Kakhetians

After the disintegration of the Georgian Kingdom, Kakheti became an independent Kingdom in the 1460s. In contrast with the other Georgian political entities, long reign of Kakhetian Kings – Alexander I (1476-1511), Levan (1518-1574) and Alexander II (1574-1605), was marked by peace and prosperity, population grew steadily and at the turn of the seventeenth century reached 250,000–300,000. Gremi, capital city of the Kingdom and Zagemi became one of the most important urban centers of the Caucasus, attracting merchants and artisans from neighbouring countries. New churches, castles and palaces were built and agriculture developed.

During the las years of the sixteenth century Kakhetian feudal army consisted of 10,000 cavalrymen, 3,000 infantry and 500 musketeers. Horsemen and foot soldiers were armed with bows, arrows, sabres, shields and spears, while musketeers had hand-guns.[2] Furthermore, Alexander II made some futile efforts to introduce artillery from Muscovy.

During the sixteenth century international situation of the Georgian Kingdoms worsened dramatically, Transcaucasus became battleground of the powerful Muslim – Ottoman and Safavid – Empires, while Georgia was completely isolated from the Christian world. Additionally, greatly accelerated process of the Islamization of the North Caucasian peoples, including Dagestani mountaineers – direct neighbours of Kakheti. From 1555 the Kingdom was a vassal of the successive dynasties of Iran,[3] and to a much shorter period Ottoman Empire (1578–1612; 1723–1736)[4] but enjoyed intermittent periods of greater independence, especially after 1747.

Formally under the vassalage of the Safavid dynasty, Levan of Kakheti was eager to diminish foreign influence over Georgia, stealthily sending Kakhetian detachments to his son-in-law Simon I of Kartli against the Qizilbashes in the 1560s. Alexander II, an astute son of the previous King, continued Levan’s policy, switching sides during the Ottoman–Safavid war several times, simultaneously strengthening his realm. In addition, Alexander’s army had to confront north-eastern neighbour of the Kingdom – Shamkhalate, whose rulers tried to wreak havoc to the borderlands of Kakheti, kidnapping peasants and looting countryside.[5] During the last quarter of the sixteenth century Kakhetian feudal army defeated Shamkhals’ undisciplined bands several times, killing and decapitating hundreds of marauders.[6]

Throughout the fifteenth–eighteenth centuries Georgian Kings and Princes, including those of Kakheti, constantly tried to establish diplomatic relations with the Popes and Christian Monarchs of the West – Holy Roman Empire, Spain, France, Prussia, Naples etc. calling them for aid against the Ottoman and Safavid incursions. However, nothing came from these attempts, geographic distance and ongoing wars made it impossible for the Europeans to support fellow Christian nation. As a result Georgian political entities had to fight against Muslim invaders virtually alone, while geographical isolation greatly limited opportunity for the Georgian elites to come into contact with epochal changes taking place in Europe during the early modern period.

If the political and military assistance from the Western Europe proved to be unrealistic, in the north Grand Duchy of Muscovy, freed from the Mongol-Tatar yoke in 1480, seemed as a steadfastly growing Orthodox superpower. King Alexander I of Kakheti became the first Georgian ruler to establish formal diplomatic contact with the Russians, dispatching two embassies to Grand Duke Ivan III of Muscovy in 1483 and 1491.[7] In 1556 Astrakhan was conquered by Ivan the Terrible. After eleven years Terek-Town fort was built,[8] Russians became nearly direct neighbours of Kakheti. In 1563, King Levan, grandson of Alexander I, appealed to the Muscovites to take his realm under their protection against the Ottomans, and Safavids. Tsar Ivan IV responded by sending a Russian detachment to Georgia, but Levan, pressured by Iran, had to turn these troops back. King Alexander II also appealed for Russian support against foreign encroachments. In 1587, he negotiated The Book of Pledge, forming an alliance between Kakheti and the Russian Tsardom. David I of Kakheti (1601–1602), rebellious son of Alexander II, during his short reign reaffirmed loyalty to the foreign policy of his predecessors. However, as the Times of Troubles began in Russia, Georgian political entities could not count on Muscovite assistance in their struggle for independence.[7]

In 1605 Constantine, younger son of Alexander II, who was raised at the Safavid court and converted to Islam, according to Shah’s secret instruction assassinated his father and brother. The assassination of the royal family and usurpation of the crown by Constantine I infuriated the Georgians, who rose in a rebellion under the direction of Queen Ketevan later that year. On 22 October 1605, the Kakhetian army routed the Qizilbash forces of Constantine, who was killed on the battlefield.[9] Caught in surprise, Abbas I grudgingly accepted the result of the 1605 uprising and appointed sixteen years old Teimuraz I (1605–1648) – the staunchest enemy of the Safavids in the future – as a new King of Kakheti.

