Imam Quli Khan (Safavid governor)

(Redirected from Imam Quli Khan (governor)) For other people named Imam Quli Khan, see Imam Quli Khan (disambiguation). Iranian military and political leader and governor (died 1632)

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Persian. (April 2017) Click for important translation instructions.

View a machine-translated version of the Persian article.
Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Misplaced Pages.
Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article.
You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Persian Misplaced Pages article at ]; see its history for attribution.
You may also add the template {{Translated|fa|امام‌قلی خان}} to the talk page.
For more guidance, see Misplaced Pages:Translation.

Imam Quli Khan
An Indian portrait of Imam Quli Khan, made in Hyderabad, dated 1760-80

Governor of Fars
In office 1613–1632
Monarchs	Abbas I, Safi
Preceded by	Allahverdi Khan
Succeeded by	Unknown

Personal details
Died	1632
Parent	Allahverdi Khan (father)
Relatives	Daud Khan (brother), Safiqoli Khan (son), Jafarqoli Khan (grandson), Abd-ol-Ghaffar Amilakhori (son-in-law)
Clan	Undiladze
Military service
Allegiance	Safavid Iran
Battles/wars	Capture of Cambarão Anglo-Persian capture of Qeshm Anglo-Persian capture of Hormuz

Imam-Quli Khan (Persian: امام‌قلی خان, romanized: Emāmqolī Khān; died 1632) was an Iranian military and political leader of Georgian origin who served as a governor of Fars, Lar and Bahrain for the shahs Abbas I and Safi.

Biography

Imam-Quli Khan was the son of Allahverdi Khan (Undiladze), the celebrated Georgian general in the service of Iran’s Safavid dynasty. Imam-Quli Khan is first mentioned as governor of Lar in Fars in 1610. He succeeded his father as governor-general (beglarbeg) of Fars in 1613, but retained his position at Lar and was granted the rank of an amir of the divan by Shah Abbas I. In 1619-20, Imam-Quli Khan oversaw Abbas’s project to link the headwaters of the Karun and Zayandarud rivers in order to enhance the water supply of his capital, Isfahan. Shah Abbas placed complete trust in Imam-Quli Khan who grew in influence and prestige and became one of the wealthiest khans of the Safavid empire. One day, Shah Abbas even jokingly said to Imam-Quli: "I request, Imam-Quli, that you will spend one dirham less per day, that there may exist some slight difference between the disbursements of a khan and a king!"

Imam-Quli built a madrasa and many palaces in Shiraz and the still standing bridge Pol-e Khan over the Kor at Marvdasht.

Being in charge of the Safavids' southern possessions, Imam-Quli Khan continued his father’s policy of undermining the Portuguese positions in the Persian Gulf. In 1621, he persuaded the English East India Company to cooperate with the Persians by threatening to cancel the trading privileges that had been granted to the company by the shah in 1615. As a result, Imam-Quli Khan’s army aided by the English navy captured the strategic Portuguese fort on the island of Qeshm and laid a siege to Hormuz, which surrendered after a defence of ten weeks on 22 April 1622. The khan’s military exploits are commemorated in the works by the poet Qadri from Fars.

According to the Safavid historian Fazli Khuzani, Imam-Quli Khan had 22 daughters, of which some were married to Safavid Georgian gholams of noble origin in 1622. In 1626, when Imam-Quli's daughter and son-in-law Anduqapar Amilakhori were captured by rebellious Georgians, Abbas I sent a large army in order to rescue them.

Fall and death

After the death of Abbas, Imam-Quli Khan found himself in disagreement with new favorites of Shah Safi, Abbas’s successor to the throne of Persia, and became marginalized. This circumstance lasted until he and his two sons, one of them being Safiqoli Khan, were put to death at Safi's orders in late 1632, while his vast possessions were converted into the crown domain in 1633. This formed the prelude to the massacre of the rest of his family. Only his brother, Daud Khan, survived as he had fled to Georgia. Though the Undiladze Safavid Georgian line was nearly completely eliminated after the purge, the succession of the line amongst the court elites was assured by Ja'far Qoli, a grandson of Imam-Quli Khan by a daughter. A statue to Imam-Quli Khan was erected in Qeshm in the 1990s.

References

^ Roger M. Savory, Emāmqolī Khan. Encyclopædia Iranica Online Edition. Accessed on September 20, 2007.
Andrew J. Newman (2006), Safavid Iran: Rebirth of a Persian Empire, p. 65. I.B.Tauris. ISBN 1-86064-667-0
Sussan Babaie (2004), Slaves of the Shah: New Elites of Safavid Iran, p. 120. I.B.Tauris, ISBN 1-86064-721-9
Hirotake, Maeda (2003). "On the Ethno-Social Backgrounds of the Four Gholam Families from Georgia in Safavid Iran". Studia Iranica. 32: 265–266.
Hirotake, Maeda (2003). "On the Ethno-Social Backgrounds of the Four Gholam Families from Georgia in Safavid Iran". Studia Iranica. 32: 263–264.
^ Matthee 2012, p. 38.
Hirotake, Maeda (2003). "On the Ethno-Social Backgrounds of the Four Gholam Families from Georgia in Safavid Iran". Studia Iranica. 32: 262.
"Iran: Qeshm islanders await a second invasion". MEED 5 July 1996

Sources

Matthee, Rudi (2012). Persia in Crisis: Safavid Decline and the Fall of Isfahan. I.B.Tauris. ISBN 978-1845117450.
Roger M. Savory, EMĀMQOLĪ KHAN, Encyclopaedia Iranica, Online Edition (LINK)

Categories: