Giorgi Saakadze
Encyclopedia
Giorgi Saakadze (c. 1570 – October 3, 1629) was a Georgian
politician and military commander who played an important but contradictory role in the politics of the early 17th-century Georgia. He was also known as Grand Mouravi (დიდი მოურავი, didi mouravi) in Georgia, Mūrāv-Beg in Iran
and Maghraw-Bek in the Ottoman Empire
for having served as a mouravi
(appointed royal official which can be rendered by seneschal
or bailiff
) of Tbilisi
.
came of the petty nobility
(aznauri
). His father, Siaush, rose in prominence through a loyal service to King Simon I
of Kartli
, whom Giorgi joined in military service in his early career. Under the young king Luarsab II
, he was appointed a mourav of Tbilisi, Tskhinvali
, and Dvaleti in 1608. Saakadze’s influence and prestige especially grew after he destroyed an Ottoman invasion force at the battle of Tashiskari
in June 1609, thereby saving Luarsab from being dislodged. In 1611, the king married Saakadze’s sister, Macrine, annoying the great nobles, who grew increasingly suspicious of the ambitious and aspiring officer who had had risen from the ranks of the petty nobility to become the most powerful man in Kartli. The animosity between the two nobles parties centered on the princes P’arsadan Tsitsishvili and Shadiman Baratashvili on one hand, and Saakadze on the other, culminated in May 1612, when a threat to his life led Saakadze to defect to Iran. Having converted to Islam
and displayed his military ability in Iran’s war with the Ottomans, he quickly won the confidence of Shah
Abbas I of Iran and was regularly consulted on the Georgian affairs.
In 1614, Saakadze avenged Luarsab and his nobles by aiding Shah Abbas in the invasion of Georgia which brought Luarsab’s reign to an end. In 1619, the shah appointed him a vekil (regent) to Bagrat Khan
, the Iranian nominee to the throne of Kartli. Saakadze turned into a de facto
ruler of Kartli. Once the hostilities with the Ottomans resumed, Saakadze served as one of the leading commanders in the shah’s ranks from 1621 to 1623. His military exploits led Abbas to appoint him to the staff of Qarchiha-Khan who led a 35,000-strong army to crush the rebellion in Georgia. Saakadze, however, conspired with the rebel leaders – his brother-in-law Zurab of Aragvi and king Teimuraz I of Kakheti
– and ambushed the Iranian army at Martqopi
on March 25, 1625, inflicted a decisive defeat on the invaders. Saakadze went on to annihilate the Turkic nomads transplanted by the Iranian government to replace the exiled Georgian population, and raided the Iranian garrisons as far as Ganja and Karabakh
. In an act of revenge, Shah Abbas put Saakadze’s younger son, Paata, to death, and sent his severed head to the Georgians. The punitive Iranian expedition followed soon thereafter, and won a costly victory over the Georgians at the battle of Marabda
. Saakadze withdrew into the mountains, and organized a powerful guerrilla resistance which forced Abbas I to recognize Teimuraz’s royal status.
The unity of Georgian nobles quickly collapsed, however. Saakadze’s opposition to Teimuraz’s control of Kartli led to a bitter conflict which culminated in the fratricidal battle of Bazaleti
in the fall of 1626. The royal army won a victory, driving Saakadze into exile to Istanbul
where he entered the service of Sultan
Ibrahim I
. He briefly served as a governor of the Konya
vilayet and fought against the Iranians at Erzurum
(1627-1628), and in Meskheti
(1628). However, Grand Vizier Ekrem Hüsrev Pasha soon accused Saakadze of treason and had him, along with his son Avt’andil and a Georgian entourage, assassinated at Aleppo
on October 3, 1629.
His last surviving son, Ioram, later attained to the princely rank in Georgia, and founded the Tarkhan-Mouravi
noble family.
and Marie Brosset
, continued to view him as a feudal adventurer and ambitious warlord involved in the turbulent whirl of intrigues and disturbances which fill the history of seventeenth-century Georgia.
The first attempt at the rehabilitation of Saakadze was made by his relative Metropolitan
Joseph of Tbilisi in his poem The Grand Mouravi (დიდმოურავიანი, didmouraviani; 1681-87). Beginning from the early 20th century, some Georgian authors have also tried to emphasize the positive aspects of Saakadze’s biography, particularly his contribution to the 1625 rebellion which frustrated Shah Abbas’s plan to convert eastern Georgian lands into the Qizilbash khanate
s.
