In the Triangle of the Great Powers: Interactional Spaces of the Kings and the Nobility from Eastern Georgia (1555-1724)

Nana Kharebava
This project deals with the interactional spaces of the Georgian kings and the nobility who maintained close socio-cultural and political interaction and communication with the royal courts of neighbouring countries like the Safavid, the Ottoman and the Russian Empires. Migration processes played a crucial role in the creation of interactional fields within the conflicting areas of expansion of these great powers. The timeframe of the project covers a period starting with the peace of Amasya (1555) up to the emigration of the last Safavid viceroy Vakhtang VI (alias Hosaynqoli Khan) from the Eastern Georgian Kingdom Kartli to the Court of the Tsar in 1724. It examines a set of political actors from the Eastern Georgian Kingdoms of Kartli and Kakheti, areas which were considered to be under the influence of the Safavids following the agreement in the peace treaty of Amasya between the Ottomans and the Safavids. A comparative historical analysis proves to be the best methodological approach in researching the interactional spaces of Georgian political actors who found themselves in a highly complex process of assimilation and differentiation towards Safavid culture and religion as well as under continuous influence of major political interests of the Ottomans and the Tsar. It is the aim of this project to explain the political behaviour of the Georgian Kings in the framework of migration, cross-cultural relations, mechanisms of maintenance of power as well as religious cultures which were expressions of a global development within the transottoman area.