Daud-Khan an Iranian military commander and politician of Georgian origin who served as governor (beglarbeg) of Ganja

Ganja, Azerbaijan

Ganja is Azerbaijan's second-largest city with a population of around 313,300. It was named Yelizavetpol in the Russian Empire period. The city regained its original name—Ganja—from 1920–1935 during the first part of its incorporation into the Soviet Union. However, its name was changed again and...

 and Karabakh

Karabakh

The Karabakh horse , also known as Karabakh, is a mountain-steppe racing and riding horse. It is named after the geographic region where the horse was originally developed, Karabakh in the Southern Caucasus, an area that is de jure part of Azerbaijan but the highland part of which is currently...

 from 1625 to 1630.

He was the son of Allahverdi Khan

Allahverdi Khan

Allahverdi Khan was an Iranian general and statesman of Georgian origin who, although initially a ghulām , rose to high office in the Safavid state....

, a former Georgian ghulam from the Undiladze

Undiladze

The Undiladze were a Georgian noble family whose members rose in prominence in the service of Iran’s Safavid dynasty and dominated the Shah’s court at a certain period of the late 16th and early 17th centuries....

 clan who rose through the highest ranks in the Saffavid administration under Shah Abbas I of Persia

Abbas I of Persia

Shāh ‘Abbās the Great was Shah of Iran, and generally considered the greatest ruler of the Safavid dynasty. He was the third son of Shah Mohammad....

. Daud-Khan, unlike his father and older brother, Imam-Quli Khan

Imam-Quli Khan

Imam-Quli Khan was an Iranian military and political leader of Georgian origin who served as a governor of Fars, Lar and Bahrain for the shahs Abbas I and Safi.-Biography:...

, had closer ties with the country of his origin; he was married to Helene, the sister of the Georgian

Georgia (country)

Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...

 king Teimuraz I of Kakheti

Teimuraz I of Kakheti

Teimuraz I , of the Bagrationi Dynasty, was a Georgian monarch who ruled, with intermissions, as King of Kakheti from 1605 to 1648 and also of Kartli from 1625 to 1633...

, and was on friendly terms with the Georgian warlord Giorgi Saakadze

Giorgi Saakadze

Giorgi Saakadze was a Georgian politician and military commander who played an important but contradictory role in the politics of the early 17th-century Georgia...

. Daud-Khan tried to mediate a conflict between Abbas I and the shah’s recalcitrant Georgian subjects. After Shah Safi succeeded upon the death of Abbas in 1629, the new shah’s mentor and yet another influential Georgian at the Saffavid court, Khosro-Mirza

Rostom of Kartli

Rostom or Rustam Khan was a ruler of Kartli, eastern Georgia, from 1633 until his death. Appointed by a Persian shah as a Wāli of Kartli, he styled himself king of kings and sovereign.- Life :...

, succeeded in sidelining the rival Undiladze clan, and persuaded Safi into removing Daud-Khan from the majlis

Majlis

' , is an Arabic term meaning "a place of sitting", used in the context of "council", to describe various types of special gatherings among common interest groups be it administrative, social or religious in countries with linguistic or cultural connections to Islamic countries...

 in 1630/31. In 1633, alarmed by the political repressions within the Iranian ruling élite, Daud fled to Georgia and joined his brother-in-law Teimuraz who had revolted from the Saffavid hegemony. The rebels started to attack the Persian garrisons in and near Georgia and launched several raids on Ganja of which Daud-Khan had been dispossessed after his defection to Georgia. Teimuraz refused to surrender Daud in exchange of the shah’s parole and allowed him a free passage to the Ottoman

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

 possessions. Since then, he disappears from the records. His brother and nephews were annihilated, and Daud’s sons castrated on the shah’s order, thus ending the career of this illustrious Iranian Georgian family.

Beyond his military and administrative career, Daud Khan commissioned several building projects and patronized Catholic

Catholicism

Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....

missioners in Georgia and Ganja.