In 1612 the treaty of Nasuh Pasha was concluded, war with the Ottomans was temporarily over. Now, Shah Abbas I had his hands free to attack the eastern Georgian Kingdoms – Kartli and Kakheti, dethrone Christian Kings, establish Qizilbash khanates and deport or exterminate recalcitrant Georgians from their homeland.[10] In October 1613 Abbas I moved his army to Ganja. Next spring, he turned on Kakheti, demanding Teimuraz’s sons as hostages. After taking counsel, Teimuraz I sent his mother Ketevan and his younger son, Alexander, to Iran. The Shah insisted; reluctantly, the Kakhetians sent the heir, Levan. Shah Abbas I then demanded Teimuraz’s attendance. At this point war broke out.[11] In 1614–1617, Abbas I led several campaigns against Kakheti and Kartli, massacred and deported hundreds of thousands ethnic Georgians to Iran, also despite stiff resistance and heavy defeat at Tsitsamuri[12] forced Teimuraz I to Imereti. Shah Abbas I castrated both sons of the obstinate King and savagely tortured and burned to death his mother Queen Ketevan in 1624.[13] Ketevan was canonized by the Georgian Orthodox Church and remains a symbolic figure in Georgian history. The story of her martyrdom was publicized in Europe, and several literary works were produced, including Andreas Gryphius’ Katharina von Georgien (1657).[14] Additionally, Shah sought to populate Kakheti with the Turkoman tribes.[15]

Georgian uprising of 1625 – annihilation of 30,000 strong Turkoman-Persian army at Martqopi, pyrrhic victory in Marabda valley and widespread guerrilla war reverted Shah Abbas’ plans of destroying the Georgian states and setting up Qizilbash khanates on Georgian territory.[16] Abbas I, like Iran’s and Turkey’s chroniclers, was aghast at this debacle. Losing half of his army forced Shah Abbas I to let vassals rule eastern Georgia.[17] He abandoned plans to cleanse it of Christians. After nine years of exile Teimuraz I returned to eastern Georgia, uniting both Kingdoms for several years.

Demographic, material, economic and cultural losses inflicted to the Kingdom of Kakheti by the hordes of the Qizilbashes, during the first quarter of the seventeenth century, were irreparable. Population of the Kingdom dwindled to 50,000–60,000, while Gremi and Zagemi were almost completely devastated and never fully recovered from the blow dealt by the invaders. Hundreds of villages, castles and churches were razed to the ground or badly damaged. Yet still, fierce resistance resulted in Georgians preserving statehood, most of their ethnic territories, as well as religion of the forefathers.

Dagestani peoples, encouraged by the Safavid officials, constantly attacked poorly defended countryside of Kakheti,[18] and massively migrated to the easternmost region of the Kingdom – Eliseni, on the left bank of the Alazani river.[19] Such a development led to a prolonged conflict between the Georgians and marauding Dagestani bands, greatly hampering revival of the Kakhetian Kingdom. Teimuraz I took an energetic measures against the Dagestanis’, suddenly attacked and decapitated the Sultan of Elisu, avenging for his participation in the Abbas I Georgian campaigns.[20] Additionally, Teimuraz I tried to reestablish Christianity in the westernmost part of the Dagestan, between mountainous Dido people, traditionally closely related with the Kingdom of Kakheti. Despite some initial successes efforts made by the King showed to be futile.[21] During the 1630s Teimuraz I renewed his attempts to establish close ties with Russia. In 1639 he petitioned the Tsar of Russia for help and signed an oath of loyalty.[22] However, no military aid had arrived.

