Bogdan Gurdziecki

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Bogdan Gurdziecki (known in Persia as Bohtam Beg) (died April 12, 1700) was a Georgia-born Polish diplomat who served as the first permanent Polish resident in Safavid Persia.

Born in Georgia into a noble Georgian family, Gurdziecki served the Polish crown since the early 1650s. [1] The surname derives from Turkish / Iranian name for Georgians "Gurdji". As the greatest authority on all things Persian, he was dispatched to Isfahan as a head of Polish diplomatic mission, part of the joint Russo-Polish diplomatic and economic efforts in Persia aimed at bringing the Safavid government into an anti-Ottoman alliance. Henceforth, Gurdziecki played a role in diplomacy between Poland and Persia as well as in some Russo-Georgian interaction. He died in Moscow in 1700. [2]

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References

  1. "Welcome to Encyclopaedia Iranica".
  2. Matthee, Rudi. Gurdziecki, Bogdan Archived January 25, 2009, at the Wayback Machine . Encyclopædia Iranica Online Edition. Retrieved on April 11, 2009