In the 1940s, Joseph Stalin
’s wartime
propaganda established Saakadze as a major symbol of Georgian patriotism. In October 1940, Stalin commented on Saakadze, proclaiming that the Grand Mouravi’s hopes for Georgia’s "unification into one state through the establishment of royal absolutism and of the liquidation of the power of the princes" had been progressive. In an apparent move to encourage Georgian nationalism in order to gain the loyalty of the population during the war with Germany
, Stalin himself was involved in modifying the script for an epic movie, Giorgi Saakadze, commissioned from the Georgian film director Mikheil Chiaureli
in 1942-1943. Stalin dismissed a script by the Georgian writer Giorgi Leonidze
and approved the one by Anna Antonovskaya and Boris Chenry, adopted from Antonovskaya’s 1942 Stalin Prize-winning six-volume novel, The Great Mouravi .
The film emphasized that Saakadze, initially an obscure squire, was a victim of machinations at the hands of the wealthy feudal lords who would sacrifice everything, including their motherland, for their own benefit. It intentionally avoided any mention of Saakadze’s own adventures and illustrated him as a popular leader against the external aggressors. In the atmosphere of suspicion and spy mania in the Soviet Union
during these years, the movie also served to current propaganda by emphasizing that the treason threatening to the popular leader, and hence to the country, was to be punished cruelly. Ironically, Giorgi Saakadze was also the name of the Wehrmacht
's 797th Battalion, one of Georgian battalions formed by the Germans to fight the Soviet Union.
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...
politician and military commander who played an important but contradictory role in the politics of the early 17th-century Georgia. He was also known as Grand Mouravi (დიდი მოურავი, didi mouravi) in Georgia, Mūrāv-Beg in Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
and Maghraw-Bek in the Ottoman Empire
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...
for having served as a mouravi
Mouravi
Mouravi was an administrative and military officer in early modern Georgia, normally translated into English as seneschal, bailiff, or sometimes as constable. Mouravi was an appointed royal official who had a jurisdiction over particular town or district. In towns, mouravi was assisted by a police...
(appointed royal official which can be rendered by seneschal
Seneschal
A seneschal was an officer in the houses of important nobles in the Middle Ages. In the French administrative system of the Middle Ages, the sénéchal was also a royal officer in charge of justice and control of the administration in southern provinces, equivalent to the northern French bailli...
or bailiff
Bailiff
A bailiff is a governor or custodian ; a legal officer to whom some degree of authority, care or jurisdiction is committed...
) of Tbilisi
Tbilisi
Tbilisi is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Mt'k'vari River. The name is derived from an early Georgian form T'pilisi and it was officially known as Tiflis until 1936...
.
Biography
Saakadze's familyTarkhan-Mouravi
Tarkhan-Mouravi is a Georgian noble family, claiming descent from the Shamkhal dynasty of Tarki, in Dagestan...
came of the petty nobility
Petty nobility
Petty nobility is dated at least back to 13th century and was formed by Nobles/Knights around their strategic interests. The idea was more capable peasants with leader roles in local community that were given tax exemption for taking care of services like for example guard duties of local primitive...
(aznauri
Aznauri
Aznauri was a class of Georgian nobility; the term that was first applied to all nobles, but in the later Middle Ages narrowed to designate the petty nobles....
). His father, Siaush, rose in prominence through a loyal service to King Simon I
Simon I of Kartli
Simon I also known as Svimon , of the Bagrationi dynasty, was a Georgian king of Kartli from 1556 to 1569 and again from 1578 to 1599...
of Kartli
Kartli
Kartli is a historical region in central-to-eastern Georgia traversed by the river Mtkvari , on which Georgia's capital, Tbilisi, is situated. Known to the Classical authors as Iberia, Kartli played a crucial role in ethnic and political consolidation of the Georgians in the Middle Ages...
, whom Giorgi joined in military service in his early career. Under the young king Luarsab II
Luarsab II of Kartli
The Holy Martyr Luarsab II , of the Bagrationi dynasty, was a king of Kartli from 1606 to 1615. He is known for his martyr’s death at the hands of the Persian shah Abbas I...
, he was appointed a mourav of Tbilisi, Tskhinvali
Tskhinvali
Tskhinvali , is the capital of South Ossetia, a disputed region which has been recognised as an independent Republic by Russia, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Nauru, and is regarded by Georgia and the rest of the world as part of the Shida Kartli region within Georgian sovereign territory.It is located...
