Kaikhosro II Jaqeli

Kaikhosro II Jaqeli, of the House of Jaqeli, was prince of Samtskhe (styled with the hereditary title of atabeg), ruling nominally in 1545–1573. Invested as a puppet ruler by the Ottomans in 1545, Kaikhosro II's further tenure over Samtskhe continued as a hard one, and it was marked by incessant Iranian–Ottoman rivalry, as well as uneasy relations with neighboring Georgian polities, and internecine feuds. He quickly ended up with the western part of his principality being assimilated by the Ottomans and formed into a paşalık, while the eastern part came under Iranian suzerainty. Ottoman actions in the western part eventually made him to directly seek assistance in 1570 from his suzerain, king Tahmasp I (r. 1524–1576) at the Iranian royal court, where he died three years later as well, in 1573.

During the first decades of the 16th century, which were marked by political turmoil, the Samtskhe lords found themselves dispossessed of their territories. Kaikhosro, then still an infant, was smuggled by Otar Shalikashvili to the Ottoman court at Istanbul in order to request help to reclaim his principality. In 1536, the Ottoman army came, did nothing to help reinstate the atabeg, but went back with more loot than they could carry. Subsequently, Samtskhe ceased to exist for a period of ten years — all of its lands were divided between Rostom Gurieli, Bagrat III of Imereti, and Luarsab I of Kartli. At the same time, the Ottomans pursued an active policy of Islamisation in the southwest. In 1545, during the Ottoman-Safavid War of 1532-155, Samtskhe was under the attack of the main army of then incumbent Ottoman ruler Suleiman the Magnificent (r. 1520–1566). Eventually, the Ottomans, who were also aided by Otar Shalikashvili, managed to overrun Samtskhe, and Kaikhosro II was invested as a puppet atabeg by the former. In the same year, at the age of 22, Kaikhosro married Dedisimedi, a Georgian noblewoman of the House of Mukhrani. Ottoman acts of ferocity in Samtskhe alarmed Kaikhosro II, who subsequently appealed to then incumbent Iranian Safavid king Tahmasp I to drive off the Ottomans, as well as to assist him in regaining Javakheti, which was still under the rule of king Luarsab I ever since the period the Samtskhe principality was disbanded. In January 1547 Tahmasp I occupied the town of Akhalkalaki, despite a "severe winter", and not long afterwards Javakheti and Lower Kartli as well. Luarsab I's mercenaries however "decimated" the Iranian army, and shortly after by Bagrat III of Imereti and Levan of Kakheti as well, who helped Luarsab I, though eventually they were both paid off by Tahmasp I. Later in 1547, when the Ottoman threat flared up again, the kings of both Imereti as well as Kakheti were summoned by Tahmasp, and the latter collected tribute as well as military support from them. Kaikhosro II ended up watching the western part of his principality being assimilated by the Ottomans and formed into a paşalık, while the eastern moiety—where he preferred to stay—being subjected to Iran. The Ottomans later on periodically raided this eastern part of Samtskhe, which was under Iranian suzerainty, and as a result they managed to drive Kaikhosro in 1570 to the Iranian royal court at Qazvin, where he begged then incumbent king Tahmasp I to intervene. Kaikhosro II died three years later, in 1573, at Qazvin. He was succeeded by the eldest of his eight children with Dedisimedi, known by his dynastic name of Kvarkvare VI. However, since he was still young and inexperienced, the actual government of the country was taken over by his widow Dedisimedi and the nobleman Varaza Shalikashvili, whose sister was a favorite wife in king Tahmasp I's harem.

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