| Battle of Gori | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Kingdom of Kartli |  Ottoman Empire | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Simon I of Kartli | Unknown | ||||||
The Battle of Gori was a battle between Kingdom of Kartli and the Ottoman Empire at Gori. After the siege, which lasted for nine months, the battle ended with the Georgian victory.
The Ottoman–Safavid War of 1578–1590 saw the Kingdom of Kartli falling under the Ottoman Empire suzerainty as its capital Tbilisi was occupied by the Ottoman soldiers. However, due to the fierce resistance of Simon I of Kartli, he was recognized as a Christian king with full autonomy in exchange for annual tribute. [1]
After unsuccessful interventions in the struggle for Imeretian throne with the aim of unifying Kartli and Imereti, Simon I decided to renew struggle against the Ottoman occupation. [2] Alarmed by the Ottoman gains in the Treaty of Constantinople, the European countries encouraged a broad alliance against the Ottomans, which resulted in them, Kartli, Kakheti, Iran and Russia coming closer politically. [3] New Shah of Persia Abbas was trying to find common language with the Christian countries of Europe through Christian Kings of Kartli and Kakheti. [4] Despite this, no military intervention was foreseeable from the Europeans and Russia, neither did Iran launch the war against the Ottomans. Nevertheless, Simon I decided to renew struggle to liberate his kingdom from Ottomans. [2] [4]
Gori, the heart of the Kingdom of Kartli, was Simon's first objective before retaking Tbilisi and other fortified towns, as Gori would provide a good stronghold for resisting the enemy. In 1598, Simon I laid siege to Turkish garrison at the fortress of Gori. The garrison soon fell into the state of privation, and they became compelled to obtain their food by force from the neighboring villages. Despite this, they valiantly resisted. In Spring 1599, the Georgians raised the siege during Lent, which was a common practice among Georgians and led Ottomans to believe that the Georgians abandoned their goals. However, this was a trick, and as soon as the Turks relaxed their vigilance, Simon I decided to act. The former mouravi of Gori Sulkhan Turmanidze and tavadi Pharsadan Tsitsishvili had stockpiled the ladders upon King's order, and at agreed signal met at night near Gori, where the rivers of Mtkvari and Liakhvi meet. King Simon I was also there. The joined armies moved unobserved in the darkness, set their ladders against the walls and stormed the citadel of Gori. The army was led by Simon's brother Vakhtang, the vanguard was commanded by Gocha. The fighting continued till down, but ultimately the Turks surrendered the fortress as further resistance was futile. [5] After liberating Gori, Simon began to prepare for retaking Tbilisi, while Ottoman Sultan sent a large army to quell the rebellion. [4]
David IV, also known as David IV the Builder (1073–1125), of the Bagrationi dynasty, was the 5th king (mepe) of the Kingdom of Georgia from 1089 until his death in 1125.
Kakheti is a region (mkhare) formed in the 1990s in eastern Georgia from the historical province of Kakheti and the small, mountainous province of Tusheti. Telavi is its administrative center. The region comprises eight administrative districts: Telavi, Gurjaani, Qvareli, Sagarejo, Dedoplistsqaro, Signagi, Lagodekhi and Akhmeta.
The Battle of Aspindza was fought on 20 April 1770 between the Georgians, led by king of Kartli-Kakheti Erekle II, and the Ottoman Empire. The Georgians won a victory over the Turks.
Vakhtang V, born Bakhuta Mukhranbatoni, was king (mepe) of Kartli from 1658 until his death, who ruled as a vassal wali for the Persian shah. He is also known under the name of Shah Nawaz, which he assumed on being obliged outwardly to conform to Islam.
George VIII of the Bagrationi dynasty, was de facto last king (mepe) of the formerly united Kingdom of Georgia from 1446 to 1465. He would later rule in the Kingdom of Kakheti as George I from 1465 until his death in 1476, founding a local branch of the Bagrationi dynasty.
Alexander II was a king (mepe) of Georgia in 1478 and of Imereti from 1483 to 1510.
