Safavid Georgia

Safavid Georgia
Velāyat-e Gorjestān
Province of the Safavid Empire
1510s–1736
Northwestern part of the Safavid Empire
Capital		Tiflis (Tbilisi)
Languages		Persian, Azerbaijani, Georgian, Armenian
Government		Velayat
History
•	Establishment	1510s
•	Disestablished	1736
Succeeded by Afsharid dynasty
Today part of		Armenia  Azerbaijan  Georgia  Russia

The province of Georgia (Persian: ولایت گرجستان‎, translit. Velāyat-e Gorjestān‎) was a velayat (province) of the Safavid Empire, centred on the territory of present-day Georgia. The territory of the province was principally made up of the two subordinate eastern Georgian kingdoms of Kartli (Persian: کارتلی‎, translit. Kartil‎) and Kakheti (Persian: کاختی‎, translit. Kakhet‎), although briefly, during two periods, parts of the Samtskhe (Meskheti) principality were added to it as well. The city of Tiflis (present-day Tbilisi) was its administrative center, the base of Safavid power in the province, and the seat of the Iranian-appointed valis and khans (governors, viceroys) of Kartli. It housed an important Safavid mint as well.

Safavid rule was mainly characterized by the appointment of pro-Iranian Georgian nobles (of the Bagrationi dynasty), converts to Shia Islam, as valis or khans. Though both kingdoms had already been subjected by the early 16th-century, the rulers of the kingdoms did not convert, and even though Tiflis had been garrisoned as early as Ismail I's reign, relations at the time were somewhat marked by traditional vassalage. Davud Khan was the first Safavid-appointed ruler, whose placement on the puppet throne of Kartli, marks the start of about two and a half centuries of Iranian political dominance over eastern Georgia. From Tahmasp I's reign and onwards, the province was of great importance, while many ethnic Georgians, generally from Kartli and Kakheti, rose to immense prominence in the Safavid state, occupying many of its highest positions in the civil and military administration. By the late Safavid period, Georgians formed the mainstay of the Safavid army as well. As the province was a border state, its governor was granted more autonomy compared to the other provinces with respect to the central government, and could be compared to the Arabestan Province (present-day Khuzestan Province), in the southwestern part of the empire, and was one of the four Safavid administrative territories where, continuously, governors with the title of vali were appointed.