Many scholars who have studied the last years of the Iranian Safavid dynasty and the decline of its power note that the events that led to the Afghan conquest of Isfahan (1722) and the destruction of the Safavid state were initiated by the actions of Beglyarbek Kandahar Gorgin Khan (the Georgian king of Kartli from the Bagrationi family George XI, who converted to Islam).

After the campaigns of Shah Abbas I the Great in Eastern Georgia in the early 17th century, the Safavids began to appoint vali (rulers) in Gyurjistan-i Kartil (Kartli) and Gyurjistan-i Kakhit (Kakheti) with the title Khan of the Georgian royal family Bagrationi. After the Treaty of Kasri-Shirin in 1639, which ended a long period of Turkish-Iranian wars, Western Georgia (Imereti, Megrelia, Guria, Ajar) became the sphere of influence of Ottoman Turkey, and the eastern parts of Georgia, the kingdoms of Kartli and Kakheti, became the sphere of influence of Safavid Iran. It is these two parts of "Gyurjistan" that the Shah's bit book "Tazkirat al-muluk" refers to, according to which at the end of the XVII century there were four valis and 13 beglyarbeks in the Safavid state. According to their dignity, they were named in the following order: the first was the Vali of Arabistan, followed by the Vali of Nuristan, and then the vali of Georgia, i.e. the kings of Kartli, Kakheti, and sometimes simply Tbilisi (Tadhikat al-muluk, 1943, p. 44). Among the beglyarbek khanates, Mashhad (Khorasan), Shirvan, Kandahar, Qazvin, Herat, Yerevan, Kirman, Karabakh, Ganja were considered the most important, in addition, there were also hereditary khanates.

In 1675, the king of Kartli Vakhtang V died, who was forcibly converted to Islam in Iran and received the name Shahnavaz I. The Persian Shahanshah did not want to give the throne of Kartli to Tsarevich George, since he was not a Muslim and in every possible way avoided going to Isfahan to the shah's court. All this irritated the Shah, and he first handed over the position of vali in Kartli to Tsarevich Alexander (1675-1676), who had converted to Islam, but when Tsarevich George, who had humbled his pride, went to Isfahan, "fell on the threshold of the Great Shahin Shah", stayed there for five months [Sekhnia, 1976, p. 10], converted to Islam and received the title of "Vali of Kartli". the Iranian name Gorgin Khan (under this name he entered all the Iranian, Turkish and Arab chronicles), became the king of Kartli George XI (vali Kartil): 1676 - 1688, 1691 - 1695, 1703 - 1709 [Vakhushti, 1976, p. 76]. George received the traditional upbringing and education for princes from the Bagrationi family and fought all his life for the unification of Georgia. He was proficient with the saber, spear, and pistol, and was well versed in military tactics and strategy. George XI, even before he was tsar, showed himself to be a resolute and cruel man. So, once, after learning that a famous Georgian nobleman had killed his nobleman (Aznaur) Pavlenishvili with a dagger, Tsarevich George ordered this nobleman to be executed immediately [Vakhushti, 1976, p. 74]. The same source testifies: Tsarevich George was distinguished by valor and courage, excellent physique, cordiality and wise speeches, generosity to his subjects and chivalrous qualities [Vakhushti, 1976, p. 76].

The first reign of George XI (Persian: Gorgin Khan or Shahnavaz II) took place in 1676-1688. He maintained friendly and allied relations with King Archil of Imereti, which displeased the Iranians, and in 1679 George XI was ordered to expel Archil from Imereti. Georgian representatives of the Bagrationi family agreed, and Archil

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through Ossetia, he went to Russia to visit Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich, where he was warmly welcomed. George XI constantly kept in touch with Archil, who lived in Moscow, and waited for the right moment for his return to Georgia. George wanted to unite under his scepter both Kakheti and Imereti, and the principalities of Guria, and Adjara, i.e. to revive the Georgian state.

