- Giorgi-Malakia Abashidze
Giorgi-Malakia Abashidze ( _ka. გიორგი-მალაქია აბაშიძე) (died
October 15 ,1722 ) was a Georgian nobleman andKing of Imereti as George VI (or George V) from 1702 to 1707. He was a member of the prominentAbashidze family.The youngest son of Prince Paata Abashidze, he was served as a priest until c. 1684 when he entered politics and began aggressively expanding his patrimonial fiefdom. He dispossessed the
Chkheidze family ofShorapani , and theAgiashvili of Tsutskhvati, and took control of the royal domain in Upper Imereti. His daughter, Tamar, was married to the two successive kings of Imereti, Alexander IV and George V. During the reign of the latter monarch, Abashidze effectively ran the government and acted as an all-powerful kingmaker. In 1699, he gave his daughter Anika in marriage to KingSimon of Imereti , but they divorced in 1700. In 1701, Abashidze deposed King Mamia of Imereti and seized the throne. He managed to establish a degree of stability in Imereti, ceased to pay tribute to theOttoman Empire , and patronized culture and learning. Deposed after a revolt by the nobles, in favour of the rightfulBagrationi king George VII, Abashidze took refuge at the court ofVakhtang VI of Kartli inTbilisi . He died there in 1722, and was buried in theKatskhi Monastery in Imereti.References
*ru icon Вахушти Багратиони (Vakhushti Bagrationi) (1745). [http://armenianhouse.org/bagrationi/history-ru/9.html История Царства Грузинского: Жизнь Имерети] .
*David Marshall Lang , "The Last Years of the Georgian Monarchy, 1658-1832". New York:Columbia University Press , 1957.
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