Rostom of Kartli

Rostom or Rustam Khan (როსტომი or როსტომ ხანი) (1565 – 17 November 1658) was a Georgian royal, from the House of Bagrationi, who functioned as a Safavid-appointed vali (i.e. viceroy)/king (mepe) of Kartli, eastern Georgia, from 1633 until his death.

Youth
Kaikhosro was born in 1567 in Isfahan, the imperial capital of Safavid Iran. He was the illegitimate son of the monarch Daud Khan and working at the royal court as a servant. Daud Khan did not gain full power until 1569, after defeating anti-Iranian forces in Georgia, and he spent much of his time before his ascension at the court of Shah Tahmasp I. It was during one of these visits that Kaikhosro was born and raised in the Islamic faith.

He was raised at his father's royal court in Georgia, but when his father betrayed the Safavids during the Ottoman–Safavid War (1578–1590), Daud Khan took refuge in Constantinople, while his childrens, Kaikhosro and Bagrat, were kidnapped by the Iranians in 1579 to become young slaves at the court of Mohammad Khodabanda, where Kaikhosro became Khosro-Mirza and spent his childhood with his mother.

Despite being educated in Iran, Khosro-Mirza is considered a patriot because he speaks Georgian fluently and is passionate about his country's history. From a young age, he dreamed of one day becoming king of Georgia. The beginning of his career is obscure, but he maintains certain links with his Bagrationi dynasty. At the beginning of the 17th century, he found himself alongside Alexander II of Kakheti when the latter regained his throne after having been reconciled with Iran in 1602. During the latter's negotiations with Russia regarding a protectorate Russian on Georgia, Khosro-Mirza is proposed as a potential future husband to Princess Xenia Borisovna Godunova, daughter of Tsar Boris Godunov.

When in 1605, Alexander II broke off his relations with Iran, Khosro-Mirza was expelled and had to return to Iran, by an act reproved by King George X of Kartli and Russia. Constantine I of Kakheti, assassinated his father on March 12, 1605 and took power in his place; he requested the return of Khosro-Mirza for Princess Xenia, guaranteeing an alliance between Russia and Safavid Iran, but the Russian embassy refused, describing the young prince as "ugly".

Poverty and wealth
Back in Iran, Khosro Mirza fell into poverty. According to some sources, he became a beggar in Isfahan and worked in many small jobs to survive. This condition of poverty subsequently constituted one of the sources of his popularity as king among the country's peasant classes.

Khosro-Mirza's life changed radically in 1612, when Giorgi Saakadze, an important general who led the Georgians' struggle against the Ottomans, took refuge in Iran and met the large Georgian community in the Iranian capital. During a banquet given in his honor, Saakadze spotted poor Khosro-Mirza among the Georgians present and invited him to sit near him, beginning a close friendship between the two men. Saakadze's influence extricates Khosro-Mirza from his situation because the general treats him like a royal prince.

Marie-Félicité Brosset sees in this episode an attempt by Saakadzé to oppose a rival to King Luarsab II of Kartli, making him a pretender to the throne, but this does not change the fact that Khosro becomes the legitimate heir to the Georgian throne for many influential people in the Kingdom of Kartli. The future King Rostom had a deep respect for Giorgi Saakadze and his patriotism for the rest of his life, although the two became enemies in the 1620s.

Khosro-Mirza's new status led him to impress Shah Abbas the Great, who then began to take an interest in the Georgian prince. Soon, Khosro-Mirza went to live at the imperial court where he was trained in the customs of the palace by eunuchs, while receiving the honors attributed to the imperial family. Over a period of time, Khosro-Mirza acquired the most powerful influence over the large Georgian community in Iran.

In Safavid circles
Mouhhibb Ali Bek, one of the most influential officials at the court of Shah Abbas I and supervisor of imperial slaves, undertook the education of Khosro-Mirza around 1615, when he was already almost 50 years old. In 1618, he was appointed, under the protection of Giorgi Saakadze, Darugha (or prefect) of the Safavid capital, Isfahan, a position which he officially kept until his death, including during his tenure as king of Kartli. This position not only increased his influence with the imperial court, notably by bringing him closer to the young Sam Mirza, grandson of the shah, but also his power over internal Persian politics.

