User:LouisAragon/sandbox/SafGeorgia

http://oeaw.academia.edu/GiorgioRota

https://books.google.nl/books?id=MDklDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA53&dq=david+xi+of+kartli+vali&hl=nl&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwii7diY6s_cAhUS2KQKHY_mAtUQ6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q=david%20xi%20of%20kartli%20vali&f=false

http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/kartli

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329092193_Sweetening_the_Heavy_Georgian_Tongue_Jami_in_the_Georgian-Persianate_World_2018 ---> "Like the other manuscripts with which it is stored, this Haft awrang circulated at a time when Persian was the major literary language for Georgia’s elite, a status it held until the end of the eighteenth century. While it is not the case that every Georgian spoke Persian, the migrations from Georgia to Iran that proliferated under Safavid dominion (907–1135/1501–1722) contributed immeasurably to the Persianization of Georgian literature. Under the reign of Shāh Abbās (993–1038/1587–1629), the practice of using Georgians as military and domestic slaves replaced the earlier Safavid institutional reliance on the Qizilbash, a tribe of Turkmen origin. With the trend towards increasing institutional reliance on Georgian slaves, “the slave chapter of Safavid history” begins. With this shift in the Safavid social order also began a new era in Georgian literary history, marked by new tensions between the poetic visions of Georgian kings and the violence of Safavid sovereignty. At the same time, the violence of the Safavid-Georgian encounter was also marked by an unprecedented flourishing of Georgian poetry in a Persianate idiom." pp 798-799

1998 Floor, fiscal system book

Governate
The province was managed by at least one governor (khan, soltan) or viceroy (vali) depending on period, while the various subdistricts of the province were managed by darughehs. In some cases, the teyuldar could be the darugheh of the district that was his teyul at the same time. Under the darugheh there were the yuzbashis, and in turn the kadkhodas (who were in charge of one village). The royal Safavid court also appointed the kotval (castellan) and guards of the fortress of the province's capital, Tiflis. In some districts in the Safavid Empire, where Qizilbash clans lived, the yuzbashi "shared the responsibility for the execution of his function with a khalifeh (local leader of the Safavid sufi order)". In such cases, darughehs still had the responsibility of making sure that taxes were collected efficiently, that law was mantained, "and that justice was done, when intervention was required".

According to the Dastur al-Moluk, valis ranked higher than beglarbegs which in turn ranked higher than khans, which in turn ranked higher than soltans.

Investiture, styles and seals
Whenever a Georgian royal ruled Safavid Georgia, as vassal king of Kartli or Kakheti, he was recognized from the Iranian perspective as a vali. The Georgian rulers presented themselves as subjects of the Safavid rulers, but continued to use the traditional royal styles of "king" and even king of kings.

When an individual was appointed vali by the Safavid shah, he, like the other governors in the empire, was given the title of khan, and a pompous investiture ceremony. The Safavid king gave the vali in question an expensive robe of honor, as well as a horse, a gild saddly, and reins. According to the DM, because of his new position and the fact he had received presents and gifts (pishkesh), the Safavid king had ordered that "people entitled to fees (arbab-a rosum) should not demand anything from him (the newly appointed vali)".

Some Georgian royals were also given other prestigious ranks. For example, the first Muslim vali of Kartli, Davud Khan (David XI), was elevated to the rank of farzand ("son") by the Safavid king at his investiture.

The Georgia province, similar to the other provinces where genuine valis held office, had a somewhat special position in the Safavid bureaucracy. According to Floor (2001), whenever a vali held office, he had a reserved seat in the royal council (the janqi), located behind the six "pillars of the state" (arkan ol-dowleh or rokn ol-dowleh). According to Floor & Faghfoory (2007), in their translation and assessment of the Dastur al-Moluk, they assert that the valis of Kartil (Kartli) "sat above the qurchi-bashi, and the vali of Kakht (Kakheti) above the tofangchi-aghasi".

In the course of the 17th century, the Safavid king allowed the vali of Georgia to use a personal mohrdar (keeper of the seal) who was davatdar at the same time.

Salaries and emoluments
According to the Dastur al-Moluk, the wages of the castellan and guards of Tiflis fortress amounted 579 tomans. According to Mirza Naqi Nasiri's third manual of Safavid administration, written in the late Safavid era, the emoluments of the vali of Georgia constituted two tomans and 2,000 Tabrizi dinars. According to the Dastur al-Moluk, the Georgian valis received gifts (cash or in kind) whenever leaving the royal Safavid court, and received provisions and escort on their return to the province.

Taxes
The province paid poll-tax and land tax, as other provinces.

Whenever a genuine vali held sway in Safavid Georgia, taxes in his area were collected in accordance with local custom.

Although the province contributed to the overall silk production, its silk was said, together with that of Karabakh–Ganja, to be of lesser quality than that of Gilan and Mazandaran. Following Abbas I's (1588–1629) decisive subduing of Georgia, he ordered that the province should produce more silk in the future. According to Nicolaas Jacobus Overschie, a Dutch representative in the Safavid Empire, of the 2,800 bales of silk that had been produced in 1636, the provinces of Georgia and Karabakh–Ganja had yielded a total of 300 bales.

According to Jean Chardin, the wines produced in Georgia and Shiraz were of excellent quality. Every six months the province of Georgia supplied the royal wine cellars of the Safavid court with some three hundred liters of wine, as part of the total amount of taxes it paid. The governors were responsible for the supervision of the viticulture of their province.

Slaves
The Safavid rulers obtained many slaves from the Georgia province. These slaves were obtained through warfare (as prisoners of war, i.e., through Tahmasp's campaigns and Abbas I's punitive campaigns), purchase and gifts. For example, the Georgian rulers regularly sent male boy and female girls to the Safavid court.