Princess Ketevan of Kakheti

Ketevan (Georgian: ქეთევანი; Persian: کتایون, romanized: Katāyūn; fl. 1737) was a Georgian princess royal (batonishvili) of the Bagrationi dynasty. She was a daughter of Teimuraz II and sister of Heraclius II and married the Afsharid Iranian royal Adil Shah (Ali-qoli Khan) in 1737.

Ketevan was the eldest daughter of Teimuraz, of the royal house of Kakheti, by his second wife, Princess Tamar of Kartli. Teimuraz, then at war to secure his throne, was summoned by his suzerain Nader Shah, the Afsharid ruler of Iran, in 1737. In a show of loyalty, Teimuraz had to agree to Nader's terms, which included the marriage of Teimuraz's daughter Ketevan to Nader's nephew Ali-qoli Khan and summoning his son Heraclius to join Nader's campaign to India, a deal which Teimuraz would lament in his autobiographical poem. The marriage was celebrated at Mashhad, attended by Teimuraz and his entourage of 2,500. Ketevan's subsequent fate is unknown. Her husband, Ali-qoli Khan, maintained friendly relations with Teimuraz and the Georgians. He relied on Sohrab Khan, a vizier of Georgian background, and exchanged gifts with his father-in-law during his brief reign over the crumbling Afsharid empire as Adil Shah from 1747 to 1748. Adil Shah was overthrown by his brother Ebrahim Khan and killed in 1749.^[1][2][3][4]

References

1. Toumanoff, Cyrille (1990). Les dynasties de la Caucasie Chrétienne: de l'Antiquité jusqu'au XIXe siècle: tables généalogiques et chronologique [Dynasties of Christian Caucasia from Antiquity to the 19th century: genealogical and chronological tables] (in French). Rome. pp. 164–165.
2. Dumin, S.V., ed. (1996). Дворянские роды Российской империи. Том 3. Князья [Noble families of the Russian Empire. Volume 3: Princes] (in Russian). Moscow: Linkominvest. p. 69.
3. Vakhtang, Georgian Prince Royal (September–December 1831). "Sketch of the History of Georgia". The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British and Foreign India, China, and Australasia. 6: 233.
4. Javakhishvili, Niko (2011). "აფშართა დინასტიის წარმომადგენლებზე ქართველთა ქორწინებების ისტორიიდან" [From the history of marriages of Georgians with the members of the Afsharid dynasty]. Saistorio Krebuli (in Georgian). 1: 75–82. ISSN 1987-7285.