David X was the second king (mepe) of the Kingdom of Kartli from 1505 to 1525. Associated with the throne as a child, he became king on the death of his father and from then on had to endure invasions from the Kingdom of Imereti and Kingdom of Kakheti. A reformer, he succeeded in subduing the army and destroying the power of the nobles by abolishing the semi-independent principalities that were ruining the unity of the country, before uniting eastern Georgia under a single sceptre. David X is also known to have survived another invasion by Persia, and is thus considered to be the first in a series of eleven kings who fought against their Safavid neighbours over the next two centuries.
Simon I the Great, also known as Svimon, of the Bagrationi dynasty, was a Georgian king (mepe) of Kartli from 1556 to 1569 and again from 1578 to 1599. His first tenure was marked by war against the Persian domination of Georgia. In 1569 he was captured by the Persians, and spent nine years in captivity. In 1578 he was released and reinstalled in Kartli. During this period, he fought as a Persian subject against the Ottoman domination of Georgia. In 1599 Simon I was captured by the Ottomans and died in captivity. During 1557 to 1569 he was known as Mahmud Khan and from 1578 to 1599 as Shahnavaz Khan. He was also referred to as Simon the Mad by the Ottomans.
Rostom or Rustam Khan was a Georgian royal, from the House of Bagrationi, who functioned as a Safavid-appointed vali /king (mepe) of Kartli, eastern Georgia, from 1633 until his death.
George XII, sometimes known as George XIII, of the House of Bagrationi, was the second and last king (mepe) of the Kingdom of Kartl-Kakheti in eastern Georgia from 1798 until his death in 1800.
David of Kakheti was a Choreposcopus of Kakheti, a principality of Eastern Georgia, who ruled from 976 until his death 1010.
The Battle of Chikhori was fought between the armies of King George VIII of Georgia and the rebellious nobles led by a royal kinsman Bagrat in 1463. It took place near the fortress Chikhori in the district of Argveti in western Georgia, and ended in the king's decisive defeat.
The Battle of Ertsukhi was fought in 1104 between the armies of the Kingdom of Georgia and the Seljuk Empire in southeastern part of Georgia, near Ertsukhi.
Adarnase IV, or Adarnase II, was a Georgian monarch of the Bagrationi dynasty who reigned in the late 9th and early 10th centuries. The son of the Kouropalates David I of Iberia, he ruled as duke of Lower Tao from 881 to 923, king (mepe) of the Kingdom of the Iberians from 888 to 923 and Kouropalates of Iberia from 891 to 923, re-establishing the Georgian monarchy in 888, more than three centuries after the abolition of the Kingdom of Iberia by Sasanian Empire.
The Kingdom of Kartli was a late medieval and early modern monarchy in eastern Georgia, centred on the province of Kartli, with its capital at Tbilisi. It emerged in the process of a tripartite division of the Kingdom of Georgia in 1478 and existed, with several brief intervals, until 1762 when Kartli and the neighbouring Georgian kingdom of Kakheti were merged through dynastic succession under the Kakhetian branch of the Bagrationi dynasty. Through much of this period, the kingdom was a vassal of the successive dynasties of Iran, and to a much shorter period Ottoman Empire, but enjoyed intermittent periods of greater independence, especially after 1747.
Lala Mustafa Pasha's Caucasian campaign was a military expedition launched in 1578 by Lala Mustafa Pasha, a grand-vizier of the expanding Ottoman Empire. It is also considered a part of the larger conflict, Ottoman–Safavid War (1578–90).
The Georgian–Seljuk wars, also known as Georgian Crusade, is a long series of battles and military clashes that took place from 1064 until 1213, between the Kingdom of Georgia and the different Seljukid states that occupied most of South Caucasus. The conflict is preceded by deadly raids in the Caucasus by the Turks in the 11th century, known in Georgian historiography as the Great Turkish Invasion.
The collapse of the Georgian realm was a political and territorial fragmentation process that resulted in the dynastic triumvirate military conflict of the Bagrationi monarchs and war of succession in the united Kingdom of Georgia culminating during the second half of the 15th century.
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