Abd-ol-Ghaffar Amilakhori

Abd-ol-Ghaffar Amilakhori[lower-alpha 1] (Persian: عبدالقفار امیلخوری‎, romanized: Abd-ol-Qaffār Amilakhori, Georgian: ანდუყაფარ ამილახორი, romanized: anduq'apar amilakhori;[lower-alpha 2] died c. 1626) was an early 17th-century noble from the Georgian Amilakhori family of Kartli, prominent in the Safavid Iranian service.

Biography

Abd-ol-Ghaffar Amilakhori was raised at the Safavid court in Isfahan and was a "typical member of the new Georgian converted elite".[2] Abd-ol-Ghaffar was a son of Faramarz Amilakhori by his wife Tamar, a great-grandson of King Luarsab I of Kartli. His sister Tamar was a favourite concubine of the Safavid shah Abbas I (r. 1588—1629).[3]

When in 1624, Abbas I married off his granddaughter to the ruler of Kartli, Semayun Khan (Simon II), Abd-ol-Ghaffar's wife was a companion to the bride; Amilakhori and another leading Georgian noble, Zurab, eristavi of Aragvi, entertained the guests of the wedding party on the order of the Safavid-Georgian officer Murav Beg (Giorgi Saakadze).[2] Around the same time, the shah arranged the marriage of Abd-ol-Ghaffar to a daughter of Imam-Quli Khan, a prominent Safavid military and political leader of Georgian descent.[2] According to the contemporary Safavid historian Fazli Khuzani, Abd-ol-Ghaffar was 22-years old at the time of his marriage.[4]

While in Kartli, Abd-ol-Ghaffar was known as a champion of the Safavid interests in the country.[5] He further expanded his estates at the expanse of the neighboring noble families, exterminated the Ghazneli and had the environs of Mtskheta ravaged. In 1625/6, Abd-ol-Ghaffar and his wife were captured by the rebellious Georgians and imprisoned at the fortress of Arshi. After the rebels' defeat at the battle of Marabda, Abbas I sent a force to their resque.[6] Upon being informed about this, the rebels sent the two, according to Fazli Khuzani, to the relatives of Abd-ol-Ghaffar himself, as well as those of Allahverdi Khan (the father of Imam-Quli Khan).[6] Amilakhori, thereafter, disappears from historical records.[5]

Notes
  1. Also spelled "Abd al-Gaffar" or "Abd al-Ghaffar".
  2. Abd-ol-Ghaffar is mentioned in the Georgian sources as "Anduqapar".[1] The literal Georgian transliteration of Abd-ol-Ghaffar is აბდულყაფარ.

References
  1. Floor & Herzig, p. 484.
  2. Floor & Herzig 2012, p. 484.
  3. Floor & Herzig 2012, p. 483.
  4. Floor & Herzig 2012, p. 489.
  5. Tukhashvili 1975, p. 391.
  6. Maeda 2003, pp. 263-264.

Sources
  • Floor, Willem; Herzig, Edmund, eds. (2015). Iran and the World in the Safavid Age. I.B.Tauris. p. 481. ISBN 978-1780769905.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Maeda, Hirotake (2003). "On the Ethno-Social Background of Four Gholām Families from Georgia in Safavid Iran". Studia Iranica (32): 1–278.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Tukhashvili, Lovard (1975). "ანდუყაფარ ამილახვარი [Anduqapar Amilakhvari]". ქართული საბჭოთა ენციკლოპედია [Georgian Soviet Encyclopedia] (in Georgian). Tbilisi: Metsniereba. p. 391.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
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