In 1642 Teimuraz I conspired with Catholicos-Patriarch of eastern Georgia – Eudemus I and Kartlian nobles, to assassinate Rostom of Kartli (1633–1658), when the Muslim King was relaxing unguarded in the country. After that, Teimuraz I had to capture Tbilisi, expel Qizilbashes and unite eastern Georgian Kingdoms. However, a conspirator betrayed the plot. Rostom had the Catholicos-Patriarch arrested and imprisoned at the citadel of Tbilisi, where he was strangled.[23] Eudemus I was canonized by the Georgian Orthodox Church as a holy hieromartyr. Six years later stubborn King of Kakheti was finally ousted from the power, losing his heir – Prince David, in a fateful battle of Magharo.[24] Rostom, loyal vassal of the Shah, became a new ruler of Kakheti.

Taking shelter in Imereti, deposed Kakhetian King had his grandson Erekle sent to the Russian court. In 1658 Teimuraz I travelled to Moscow, thus becoming the first Georgian King to visit Russia. In 1661 seventy-two years old King was captured during the Imeretian campaign of the King of Kartli, Vakhtang V (1658–1675). Teimuraz I was escorted as an honoured prisoner through Kartli to Shah Abbas II’s court: the Shah urged him to accept Islam, offered him meat on a fast day and, when Teimuraz I declined, threw wine in his face and imprisoned him in Astrabad by the Caspian.[25] Here, the most valiant Georgian King of the seventeenth century died in 1663. Teimuraz I was buried in the Alaverdi Monastery.

In 1656 Shah Abbas II made another attempt to settle Turkoman tribes in Kakheti, as a result in 1659 Georgians revolted again, tens of thousands Turkomans were massacred, or forced to leave Kakheti. By 1660, Shah acknowledged his failure in Kakheti. However, Safavids also threatened retaliation if rebel leaders did not surrender. Bidzina Cholokashvili, Shalva and Elizbar Eristavis of Ksani chose to sacrifice their lives to avoid further bloodshed and traveled to Isfahan, where they were executed. The events of the 1659 uprising produced numerous oral traditions, especially in mountainous regions of eastern Georgia – Tusheti, Pshavi and Khevsureti, where poems dedicated to local heroes became popular. In the ninteenth century, Vazha-Pshavela used these traditions to create one of his finest poems, Bakhtrioni, while his fellow writer Akaki Tsereteli produced another classic of Georgian literature, Bashi-Achuki.[26]

In 1664 Archil II (1664–1675), the eldest son of the Kartlian King Vakhtang V, was appointed as a new King of Kakheti, nominally converting to Islam. Eleven years of the Archil’s reign proved to be the most successful period of the calamitous seventeenth century. Archil II managed to start a long process of the revival of Kakheti.[27] During his reign tens of deserted villages were repopulated, churches and monasteries repaired, castles rebuilt. In addition, Telavi – insignificant town during the fifteenth–seventeenth centuries – emerged as a new political and urban center of the Kingdom. Effectively exploiting military resources of his father’s realm, Archil II organized several victorious expeditions in Dagestan, forcing mountaineers to submission.[28] As a result, during the reign of Archil II incursions of the Dagestani bands decreased significantly. However, in 1675 he had to leave Kakheti, while Erekle I was forced to stay in Isfahan for years, before his nominal conversion to Islam.

From 1675 to 1703 Kakheti was put under direct control of the Safavid appointed khans, whose authority being merely nominal. Iranian khans, unable to deal with the Georgian nobility backed by restive vassal of the Safavids George XI of Kartli (1676–1688; 1703–1709), tried to weaken aristocratic resistance by encouraging further incursions and migration of the Dagestanis’ into Kakhetian soil.[29]

In 1703 Kakhetian branch of the house of Bagrationi was restored, ruling as the vassals of the degenerating Safavid dynasty. During the next twenty years Erekle I (1703–1709) and David II (1709–1722) had to deal with the incessant Dagestani incursions. Despite some initial successes, Eliseni, the easternmost region of the Kingdom, was irrevocably lost in the 1710s,[30] and free communities of the mountaineers, known as Djaro-Belokani, were established. As a result, Georgian peasants living there had to leave or to Islamize gradually, they who chose the latter, became known as Ingiloys.

