George IV of Imereti

Giorgi III Gurieli (Georgian: გიორგი III გურიელი; died 1684), of the Georgian House of Gurieli, was Prince of Guria from 1669 to 1684 and King of Imereti from 1681 to 1683. He was energetically involved in civil wars in western Georgian polities, which he sought to bring under his sway. He was killed in battle while trying to recover the lost throne of Imereti.

Giorgi was the eldest son of Kaikhosro I, Prince-regnant of Guria. After the assassination of his father, Giorgi and his brother Malakia fled to the protection of the Ottoman pasha of Akhaltsikhe, whose help he exploiting in securing the princely throne of Guria after the death of Demetre Gurieli in 1668. According to the 18th-century Georgian historian Prince Vakhushti Giorgi was "powerful, brave, superb warrior, godless, bloodthirsty, and a merciless slave-trader". He successfully fought the piratical Abkhaz who raided the coast of Guria on more than one occasion.

In 1672, Giorgi, with an extravagant bribe, bought the pasha's support against King Bagrat V of Imereti, with an eye on the king's beautiful wife Tamar, whom Gurieli admired as claimed by Prince Vakhushti. Bagrat was defeated by the allies at Kutaisi and made a prisoner, but released after the pasha extracted a greater bribe from him and became convinced that taking the fortress of Kvara—where Tamar had taken refuge—was a futile endeavor. Bagrat promptly avenged Gurieli, attacking and looting Guria that same year. Eventually, the two men reconciled; Giorgi married Bagrat's daughter Darejan in 1674 and offered him a shelter when Bagrat was deposed in favor of Archil, son of Vakhtang V of Kartli, in 1678. Archil, further, restored Bagrat's wife Tamar, an Imeretian femme fatale, to her previous husband Levan III Dadiani, Prince of Mingrelia. Gurieli invoked his ties with the Ottoman government; the pasha of Erzurum arrived with troops and helped Bagrat reclaim his crown and wife in 1679. The defeated Dadiani managed to retain his principality at the expense of surrendering his only heir Manuchar as a hostage to Giorgi Gurieli. On Levan's death in 1680, Gurieli's claim to Dadiani's succession was rejected by the Mingrelians. Giorgi then executed Manuchar and attempted to seize Mingrelia by force, but failed.

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