Khosro-Mirza retained the position of darugha until 1658, but the capital's affairs were managed by vicars from the time of his accession to the Georgian throne in the 1630s. Around 1625, when he campaigned to subdue the Georgian rebels, Mir Qassim Beg was appointed to replace him, solidifying Georgian power within the Safavid Iran. In 1656, this vicar was dismissed by the imperial government following palace intrigues between the vizier Mohammed Beg and the Georgians. In his place, Khosro-Mirza appointed his close advisor Pharsadan Gorguidjanidze, who was not only Georgian, but also Christian before his conversion by imperial request, but he was soon dismissed in his turn. Shortly before his death, Khosro-Mirza appointed a certain Badadeh Beg, probably also of Georgian origin, as his representative in Isfahan. As king of Kartli, Khosro-Mirza continued to administer the affairs of the capital through his advisor Hamza Beg, a cousin of the vicar Mir Qassim Beg, who worked from the royal palace in Tbilisi.

Khosro-Mirza's administration marks the transfer of real power over state affairs from the elite Qizilbash army to the large Georgian slave class. He was largely helped in this enterprise by Rostom-Khan Saakadze, another statesman of Georgian origin who became commander-in-chief of the armed forces of Shah Abbas in 1623. In a few years, the legal system of Iran fell entirely into the hands of the Georgians, which is confirmed by the appointment of this Rostom Khan Saakadze as Divan-begi (or principal imperial judge). However, this radical change in central power is the subject of numerous complaints from the Qizilbash military class and Tajik bureaucrats, forcing Khosro-Mirza to become a wealthy patron and support the construction of new bridges, roads, religious temples. and caravanserais across Iran in order to mitigate criticism.

In campaign against Georgia
Following a humiliating defeat of Safavid forces on March 25, 1625 at the Battle of Martqopi and the capture of Tbilisi the Teimuraz I of Kakheti, Khosro-Mirza was one of three generals, along with Isa Khan Safavi and Rostom-Khan Saakadze, sent by Shah Abbas I to defeat the Georgian rebellion. In June 1625, a force of 60,000 Persians landed in Georgia, reinforced by the governors of Shirvan and Yerevan and armed with English artillery supplied to Iran.

While the Iranians camped at Marabda, southeast of Tbilisi in the Algeti valley, Teimuraz and his ally Giorgi Saakadze were in the Kojori, where a royal council failed to find a common strategy: Teimuraz wanted to attack the Iranians directly, while Saakadze preferred to wait for them and confront them in an environment more favorable to the Georgians. On June 30, Teimuraz ordered an attack on the Iranians and despite the death of 14,000 Iranians on the battlefield, they emerged victorious thanks to a landing of troops from Shirvan at the last minute. Khosro-Mirza commands the right flank of the invasion forces. After the Battle of Marabda, Khosro-Mirza and Isa Khan Safavi restored Semayun Khan (Simon II) as king in Tbilisi, but he only controlled the capital and the Armenian provinces protected by the Iranian army.

Following the Battle of Marabda, the Georgians captured Abd-ol-Ghaffar Amilakhori, a Georgian Muslim noble who supported the cause of Iran, and his wife. Khosro-Mirza is tasked with a rescue mission by Isa Khan Safavi and negotiates a passage north from the Kartli via the banks of the Aragvi into the domains of Duke Zurab of Aragvi, giving his guarantee that his troops will not would not ravage Georgian villages. Near the village of Tsitsamuri, north of Mtskheta, Saakadze's rebels attacked Khosro-Mirza, who nevertheless emerged victorious from a quick and bloody battle, following which he temporarily established himself in Mukhrani. From Mukhrani, Khosro-Mirza leaves towards Dusheti, crosses the Mtiuleti and reaches the Khevi mountains, which form the natural border between Georgia and the Ciscaucasia. It is in the fortress of Arshi that Khosro and his troops free the prisoner couple and return towards the south.

After the Iranians crossed the fortress of Lomisa, Duke Jesse I of Ksani and Giorgi Sidamoni blocked the road to Khosro-Mirza, authorizing an army of 12,000 Georgians, led by Giorgi Saakadze, to launch a bloody attack on the Iranians. During the Battle of Ksani, Banda Khan, governor of Azerbaijan, was killed, while the Khan of Qazax and three Safavid generals were captured, but Khosro-Mirza was spared and defended Abd-ol-Ghaffar Amilakhori personally. The modern historian Roin Metreveli links Khosro-Mirza's survival to his former friendship with Saakadze, his protector in Iran less than ten years previously.