In 1722 Constantine II (1722–1732), illegitimate son of Erekle I, became a new King. Soon, Kakhetian King had to fight against fellow Georgians. In 1723 Shah Tahmasp II ordered him to remove from power Vakhtang VI of Kartli, who adopted an anti-Safavid policy and made an alliance with Russia, which proved to be unsuccessful. Constantine II of Kakheti, reinforced by the Transcaucasian Tatars and Dagestanis, invaded Kartli and captured Tbilisi in May 1723. Defeated King of Kartli and his supporters fled to Shida Kartli. The same year, the Ottoman army marched against the Constantine II, who was unable to stop it and offered to negotiate. The Ottomans entered Tbilisi on 12 June 1723, deceiving and imprisoning King of Kakheti during the negotiations. Fortunately for him, Constantine II managed to escape to his realm. After Vakhtang VI of Kartli immigrated to Russia in 1724, King of Kakheti became the sole leader of the anti-Ottoman resistance in eastern Georgia. Since Safavid Iran was on the verge of collapse, formally Muslim Constantine II decided to return to the centuries-old pro-Russian foreign policy of his forefathers and offered to place Kartli–Kakheti under the Russian protection. However, Peter the Great, as well as his successors had no intention to start a new war against the Ottomans.[31]

Meanwhile, Ottoman Empire skillfully used coreligionist Sunni Dagestanis against recalcitrant Georgian King, encouraging them to put constant pressure on Constantine’s realm. On September 26, 1724, the Ottomans defeated Georgian army led by Constantine II in a fierce battle of Zedavela, while Dagestani bands devastated countryside. As a result, Constantine II had to find shelter in Pshavi. Yet still, in 1725 Georgians managed to drive marauding bands of the mountaineers out of Kakheti. By 1730, Kakhetian King was forced to recognize Ottoman supremacy and agreed to pay tribute. Additionally, Constantine II, indifferent to religion, converted from Shia to Sunni Islam. Seven years’ long resistance of Georgians resulted in invaders abandoning initial plan of annexation of Kakheti, as the Ottoman Porte had done in Samtskhe-Saatabago at the turn of the seventeenth century. On Decemeber 28, 1732, the Ottomans, never fully confident in Constantine’s loyalty, murdered Kakhetian King in a treacherous way, inviting him to negotiate.[31]

In 1762, the Kakhetian Kingdom was united with the neighboring Georgian Kingdom of Kartli into the Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti under King Heraclius II. Following the Treaty of Georgievsk and the sack of Tbilisi by Agha Mohammad Khan, in 1801 the Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti was annexed to the Russian Empire. Russian suzerainty over Kakheti and the rest of Georgia was recognized by Qajar Iran in the 1813 Treaty of Gulistan.[32]

Loss of independence and establishment of the Imperial administration led to an imminent uprisings. In 1802 Kakhetian nobles revolted, insurgents planned to restore kartli-Kakhetian Kingdom. However, Russians quickly responded and crushed the rebellion.[33] In 1810–1811, Kakheti suffered from poor harvests and plague, which led to food shortages and high prices. Despite the hardship, Russian officials forced the peasantry to sell their remaining produce to the state at a low price. As the Russian troops began requisitioning supplies, a peasant uprising flared up in the village of Akhmeta on 31 January 1812. The insurgents defeated Russians in a hard fought battle of Bodbiskhevi, killing 2 officers and 212 soldiers,[34] captured and slaughtered the entire Russian garrison of Signagi and later seized Telavi, Anaga, Dusheti, and Pasanauri. After some hesitations the rebels were supported by the local nobility and clergy. They proclaimed a prince Grigol Bagrationi, great-grandson of Heraclius II and grandson of George XII as the King of Kartli-Kakheti.[35] The revolt soon spread to Kartli, and the Russian forces lost more than 1,000 men in clashes with the insurgents. The rebellion continued throughout 1812 until the superior Imperial army, led by governors of Caucasus – Italian-born Marquis de Paulucci and Nikolay Rtishchev finally defeated it and pacified the region by early 1813.[36]

In 1918–1921 Kakheti was part of the independent Democratic Republic of Georgia, in 1922–1936 part of the Transcaucasian SFSR and in 1936–1991 part of the Georgian SSR. Since the Georgian independence in 1991, Kakheti has been a region of the republic of Georgia.