Editing Iranian Georgians (section)

== History ==
[[File:Safavid Courtiers Leading Georgian Captives (The Metropolitan Museum of Art).jpg|thumb|left|Safavid courtiers leading Georgian captives. A mid-16th century Persian textile panel from the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]].]]

===Safavid era===
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Most likely, the first extant community of Georgians within Iran was formed following [[Shah Tahmasp I's invasions of Georgia]] and the rest of the [[Caucasus]], in which he deported some 30,000 Georgians and other Caucasians back to mainland [[Safavid Iran]].<ref>Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen Gibb, Bernard Lewis, Johannes Hendrik Kramers, Charles Pellat, Joseph Schacht. [https://books.google.com/books?id=PJPrAAAAMAAJ&q=tahmasp+I+30,000+men+and+women+georgia ''The Encyclopaedia of Islam, parts 163-178''] (Volume 10). Original from the [[University of Michigan]]. p 109</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/tahmasp-i|title=ṬAHMĀSP I|access-date=29 October 2015}}</ref> The first genuine compact Georgian settlements however appeared in Iran in the 1610s when [[Shah Abbas I]] relocated some two hundred thousand from their historical homeland, eastern Georgian provinces of [[Kakheti]] and [[Kartli]], following a punitive campaign he conducted against his formerly most loyal Georgian servants, namely [[Teimuraz I of Kakheti]] and [[Luarsab II of Kartli]].{{sfn|Mikaberidze|2015|pages=291, 536}} Most of modern-day Iranian Georgians are the latter's descendants,<ref name=Rezvani /> although the first large movements of Georgians from the Caucasus to the heartland of the Safavid empire in Iran happened as early as during the rule of [[Tahmasp I]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2BMVnw9JQh8C|title=Slaves of the Shah:New Elites of Safavid Iran|year=2004|isbn=9781860647215|access-date=1 April 2014|last1=Babaie|first1=Sussan|last2=Babayan|first2=Kathryn|author-link2=Kathryn Babayan|last3=Baghdiantz-Maccabe|first3=Ina|last4=Farhad|first4=Mussumeh|publisher=Bloomsbury Academic }}</ref> Subsequent waves of large deportations after Abbas also occurred throughout the rest of the 17th, but also the 18th and 19th centuries, the last ones by the [[Qajar dynasty]]. A certain amount also migrated as [[Ethnic cleansing of the Circassians|muhajirs]] in the 19th century to Iran, following the Russian conquest of the [[Caucasus]]. 
The Georgian deportees were settled by the Shah's government into the scarcely populated lands which were quickly made by their new inhabitants into the lively agricultural areas. Many of these new settlements were given Georgian names, reflecting the toponyms found in Georgia. During the [[Safavid]] era, Georgia became so politically and somewhat culturally intertwined with Iran that Georgians replaced the [[Qizilbash]] among the Safavid officials, alongside the [[Circassians]] and [[Armenians]].
[[File:როსტომ ხანი.gif|thumb|right|170px|[[Rostom of Kartli|Rostom]] (also known as ''Rustam Khan''), viceroy of [[Kingdom of Kartli|Kartli]], eastern [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]], from 1633 to 1658.]]
During his travels the Italian adventurer [[Pietro Della Valle]] claimed that there was no household in Persia without its Georgian slaves, noticing the huge amounts of Georgians present everywhere in society.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.academia.edu/1615432|title=Georgians in Safavid Iran|access-date=26 April 2014|last1=Matthee |first1=Rudolph (Rudi) }}</ref> The later Safavid capital, Isfahan, was home to many Georgians. Many of the city's inhabitants were of Georgian, [[Circassians|Circassian]], and [[Dagestan|Daghistani]] descent.<ref name="Isfahan-Safavid Period VII">{{Cite web|url=https://iranicaonline.org/|title=Welcome to Encyclopaedia Iranica|first=Encyclopaedia Iranica|last=Foundation|website=iranicaonline.org|accessdate=1 December 2022}}</ref> Engelbert Kaempfer, who was in Safavid Persia in 1684-85, estimated their number at 20,000.<ref name="Isfahan-Safavid Period VII"/>{{sfn|Matthee|2012|page=67}} Following an agreement between Shah Abbas I and his Georgian subject [[Teimuraz I of Kakheti]] ("Tahmuras Khan"), whereby the latter submitted to Safavid rule in exchange for being allowed to rule as the region's wāli (governor) and for having his son serve as [[darugha|dāruḡa]] ("prefect") of Isfahan in perpetuity, a Georgian prince converted to Islam served as governor.<ref name="Isfahan-Safavid Period VII"/> He was accompanied by a certain number of soldiers, and they spoke in [[Georgian language|Georgian]] among themselves.<ref name="Isfahan-Safavid Period VII"/> There must also have been some Georgian [[Georgian Orthodox Church|Orthodox Christians]].<ref name="Isfahan-Safavid Period VII"/> The royal court in Isfahan had a great number of Georgian ḡolāms (military slaves) as well as Georgian women.<ref name="Isfahan-Safavid Period VII"/> Although they spoke Persian or Turkic, their [[mother tongue]] was Georgian.<ref name="Isfahan-Safavid Period VII"/>