In Isfahan, he was closely watched, and Shahanshah demanded to send his brother Levan and son Bagrat as hostages. George XI was forced to send Levan and Bagrat to Isfahan in 1688, and he left his capital Tbilisi and retired to his summer residence in Kojori. Shahanshah Suleiman imprisoned Levan and Bagrat in the Herat fortress [Sekhnia, 1976, p. 11]. Nazarali Khan, the converted Georgian Prince Heraclius I, came to rule in Tbilisi, and George was ordered to report to Isfahan for a new position elsewhere in the vast Iranian state. But Tsar George left with his loyal soldiers in Imereti. At the same time, Tsar Archil returned from Russia. Teaming up with George XI, he defeated the troops of the Turkish protege of Tsar Alexander and drove him out of Imereti. After that, George XI retired to Akhaltsikhe, to the Turkish pasha, but did not go to Isfahan. The Persian authorities demanded that the Turkish sultan hand over the rebellious Gorgin Khan, but when the sultan's order reached Akhaltsikhe, the janissaries who were garrisoned there rebelled and refused to hand over the Georgian king to the Safavids. Tsar George XI was invited to join the Janissary corps and take the oath of allegiance to the Turkish Sultan (Vakhushti, 1976: 82-83). George XI, after consulting with prominent Georgian Meskhs belonging to ancient princely families, decided to flee to Kartli. Aznaur Dolenji Khmaladze and the tsar descended from the high fortress wall by rope at night (Vakhushti, 1976, p. 83; Sekhnia, 1976, p. 12).

In 1691, three years after his removal from the throne, George XI re-entered Kartli, where the largest feudal lords (the Tavads and Eristavs) recognized his power [Berdzenishvili, 1973, pp. 280-282]. Nazarali Khan (Heraclius I) shut himself up in the citadel of Tbilisi, hoping to get help from the khans of Ganja or Karabakh, and sending letters to Iran to the Shahanshah with a request to send an army. Kajori became the capital of Georgia. In the battles of Tbilisi and Jvari, in Tianeti and Gartiskari, George XI defeated the Kyzylbash detachments of Nazarali Khan, and although the latter continued to sit in Tbilisi, the rest of Kartli's territory submitted to George XI.

So four years passed. Shah Suleiman died in Iran, and Shah Husayn succeeded to the throne in 1694. The Safavid empire was in decline. The Russian envoy Artemy Volynsky noted a sharp drop in tax collection: if in the middle of the XVII century, 15 million rubles were collected in Iran. During the reign of Shah Hussein at the beginning of the XVIII century, there were hardly 6 million fogs [Bushev, 1978, p. 249]. The Pole Tadeusz Krusinski wrote about how local officials plunder the population and create arbitrariness, confident of complete impunity, which, in his opinion, indicates the decay and imminent fall of the Safavid power [Rrusinski, 1729, p.75, 93-94]. He also noted that at a time when everything in the provinces and in the capital was going to decline and complete turmoil, Shahanshah Hussein "was buried in a harem" and left the state at the mercy of his officials [Rrusinski, 1729, p. 99-100]. Artemy Volynsky wrote that when Shah Huseyn marched from Isfahan to Qazvin in 1717, 700 camels were sent ahead of the shah's caravan in advance, "2 ladies from the harem on each" [Bushev, 1978, p. 259].

In 1695, the Shah sent a shift for the garrison of the Kyzylbash stationed in the fortress of Tbilisi. Tsar George XI blocked the Kyzylbasham road in Didgori and, having retreated to the Kldekari fortress, prepared for a decisive battle. The tsar's troops attacked the guards and small detachments of the Kyzylbash. But it did not reach the decisive battle - the Georgian princes betrayed George XI and refused to fight the Safavid troops, thinking more about their estates and property than about the country [Vakhushti, 1976, pp. 87-88]. Tsar George XI and his family once again took refuge in the mountainous part of Imereti. Nazarali Khan, with the help of the Kazylbashes, occupied the whole of Kartli.

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At this time, Beglyarbek Farzali Khan of Yerevan offered George XI mediation to reconcile him with Shahanshah Huseyn (The Chronicle..., 2004, p. 252). George accepted the offer and arrived in Yerevan. In 1696, the envoy of Shah Huseyn brought a firman to Yerevan with a demand to appear in Isfahan, receive forgiveness and a salary for the years of disgrace [Harutyunyan, 1954, p. 130]. As a gift to George, the shah sent to Yerevan 500 tumans of silver, a silk robe and a "horse decorated with gold" (Sekhnia, 1976, p. 14; Zachary Kanakertsi, 1969, p. 193). At the end of the same year, 1696, the Georgian king left for Isfahan accompanied by Beglyarbek Farzali Khan of Yerevan and reached the Safavid capital in the first days of March 1697. According to a Georgian source, Shahanshah Hussein granted George XI a palace, and the accompanying princes (tawads), Aznaur and other Georgian nobles-houses in Isfahan, and on the fourth day of his stay in the capital of Iran, the Georgian king was granted an audience with the shah [Sekhnia, 1976, p. 15]. Four months later, all Georgians who came to Isfahan were invited to convert to Islam, after which 400 of them returned to Kartli, and 200 stayed with Tsar George XI.

According to an Armenian source, Tsar George was resourceful and well prepared for the meeting with the shah: he came to the reception, tied a rope around his neck, threw the ends of this rope over his shoulders, and hung a saber on his chest. In response to Shah Hussein's surprise, Gorgin Khan replied: "I am worthy of death and I am to blame for you. Either hang me on this rope or kill me with this sword." These words so moved the young shah that he immediately ordered to pay homage to the Georgian tsar, became imbued with confidence in him and appointed him as his adviser [Zaharii Kanakertsi, 1969, p. 193-194; The Chronicle..., 2004, p.214-216].

In November 1697, the Shah invited Gorgin Khan at a banquet in his palace to accept the Beglyarbek kingdom of Kerman and protect it from Baloch attacks. Although the Georgian tsar initially considered his new appointment a humiliation, after some reflection, he agreed [Sekhnia, 1976, p. 15]. George's brother, Prince Levan, reached Kerman 20 days later and defeated Mir Khosrow Khan's Baloch forces. 1,500 Baloch people were killed in the battle, and the rest fled, leaving behind their loot. The Persians lost 102 soldiers killed [Sekhnia, 1976, p. 17]. Levan defeated the Baloch predatory detachments three more times, and in 1699 Gorgin Khan himself went to Kerman. The townspeople welcomed him with joy, hoping that the new Beglyarbek would save them from the Baloch raids. A month later, King George XI caught up with the Balochs on the Sistan road and defeated them: 760 Balochs and 540 Afghans were killed. The Khan of Sistan came to the aid of the Georgian tsar in the midst of the battle [Sekhnia, 1976, p. 20]. The Baloch leaders Khosrow Khan and Shahdad came to the camp of George with a declaration of submission to the Safavid Shahanshah Huseyn and promised not to plunder the Iranian regions again [Vakhushti, 1976, p. 92]. Shah Hussein sent Gorgin Khan in Kirman a feather, a saber, a dagger decorated with pearls, a horse with a gilded saddle, 2 thousand fogs and an expensive robe with a sable collar [Sekhnia, 1976, p. 21].

The Shah promised to transfer Nazarali Khan (Irakli) as ruler in Kakheti, and return the throne of Kartli to George XI as a reward for stopping the looting of Afghans in the Kandahar district. Tsar George turned to his brother Levan, who had by then returned to Georgia. Levan recruited 2 thousand horsemen in Georgia (Vakhushti, 1976, p.93), led by the noble nobleman Vakhushti Kaplanishvili. These troops arrived in Kerman in September 1703. [Sekhnia, 1976, p. 23; Ocherki..., 1973, p. 399-100].

Shahanshah Huseyn solemnly returned to George XI the title of " vali of Kartli "("ruler of Kartli"), conferred the post of spasalar (commander) of Iran and sent him to Kandahar in 1704 as beglyarbek [Berdzenishvili, 1973, p.283]. Prince Vakhtang, the son of Levan and nephew of George XI, the future King of Kartli, Vakhtang VI, was to temporarily rule in Kartli as a janishin (deputy). George XI went through the Dasht-i Marho desert ("Desert of Death") to Kandahar, accompanied by 30 thousand people. Iranians and 2 thousand Georgians [Picault, 1810, p. 119-120]. After familiarizing himself with the situation, Gorgin Khan began to incite hostility between the Afghan Gilzai and Abdali tribes [Arunova, 1958,

