Middle East · Mongols to gunpowder empires
Kingdom of Kartli
Georgian (Bagrationi) kingdom, later Persian/Ottoman vassal · 1478–1762; first distinct from 1463
The Kingdom of Kartli was the principal successor state of the medieval Kingdom of Georgia, centred on the eastern Georgian heartland of Kartli with its capital at Tbilisi. Its origins lie in the civil wars that shattered Georgian unity after 1450.
- Type
- Georgian (Bagrationi) kingdom, later Persian/Ottoman vassal
- Existed
- 1478–1762; first distinct from 1463
- Shown on the map
- 1463–1467, 1612–1705 (2 periods)
- Capital
- Tbilisi
- Peak area
- ~130,000 km²
- Region
- Middle East
Origins & rise
The Kingdom of Kartli was the principal successor state of the medieval Kingdom of Georgia, centred on the eastern Georgian heartland of Kartli with its capital at Tbilisi. Its origins lie in the civil wars that shattered Georgian unity after 1450. The decisive rupture came in 1463, when the rebel noble Bagrat defeated King George VIII at the battle of Chikhori and proclaimed himself king of Imereti in the west. George VIII, captured in 1465 by Qvarqvare II Jaqeli of Samtskhe, was reduced to a rump kingdom of Kakheti, while his nephew Constantine established himself in Kartli from 1469 — the de facto beginning of a separate Kartlian kingdom, which explains the map's first window (1463–1467). The formal tripartite division of Georgia came in 1478, when Constantine II (r. 1478–1505) was recognized in Kartli, and was sealed around 1490 after further wars among the Bagrationi branches; thereafter Georgia permanently comprised the kingdoms of Kartli, Kakheti and Imereti and the principality of Samtskhe.
History & key rulers
Kartli's early kings, from Constantine II to David X, fought off Kakhetian and Imeretian rivals and Turkmen invasions — an Aq Qoyunlu raid under Ya'qub ibn Uzun Hasan struck in 1486 — but the kingdom's fate was soon bound to the great-power contest between Safavid Iran and the Ottoman Empire. Shah Ismail I occupied Tbilisi in 1522/24; the Peace of Amasya (1555) assigned Kartli to the Persian sphere; the Ottomans overran it from 1578 to 1612; and from 1612 to 1723 it was again a Persian vassal — the map's second window (1612–1705) corresponds to this era of Safavid suzerainty. Under the Persian-appointed Rostom Khan (1633–1658), a Bagrationi raised in Isfahan, Kartli enjoyed a notable revival of trade and prosperity and a policy of religious tolerance. Ottoman rule returned briefly (1723–1736), then Persian (1736–1747), until Nader Shah's assassination in 1747 allowed Teimuraz II and his son Heraclius (Erekle) II to assert de facto independence. On Teimuraz II's death in 1762, Heraclius II united Kartli with Kakheti in the Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti, which survived until Russian annexation in 1800–1801.
Government, religion & culture
A Christian kingdom of the Georgian Orthodox Church ruled by the Bagrationi dynasty, Kartli was nonetheless deeply Persianate in its centuries of vassalage: kings paid tribute in slaves, horses and wine, several rulers (David XI "Daud Khan," Rostom-Khosrow Mirza) professed Islam at the shah's court, administration used Persian alongside Georgian, and bilingual coinage was struck. Yet the church, the Georgian language and the aristocratic order survived intact.
Peak & territory
The kingdom covered eastern Georgia — Kartli proper with Tbilisi, and at times adjoining districts — roughly 130,000 km² at its widest claims, squeezed between the Caucasus powers.
Decline & legacy
Merged into Kartli-Kakheti in 1762 and annexed by Russia in 1800, the Kingdom of Kartli preserved Georgian statehood, kingship and church through three centuries of Islamic-empire domination, and its capital Tbilisi remains the heart of Georgia today.
Common questions
- What was the Kingdom of Kartli?
- The Kingdom of Kartli was the principal successor state of the medieval Kingdom of Georgia, centred on the eastern Georgian heartland of Kartli with its capital at Tbilisi. Its origins lie in the civil wars that shattered Georgian unity after 1450.
- When did the Kingdom of Kartli exist?
- The Kingdom of Kartli existed 1478–1762; first distinct from 1463. On this map it is drawn 1463–1467, 1612–1705.
- What was the capital of the Kingdom of Kartli?
- The Kingdom of Kartli was ruled from Tbilisi.
- How large was the Kingdom of Kartli at its height?
- The kingdom covered eastern Georgia — Kartli proper with Tbilisi, and at times adjoining districts — roughly 130,000 km² at its widest claims, squeezed between the Caucasus powers.
- Who ruled the Kingdom of Kartli?
- Kartli's early kings, from Constantine II to David X, fought off Kakhetian and Imeretian rivals and Turkmen invasions — an Aq Qoyunlu raid under Ya'qub ibn Uzun Hasan struck in 1486 — but the kingdom's fate was soon bound to the great-power contest between Safavid Iran and the Ottoman Empire.
- How did the Kingdom of Kartli end?
- Merged into Kartli-Kakheti in 1762 and annexed by Russia in 1800, the Kingdom of Kartli preserved Georgian statehood, kingship and church through three centuries of Islamic-empire domination, and its capital Tbilisi remains the heart of Georgia today.
- How was the Kingdom of Kartli governed?
- A Christian kingdom of the Georgian Orthodox Church ruled by the Bagrationi dynasty, Kartli was nonetheless deeply Persianate in its centuries of vassalage: kings paid tribute in slaves, horses and wine, several rulers (David XI "Daud Khan," Rostom-Khosrow Mirza) professed Islam at the shah's court, administration used Persian alongside Georgian, and bilingual coinage was struck.
Sources
Every source below was consulted while writing this entry.
- Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Kartli
- Donald Rayfield, Edge of Empires: A History of Georgia (Reaktion, 2013; cited via Wikipedia references)
- Charles Melville (ed.), Safavid Persia in the Age of Empires (I.B. Tauris, 2021; cited via Wikipedia references)
This entry was written from the sources above and last updated .
This entry was researched and drafted with AI from the sources above, and has not been reviewed by a historian. How entries are made
Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.
Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).
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