, and Dvaleti in 1608. Saakadze’s influence and prestige especially grew after he destroyed an Ottoman invasion force at the battle of Tashiskari
Battle of Tashiskari
The Battle of Tashiskari was fought between the Georgians and the Turks at the village of Tashiskari on June 16, 1609. The Georgians, led by Giorgi Saakadze won a victory over the Turks....
in June 1609, thereby saving Luarsab from being dislodged. In 1611, the king married Saakadze’s sister, Macrine, annoying the great nobles, who grew increasingly suspicious of the ambitious and aspiring officer who had had risen from the ranks of the petty nobility to become the most powerful man in Kartli. The animosity between the two nobles parties centered on the princes P’arsadan Tsitsishvili and Shadiman Baratashvili on one hand, and Saakadze on the other, culminated in May 1612, when a threat to his life led Saakadze to defect to Iran. Having converted to Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
and displayed his military ability in Iran’s war with the Ottomans, he quickly won the confidence of Shah
Safavid dynasty
The Safavid dynasty was one of the most significant ruling dynasties of Iran. They ruled one of the greatest Persian empires since the Muslim conquest of Persia and established the Twelver school of Shi'a Islam as the official religion of their empire, marking one of the most important turning...
Abbas I of Iran and was regularly consulted on the Georgian affairs.
In 1614, Saakadze avenged Luarsab and his nobles by aiding Shah Abbas in the invasion of Georgia which brought Luarsab’s reign to an end. In 1619, the shah appointed him a vekil (regent) to Bagrat Khan
Bagrat VII of Kartli
Bagrat Khan also known as Bagrat VII , was king of Kartli, eastern Georgia, effectively serving as a khan for the Persian shah Abbas I from 1615 to 1619....
, the Iranian nominee to the throne of Kartli. Saakadze turned into a de facto
De facto
De facto is a Latin expression that means "concerning fact." In law, it often means "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but not officially established." It is commonly used in contrast to de jure when referring to matters of law, governance, or...
ruler of Kartli. Once the hostilities with the Ottomans resumed, Saakadze served as one of the leading commanders in the shah’s ranks from 1621 to 1623. His military exploits led Abbas to appoint him to the staff of Qarchiha-Khan who led a 35,000-strong army to crush the rebellion in Georgia. Saakadze, however, conspired with the rebel leaders – his brother-in-law Zurab of Aragvi and 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 ambushed the Iranian army at Martqopi
Battle of Martqopi
The Battle of Martqopi was a 1625 military confrontation between Georgia and Iran. The Georgians 15 000 men strong force, led by general Giorgi Saakadze, anhilated a 30 000 men strong Iranian detachment of Shah-Abbas I....
on March 25, 1625, inflicted a decisive defeat on the invaders. Saakadze went on to annihilate the Turkic nomads transplanted by the Iranian government to replace the exiled Georgian population, and raided the Iranian garrisons as far as Ganja 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...
. In an act of revenge, Shah Abbas put Saakadze’s younger son, Paata, to death, and sent his severed head to the Georgians. The punitive Iranian expedition followed soon thereafter, and won a costly victory over the Georgians at the battle of Marabda
Battle of Marabda
The Battle of Marabda , when the Iranian army defeated a Georgian force. This battle occurred after the Battle of Martqopi in the same year, when the Iranian army was routed.-References:...
. Saakadze withdrew into the mountains, and organized a powerful guerrilla resistance which forced Abbas I to recognize Teimuraz’s royal status.
The unity of Georgian nobles quickly collapsed, however. Saakadze’s opposition to Teimuraz’s control of Kartli led to a bitter conflict which culminated in the fratricidal battle of Bazaleti
Battle of Bazaleti
The Battle of Bazaleti was fought between the two rival Georgian parties centered respectively on Teimuraz I of Kakheti and his defiant noble Giorgi Saakadze in the fall of 1626....
in the fall of 1626. The royal army won a victory, driving Saakadze into exile to Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
where he entered the service of Sultan
Sultan
Sultan is a title with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic language abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", and "dictatorship", derived from the masdar سلطة , meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be used as the title of certain rulers who...
Ibrahim I
Ibrahim I
Ibrahim I was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1640 until 1648. He was born in Istanbul the son of Ahmed I by Valide Sultan Kadinefendi Kösem Sultan, an ethnic Greek originally named Anastasia...
. He briefly served as a governor of the Konya
Konya
Konya is a city in the Central Anatolia Region of Turkey. The metropolitan area in the entire Konya Province had a population of 1,036,027 as of 2010, making the city seventh most populous in Turkey.-Etymology:...
vilayet and fought against the Iranians at Erzurum
Erzurum
Erzurum is a city in Turkey. It is the largest city, the capital of Erzurum Province. The city is situated 1757 meters above sea level. Erzurum had a population of 361,235 in the 2000 census. .Erzurum, known as "The Rock" in NATO code, served as NATO's southeastern-most air force post during the...
(1627-1628), and in Meskheti
Meskheti
Meskheti is in a mountainous area of Moschia and is a former province in southwestern Georgia. The ancient Georgian tribes of Meskhi and Mosiniks were the indigenous population of this region. A majority of the modern Georgian population of Meskheti are descendants of these ancient tribes...
