Abd-ol-Ghaffar Amilakhori


Abd-ol-Ghaffar Amilakhori was an early 17th-century noble from the Georgian Amilakhori family of Kartli, prominent in the Safavid Iranian service.

Biography

Abd-ol-Ghaffar Amilakhori was raised at the Safavid court in Isfahan and was a "typical member of the new Georgian converted elite". Abd-ol-Ghaffar was a son of Faramarz Amilakhori by his wife Tamar, a great-grandson of King Luarsab I of Kartli. His sister Tamar was a favourite concubine of the Safavid shah Abbas I.
When in 1624, Abbas I married off his granddaughter to the ruler of Kartli, Semayun Khan, Abd-ol-Ghaffar's wife was a companion to the bride; Amilakhori and another leading Georgian noble, Zurab, eristavi of Aragvi, entertained the guests of the wedding party on the order of the Safavid-Georgian officer Murav Beg. Around the same time, the shah arranged the marriage of Abd-ol-Ghaffar to a daughter of Imam-Quli Khan, a prominent Safavid military and political leader of Georgian descent. According to the contemporary Safavid historian Fazli Khuzani, Abd-ol-Ghaffar was 22-years old at the time of his marriage.
While in Kartli, Abd-ol-Ghaffar was known as a champion of the Safavid interests in the country. He further expanded his estates at the expanse of the neighboring noble families, exterminated the Ghazneli and had the environs of Mtskheta ravaged. In 1625/6, Abd-ol-Ghaffar and his wife were captured by the rebellious Georgians and imprisoned at the fortress of Arshi. After the rebels' defeat at the battle of Marabda, Abbas I sent a force to their resque. Upon being informed about this, the rebels sent the two, according to Fazli Khuzani, to the relatives of Abd-ol-Ghaffar himself, as well as those of Allahverdi Khan. Amilakhori, thereafter, disappears from historical records.