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pp. 155-156]. To weaken Abdali's position in Kandahar, he relocated several thousand of their families to the Herat area. In Kandahar, there was a lull. Gorgin Khan amused himself by hunting and attacking the rebellious Afghan tribes, gaining more and more favor from Shahanshah Hussein. This caused envy among the highest dignitaries of the Safavid state. The Shah was increasingly informed of the Georgian tsar's harsh treatment of the Afghans, which was unquestionably true. The historian Sekhnia, who accompanied Gorgin Khan, writes that beglyar beg ordered the rebellious Afghans to be buried alive; they were walled up alive in the walls of the fortress; their teeth were pulled out and stuck in their heads; they were thrown from rocks and their ears were cut off. The leaders of the Abdali tribes paid with their heads for their disobedience: Daulat Khan, the grandfather of the future founder of the Durran state, Ahmad Shah, Nasir Muhammad Khan and Rustam Khan were killed on Beglyarbek's orders, and Ahmad Shah's father, Zeman Khan, was captured and kept in captivity in the Kandahar fortress [Reisner, 1954, p. 309]. Gorgin Khan managed to establish good relations with the ruler of Kabul, Daraf Shah, and the Baloch leaders Samandar Khan and Khosrow Khan. The Gilzai tribes took advantage of the weakening of Abdali as a result of Gorgin Khan's repressions. In Kandahar, Mir-Weiss, a rich merchant from the Gilzai family, became the kapantar (mayor).

It was the Gilzai tribes that created the first Afghan state in the 17th century-the principality of Khushkhal Khan Khattak, which was defeated by the Mughal army in the 70s of the 17th century. The Khattaks occupied the territory between Kandahar and Peshawar, and the most important trade route from Iran to India through the Khyber Pass passed through their lands. Most of the Gilzai were nomadic pastoralists, but many Khattaks settled on the land and began to engage in irrigation rainfed agriculture. They also traded in salt, which was delivered to both Iran and India. Khattak leaders in the 17th century received a charter from the Mughal emperors to govern their tribe - sanad (Lockhat, 1958, p. 139). In the event of war, the Khattaks were to send 1,500 well-armed horsemen and 1,000 ordinary soldiers to the army of the Mughal Padishah (Reisner, 1954, p. 305). Although the independent Khattak principality was defeated, its memory was still alive among the Gilzai. After all, it was Khushkhal Khan who first spoke of all the Afghan tribes as a single people.

The Ghilzai continued to control the trade highway from Kandahar to Peshawar, the Khyber Pass [Reisner, 1951, p. 150], and another important road - Kabul-Lahore. The situation of Afghans in Kandahar and Herat in the early 18th century deteriorated sharply. A census and a new tax levy were conducted there (1698-1702), which doubled the amount of taxes [Krusinsky, 1729, p.211]. This sharply aggravated the situation - unrest among Afghans followed one after another. To deal with the Afghans, Gorgin Khan made surprise raids on the nomadic pastoralists and mountain villages of the Gilzai, "all were subjected to violence and looting, some [Kyzylbashi] were taken from their horses and cattle, others had their tents taken away, and no one had to complain; women were abducted directly from the marital bed, and girls were snatched from their hands mothers" [Picault, 1810, p. 119]. Unrest swept through many tribes. Reinforcements arrived from Georgia to help Gorgin Khan, and in 1707 his brother Levan (Shahkuli Khan) and his son Kaykhosro arrived.

In Isfahan, a popular uprising broke out due to the abuses of the Shah's officials. A terrified Shah Hussein summoned Kaihosro, giving him extraordinary powers. Kaykhosro covered the distance from Kandahar to Isfahan in 12 days (usually the journey took 40 days) and arrived in the Safavid capital. "He inflicted an unprecedented and amazing massacre: he cut open the stomach of some, nailed others to the shelves with his ear, and shod others with nails and horseshoes" [Sekhnia, 1976, p. 26]. In the same year, 1707, George XI (Gorgin Khan) solemnly met Kaykhosro and his nephew Alexander, and Mir-Vays was sent to Isfahan to the shah with a request to detain him there and not send him back to Kandahar.

At the end of 1707, Mir Vays was received by Shah Husayn, lulled his vigilance and asked to be allowed to perform the Hajj to Mecca (Reisner, 1954, p. 309). The disgruntled Shah even gave him guides for the journey. Mir Vays returned from Mecca in the spring of 1708, stayed in Isfahan for a few more months, and managed to convince the Shah of his loyalty

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[Reisner, 1951, p. 152]. He studied the situation well and realized that the Safavid state was on the verge of agony. Mir-Vays bribed many of the nobles of the Shah's court and realized that the Georgian King George XI, who became Gorgin Khan in Iran, was feared by many and envied by some for his military and administrative achievements. Returning to Kandahar with a safe conduct, in the autumn of 1708, he gathered all the leaders of the Gilzai and Baloch tribes for a jirga (council of chiefs). The jirga accepted Mir Vays ' proposal for an uprising against the Safavids.

