ...

''vahišta-'' ("paradise", superlative of ''veh'' "good", i.e., "superb, excellent"). Its equivalent in

Middle Persian Middle Persian or Pahlavi, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg () in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasanian Empire. For some time after the Sasanian collapse, Middle Per ...

is ''wahišt'' and in

New Persian New Persian ( fa, فارسی نو), also known as Modern Persian () and Dari (), is the current stage of the Persian language spoken since the 8th to 9th centuries until now in Greater Iran and surroundings. It is conventionally divided into thre ...

''behešt''. In 1711, he left a war-ridden Imereti after the downfall of his powerful uncle,

Giorgi-Malakia Abashidze Giorgi-Malakia Abashidze ( ka, გიორგი-მალაქია აბაშიძე, died October 15, 1722) was a Georgian nobleman and King of Imereti as George VI (or George V) from 1702 to 1707. He was a member of the prominent Abas ...

, and crossed into the eastern Georgian kingdom of Kartli to put himself under the suzerainty of King

Vakhtang VI Vakhtang VI ( ka, ვახტანგ VI), also known as Vakhtang the Scholar, Vakhtang the Lawgiver and Ḥosaynqolī Khan ( fa, حسین‌قلی خان, translit=Hoseyn-Qoli Xān) (September 15, 1675 – March 26, 1737), was a Georgian ...

. On this occasion, Vakhushti Abashidze was bestowed with estates in western Kartli, belonging to the extinct line of his cousins, Princes Abashidze of

Kvishkheti The village Kvishkheti is located in the Khashuri district of the Shida Kartli region in the Republic of Georgia. It is situated between the Likhi mountain range to the west and the Trialeti Range to the east, and the Mtkvari River flows nearby. ...

, and given, in 1712, King Vakhtang's daughter Anuka (1698–1746) in marriage. In his turn, the king benefited by having a new vassal, whose patrimonial estate, the village of Vakhani with its fortress, controlled one of the routes used by the

Akhaltsikhe Akhaltsikhe ( ka, ახალციხე ), formerly known as Lomsia ( ka, ლომსია), is a small city in Georgia's southwestern region (''mkhare'') of Samtskhe–Javakheti. It is situated on both banks of a small river Potskhovi (a left ...

-based Turk and Lesgian marauders for their raids into western Kartli. Vakhushti Abashidze remained in Kartli even after his royal father-in-law left the upheaval in the kingdom to the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

in 1724. His relations with the Imeretian kings were strained; in 1735, the troops sent by King

Alexander V of Imereti Alexander V ( ka, ალექსანდრე V) (c. 1703/4 – March 1752), of the Bagrationi Dynasty, was King of Imereti (western Georgia (country), Georgia) from 1720 his death in 1752, with the exceptions of the periods of 1741 and 1746–1 ...

attacked Abashidze at Tedzeri and made him prisoner. Through his wife's efforts, the pasha of Akhaltsikhe intervened militarily and put Alexander to flight, but it was only in 1740 that Vakhushti Abashidze was released. In 1742, he joined the rebellion led by Prince

Givi Amilakhvari Givi Amilakhvari ( ka, გივი ამილახვარი) (1689–1754) was a Georgia (country), Georgian nobleman (''tavadi'') with a prominent role in the politics of eastern Georgia in the first half of the 18th century. He waged a le ...

against the Iranian hegemony in Kartli, which was eventually defeated through the efforts of the Georgian royal princes Teimuraz and Erekle, who would emerge, as a result, as new leaders of eastern Georgia.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abashidze, Vakhushti 1751 deaths 18th-century people from Georgia (country) Politicians from Georgia (country) Nobility of Georgia (country) 17th-century people from Georgia (country)