(1628). However, Grand Vizier Ekrem Hüsrev Pasha soon accused Saakadze of treason and had him, along with his son Avt’andil and a Georgian entourage, assassinated at Aleppo
Aleppo
Aleppo is the largest city in Syria and the capital of Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Syrian governorate. With an official population of 2,301,570 , expanding to over 2.5 million in the metropolitan area, it is also one of the largest cities in the Levant...
on October 3, 1629.
His last surviving son, Ioram, later attained to the princely rank in Georgia, and founded the Tarkhan-Mouravi
Tarkhan-Mouravi
Tarkhan-Mouravi is a Georgian noble family, claiming descent from the Shamkhal dynasty of Tarki, in Dagestan...
noble family.
In culture
Saakadze’s controversial career has always been a source of conflicting perceptions of his role in Georgia’s history. The traditional historiography of Georgia, heavily influenced by Prince VakhushtiVakhushti
Vakhushti was a Georgian prince , geographer, historian and cartographer.- Life :A son of King Vakhtang VI of Kartli , he was born in Tbilisi, 1696...
and Marie Brosset
Marie-Félicité Brosset
Marie-Félicité Brosset was a French orientalist who specialized in Georgian and Armenian studies.He was born in Paris into the family of a poor merchant who died the same year that Brosset was born...
, continued to view him as a feudal adventurer and ambitious warlord involved in the turbulent whirl of intrigues and disturbances which fill the history of seventeenth-century Georgia.
The first attempt at the rehabilitation of Saakadze was made by his relative Metropolitan
Metropolitan bishop
In Christian churches with episcopal polity, the rank of metropolitan bishop, or simply metropolitan, pertains to the diocesan bishop or archbishop of a metropolis; that is, the chief city of a historical Roman province, ecclesiastical province, or regional capital.Before the establishment of...
Joseph of Tbilisi in his poem The Grand Mouravi (დიდმოურავიანი, didmouraviani; 1681-87). Beginning from the early 20th century, some Georgian authors have also tried to emphasize the positive aspects of Saakadze’s biography, particularly his contribution to the 1625 rebellion which frustrated Shah Abbas’s plan to convert eastern Georgian lands into the Qizilbash khanate
Khanate
Khanate, or Chanat, is a Turco-Mongol-originated word used to describe a political entity ruled by a Khan. In modern Turkish, the word used is kağanlık, and in modern Azeri of the republic of Azerbaijan, xanlıq. In Mongolian the word khanlig is used, as in "Khereidiin Khanlig" meaning the Khanate...
s.
In the 1940s, Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
’s wartime
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
propaganda established Saakadze as a major symbol of Georgian patriotism. In October 1940, Stalin commented on Saakadze, proclaiming that the Grand Mouravi’s hopes for Georgia’s "unification into one state through the establishment of royal absolutism and of the liquidation of the power of the princes" had been progressive. In an apparent move to encourage Georgian nationalism in order to gain the loyalty of the population during the war with Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
, Stalin himself was involved in modifying the script for an epic movie, Giorgi Saakadze, commissioned from the Georgian film director Mikheil Chiaureli
Mikheil Chiaureli
Mikheil Chiaureli was a Soviet Georgian film director and screenwriter. He directed 25 films between 1928 and 1974. Mikheil Chiaureli was awarded the Stalin Prize six times, twice in 1941, 1943, 1946, 1947, and 1950.-Selected filmography:as actor...
in 1942-1943. Stalin dismissed a script by the Georgian writer Giorgi Leonidze
Giorgi Leonidze
Giorgi Leonidze was a Georgian poet, prose writer, and literary scholar.Leonidze was born in the village of Patardzeuli in the eastern Georgian province of Kakheti. He graduated from the Tbilisi Theological Seminary in 1918 and continued his studies at the Tbilisi State University...
and approved the one by Anna Antonovskaya and Boris Chenry, adopted from Antonovskaya’s 1942 Stalin Prize-winning six-volume novel, The Great Mouravi .
The film emphasized that Saakadze, initially an obscure squire, was a victim of machinations at the hands of the wealthy feudal lords who would sacrifice everything, including their motherland, for their own benefit. It intentionally avoided any mention of Saakadze’s own adventures and illustrated him as a popular leader against the external aggressors. In the atmosphere of suspicion and spy mania in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
during these years, the movie also served to current propaganda by emphasizing that the treason threatening to the popular leader, and hence to the country, was to be punished cruelly. Ironically, Giorgi Saakadze was also the name of the Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
's 797th Battalion, one of Georgian battalions formed by the Germans to fight the Soviet Union.