A son of Daud Khan, a Georgian prince and convert to Islam, by a concubine, he was born in the Iranian royal capital of Isfahan as Khosro Mirza, and was brought up Muslim by eunuchs alongside young slave recruits. An intelligent and resolute in his decisions, he soon attracted the attention of Shah Abbas I of Safavid who appointed him, in 1618, a darugha (prefect) of Isfahan. From 1625 to 1626, he took part in suppression of the Georgian opposition: he commanded a right flank at the victorious Battle of Marabda and saved part of the Persian troops from a complete disaster at the Battle of Ksani. In 1626, Khosro Mirza was recalled from Georgia and appointed the commander of the Shah's élite gholam corps (qollar-aghasi) three years later. In 1629, Abbas, lying on a deathbed, urged him to protect a grandson and heir Sam Mirza, the future Shah Safi, whom Khosro served faithfully. In 1630, he led a Persian army which defeated the Ottoman forces and captured Baghdad. In the early 1630s, he took part in sidelining and destruction of the Undiladze family, also of Georgian origin, who had dominated the Safavid court for years. Afterwards, he was sent to suppress the opposition of Georgians who had managed to unite the eastern regions of Kartli and Kakheti under Teimuraz I for a brief period of 1630–1633. Teimuraz was joined by a surviving Undiladze, Daud Khan. For his loyalty, Shah Safi appointed him as the new vali of Kartli, and granted him the name of Rostam Khan (Rostom, როსტომი, in Georgian transliteration). Rostom then came to Georgia with a large Persian army commanded by his fellow Georgian Rustam Khan. He soon took control of Kartli and garrisoned all major fortresses with Persian forces, bringing them, however, under his tight control. His willingness to cooperate with his suzerain won for Kartli a larger degree of autonomy. A period of relative peace and prosperity ensued, with the cities and towns being revived, many deserted areas repopulated and commerce flourished. Although Muslim, Rostom helped to restore a major Georgian Orthodox cathedral of Living Pillar (Svetitskhoveli) at Mtskheta, and patronised Christian culture. However, Islam and Persian habits predominated at his court. He ruthlessly crushed an opposition of local nobles, putting to death the catholicos Eudemus I of Georgia, and invaded, in 1648, Kakheti, forcing Teimuraz to flee to Imereti (western Georgia).

Throughout his reign, Rostom imported Persian language and culture into Kartlian administration and daily life. As he had no children, Rostom intended to make the Imeretian prince Mamuka his heir. The latter, however, was soon suspected to have been involved in a plot, and he had to return to his native Imereti. In 1642, Rostom adopted his kinsman Luarsab, Luarsab I of Kartli's great-grandson, but he was assassinated in 1652 while hunting. Another candidate for the succession, Rostom's stepson Otia, also died young, in 1646. Only in 1653 was able Rostom to choose his successor. It was Vakhtang of Mukhrani, a representative of a junior Mukhrani branch of the Bagrationi dynasty, who actually ran government in the last years of Rostom, and succeeded on his death on November 17, 1658. Rostom was buried in Qom, Persia, close to his late suzerain Abbas I. The 19th-century British diplomat Robert Grant Watson reported in his A History of Persia, "in one of the finest of tho gardens adjacent to tho city was the mausoleum of Rustem Khan, a prince of the royal house of Georgia who had embraced the tenets of the Mahomedan religion in order to obtain the viceroyalty of his native country."

Family
Rostom was married twice. After his return to Kartli, he wed c. 1635 Ketevan, daughter of Prince Gorjasp Abashishvili. Marie-Félicité Brosset, followed by Cyril Toumanoff, erred in identifying her surname as Abashidze. The Abashishvili was a branch of the Baratashvili family. The wedding was celebrated in Christian and Muslim rites and Ketevan added a Persian name, Guldukhtar. The marriage was childless and Ketevan died shortly thereafter.

In 1638, Rostom concluded a strategic marital alliance with the Dadiani princely dynasty of Mingrelia. His second wife was Mariam, sister of Levan II Dadiani, the reigning Prince of Mingrelia, and the former wife of Simon Gurieli, Prince of Guria. They had no children. After Rostom's death, Mariam was married his adopted son and successor, Vakhtang V.