During the last days of the [[Safavid]] empire, the Safavids arch enemy, namely the neighboring [[Ottoman Turks]], as well as neighboring [[Imperial Russia]], but also the tribal [[Demographics of Afghanistan|Afghans]] from the far off easternmost regions of the empire took advantage of Iranian internal weakness and invaded Iran.
The Iranian Georgian contribution in wars against the invading Afghans was crucial. Georgians fought in the battle of Golnabad, and in the battle of [[Fereydunshahr]]. In the latter battle they brought a humiliating defeat to the Afghan army.

In total, the Persian sources mention that during the Safavid era 225,000 Georgians were transplanted to mainland Iran during the first two centuries, while the Georgian sources keep this number at 245,000.<ref name="Iranian Georgians">Babak Rezvani. [https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Babak_Rezvani/publication/228110081_Iranian_Georgians_Prerequisites_for_a_Research/links/0fcfd4ff49600769aa000000.pdf Iranian Georgians]</ref>

===Afsharid era===
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During the [[Afsharid dynasty]], 5,000 Georgian families were moved to mainland Iran according to the Persian sources,<ref name="Iranian Georgians"/> while the Georgian sources keep it on 30,000 persons.<ref name="Iranian Georgians"/>

===Qajar era===
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During the [[Qajar dynasty]], the last Iranian empire that would, despite very briefly, have effective control over Georgia, 15,000 Georgians were moved to Iran according to the Persian sources, while the Georgian ones mention 22,000 persons.<ref name="Iranian Georgians"/> This last large wave of Georgian movement and settlement towards mainland Iran happened as a result of the [[Battle of Krtsanisi]] in 1795.

===Modern Iran===
Despite their isolation from Georgia, many Georgians have preserved their language and some traditions, but embraced Islam. The ethnographer Lado Aghniashvili was first from Georgia to visit this community in 1890.

In the aftermath of [[World War I]], the Georgian minority in Iran was caught in the pressures of the rising [[Cold War]]. In 1945, this compact ethnic community, along with other ethnic minorities that populated northern Iran, came to the attention of the [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] as a possible instrument for fomenting unrest in Iranian domestic politics. While the [[Georgian SSR|Soviet Georgian]] leadership wanted to repatriate them to Georgia, Moscow clearly preferred to keep them in Iran. The Soviet plans were abandoned only after [[Joseph Stalin]] realized that his plans to obtain influence in northern Iran foiled by both Iranian stubbornness and United States pressure.<ref>Svetlana Savranskaya and Vladislav Zubok (editors), [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/pubs/f-research_notes.pdf Cold War International History Project Bulletin, I issue, 14/15 – Conference Reports, Research Notes and Archival Updates] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061215145138/http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/pubs/f-research_notes.pdf |date=2006-12-15 }}, p. 401. [[Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars]]. Accessed on September 16, 2007.</ref>

In June 2004, the new Georgian president, [[Mikheil Saakashvili]], became the first Georgian politician to have visited the Iranian Georgian community in [[Fereydunshahr]]. Thousands of local Georgians gave the delegation a warm welcome, which included waving of the newly adopted [[Flag of Georgia (country)|Georgian national flag]] with its five crosses.<ref>Sanikidze, George. Walker, Edward W. [http://escholarship.org/uc/item/7149d486#page-22 ''Islam and Islamic Practices in Georgia''] Publication Date; 08-01-2004. p 19</ref>{{sfn|Mikaberidze|2015|page=536}} Saakashvili who stressed that the Iranian Georgians have historically played an important role in defending Iran put flowers on the graves of the Iranian Georgian dead of the eight years long [[Iran–Iraq War]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.iran-newspaper.com/1383/830420/html/internal.htm |title=Iran Newspaper |access-date=2007-02-16 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051129005643/http://www.iran-newspaper.com/1383/830420/html/internal.htm |archive-date=2005-11-29 }}</ref>