Battle of Aghaiani

The Battle of Aghaiani (აღაიანის ბრძოლა) took place in 1625, between Kakhetian and Safavid armies at near Aghaiani.

Background
In 1606, Shah Abbas I, at the request of Kartlian nobles and Queen Ketevan, appointed seemingly harmless young men Luarsab II and Teimuraz I (son of Ketevan) as rulers of the Safavid subordinate kingdoms of Kartli and Kakheti. However, in 1612, Teimuraz and Luarsab executed a number of Safavid nobles, including the governor of Karabakh, which naturally led to the deterioration of relations between Georgia and Shah Abbas. In 1613, the Shah Abbas invited them to a hunting ceremony in Mazandaran, but they, fearing arrest or execution, did not go there. In the spring of 1614, war broke out.

In March 1614, Safavid forces captured two regions and the two allied kings took refuge in Ottoman subordinate Imereti. The Safavid court historian Iskender-bek Munshi noted that Shah Abbas I was enraged by the betrayal of two subjects he trusted. He exiled 30,000 Kakhetian peasants to the Safavid Empire and appointed Isa-Khan (grandson of King Alexander II) as the ruler of Kakheti. Isa-Khan, who had converted to Islam, was brought up at the court in Isfahan, and it was assumed that he would be loyal to the Shah.

Shah Abbas threatened to burn Imereti if the escaped kings were not handed over to him. The rulers of Imereti, Mingrelia and Guria refused to fulfil this demand. However, Luarsab voluntarily surrendered to the Shah. At first he received him well, but when he learnt that he and Teimuraz had entered into an alliance with the Ottomans, he demanded Luarsab to accept Islam. Luarsab refused and was arrested.

Teymuraz, taking advantage of the fact that in 1615 the Ottoman-Safavid feud was reignited, returned to eastern Georgia and defeated the Safavid army stationed there. But after the Ottoman army postponed the campaign against the Safavids, Abbas sent an army against Teimuraz. Although there was resistance in Tbilisi, the whole of eastern Georgia was again subjugated to the Safavids.

Through major punitive measures, Shah Abbas restored his power in Georgia, but Giorgi Saakadze and Teimuraz launched new rebellions in 1625 and 1626 to weaken Safavid influence in the region.

Battle
In 1625, Shah Abbas sent a large army to Georgia under the command of Qarachaqay Khan. The army was tasked with completely breaking the resistance of the Kakhetians and settling the survivors in the central regions of the empire. The Safavid army camped near the village of Aghaiani, and Qarachaqay Khan invited the Kakhetian nobles (Tavadi and Aznauri) to come to him to reward them. However, the nobles who entered the tent to receive the reward were attacked. As a result, about 400 nobles were killed. Some nobles managed to escape from the camp and they joined the rebels and continued the war against the Safavids.