In April 1709, Mir-Weiss called on the Gilzais to revolt. Tsarevich Alexander and part of his troops went to Herat to subdue the Afghan tribes that had rebelled there, and Gorgin Khan himself was in a camp near Kandahar with several dozen Georgians and several thousand soldiers from the Abdali tribes. Mir-Weiss first attacked the Abdali, the allies of Gorgin Khan, cut off the head of their leader, and invited the ordinary soldiers to plunder the camp and go home. Gorgin Khan still has several hundred Baloch and Abdaliyevs and Georgians loyal to him. At dawn on April 21, 1709, Mir-Veys with several thousand of his soldiers attacked the Georgian king, the latter's soldiers fired back with bows and rifles, but the Gilzai broke through to the tent of the Georgian king and killed him [Sekhnia, 1976, p. 28; Vakhushti, 1976, p. 96; Natroshvili, 1978, p.158]. Mir-Vays tore the precious cross and icon from the dead king's chest and ordered them to be sent to Shah Huseyn with the words: "This is how the Georgian king deceived you" (Vakhushti, 1976, p. 96).

Then Mir-Weiss occupied Kandahar and defeated Tsarevich Alexander, who managed to break through to the Girishk fortress with a small number of soldiers [Sekhnia, 1976, p. 28; Essays..., 1973, p.402]. By 1711, Mir-Weiss had cleared the Kandahar and Herat regions of Persian garrisons and was preparing to march on Khorasan. But in 1715. he's dead. His heir, his son Mir Mahmud, in 1717 called on all Afghans to join him and go to Isfahan with the Ghilzais. The first campaign was unsuccessful, but in 1721 a new one followed, and in October 1722 Isfahan fell. The Kandahar uprising of 1709 marked a milestone in the formation of the Afghan state, contributing to the ethnic consolidation of Afghan tribes in the 18th century.

list of literature

Arunova M. R. The Herat Uprising of 1716-1732 / / Independent Afghanistan, Moscow: Nauka Publ., 1958.

Harutyunyan P. T. The liberation movement of the Armenian people in the first quarter of the XVIII century. Moscow: Nauka, 1954.

Berdzenishvili N. A. Voprosy istorii Gruzii [Questions of the history of Georgia]. Tbilisi: Metsniereba Publ., 1973 (in Georgian).

Bushev P. P. Embassy of Artemy Volynsky to Iran in 1715-1718 Moscow: Nauka Publ., 1978.

Vakhushti Bagrationi. Istoriya tsardom Gruzinskogo [History of the Kingdom of Georgia]. Transl., preface, edict by N. T. Nakashidze. Tbilisi: Metsniereba Publ., 1976.

Zachary Kanakerzi. Chronicle. Trans., preface. M. O. Darbinyan-Melikyan, Moscow: Nauka Publ., 1969.

Natroshvili T. G. Ot Mashrik do Maghreb [From Mashrik to Maghreb]. Moscow: GRVL, 1978.

Essays on the History of Georgia, vol. 4. Tbilisi: Sabchota Sakartvelo, 1973 (in Georgian).

Reisner, I. M., the Emergence and collapse Uranishi powers // Essays on the new history of the countries of the Middle East. M.: Nauka, 1951.

Reisner I. M. Razvitie feodalizma i obrazovanie gosudarstva u afgantsev [Development of feudalism and state formation among Afghans].
Sekhnia Chkheidze. History of Georgia. Life of the Kings, translated by N. T. Natroshvili. Tbilisi: Metsniereba Publ., 1976.

The Chronicle of Deacon Zakaria ofKanaker. Annot., transl. and comm. by G. Bournoutian. Costa Mesa, California: Mazda publishers, 2004.

Krusinski Thadeush. Histoire des revolutions de Perse. T. I-II. P., 1729, 1742.

Lockhart L. Nadir Shah. A Critical Study Based Mainly on Contemporary Sources. L., 1938.

Lockhart L. The Fall of the Safari Dynasty and the Afghan Occupation of Persia. Cambridge: University Press, 1958.

Picault Ch. Histoire des revolutions de Perse pendant la duree du dix-huitieme siecle de Vere chretienne. T. I. P., 1810.

Tadhikat al-muluk. A Manual of Safavid Administration (circa 1137/1725). Persian text. Transl. and espl. by V. Minorsky. Cambridge: University Press, 1943.

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