Abd-ol-Ghaffar Amilakhori
Abd-ol-Ghaffar Amilakhori[a] (Persian: عبدالقفار امیلخوری, romanized: Abd-ol-Qaffār Amilakhori, Georgian: ანდუყაფარ ამილახორი, romanized: anduq'apar amilakhori;[b] died c. 1626) was an early 17th-century noble from the Georgian Amilakhori family of Kartli, prominent in the Safavid Iranian service.
Biography[]
Abd-ol-Ghaffar Amilakhori was raised at the Safavid court in Isfahan and was a "typical member of the new Georgian converted elite".[1] Abd-ol-Ghaffar was a son of Faramarz Amilakhori by his wife Tamar, a great-grandson of King Luarsab I of Kartli. His sister Tamar was a favourite concubine of the Safavid shah Abbas I (r. 1588–1629).[2]
When in 1624, Abbas I married off his granddaughter to the ruler of Kartli, Semayun Khan (Simon II), Abd-ol-Ghaffar's wife was a companion to the bride; Amilakhori and another leading Georgian noble, Zurab, eristavi of Aragvi, entertained the guests of the wedding party on the order of the Safavid-Georgian officer Murav Beg (Giorgi Saakadze).[1] Around the same time, the shah arranged the marriage of Abd-ol-Ghaffar to a daughter of Imam-Quli Khan, a prominent Safavid military and political leader of Georgian descent.[1] According to the contemporary Safavid historian Fazli Khuzani, Abd-ol-Ghaffar was 22-years old at the time of his marriage.[3]
While in Kartli, Abd-ol-Ghaffar was known as a champion of the Safavid interests in the country.[4] He further expanded his estates at the expanse of the neighboring noble families, exterminated the Ghazneli and had the environs of Mtskheta ravaged. In 1625/6, Abd-ol-Ghaffar and his wife were captured by the rebellious Georgians and imprisoned at the fortress of Arshi. After the rebels' defeat at the battle of Marabda, Abbas I sent a force to their rescue.[5] Upon being informed about this, the rebels sent the two, according to Fazli Khuzani, to the relatives of Abd-ol-Ghaffar himself, as well as those of Allahverdi Khan (the father of Imam-Quli Khan).[5] Amilakhori, thereafter, disappears from historical records.[4]
Notes[]
References[]
- ^ a b c d Floor & Herzig 2012, p. 484.
- ^ Floor & Herzig 2012, p. 483.
- ^ Floor & Herzig 2012, p. 489.
- ^ a b Tukhashvili 1975, p. 391.
- ^ a b Maeda 2003, pp. 263–264.
Sources[]
- Floor, Willem; Herzig, Edmund, eds. (2012). Iran and the World in the Safavid Age. I.B.Tauris. ISBN 978-1780769905.
- Maeda, Hirotake (2003). "On the Ethno-Social Background of Four Gholām Families from Georgia in Safavid Iran". Studia Iranica (32): 1–278.
- Tukhashvili, Lovard (1975). "ანდუყაფარ ამილახვარი [Anduqapar Amilakhvari]". ქართული საბჭოთა ენციკლოპედია [Georgian Soviet Encyclopedia] (in Georgian). Tbilisi: Metsniereba. p. 391.
- 1620s deaths
- People from Isfahan
- Iranian people of Georgian descent
- Shia Muslims from Georgia (country)
- Converts to Shia Islam from Eastern Orthodoxy
- Former Georgian Orthodox Christians
- Nobility of Georgia (country)
- 17th-century people of Safavid Iran
- 17th-century people from Georgia (country)