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CHAPTER IV.

Relations between the Shahs of Persia and the Czars of Georgia—Interference of Russia in Affairs of the Caucasus—Campaign of Peter the Great in Daghestan—Taking of Bakoo and Derbend—Southern Coast of the Caspian Sea—Early Condition of Georgia—Mingrelia—Intolerance of the Georgians—Tiflis—Expedition of Aga Mahomed into Georgia—Fortress of Erivan—Annexation of Khorassan to Persia—Death of Shahrukh Meerza—Mission to Persia from the French Republic—Murder of Aga Mahomed—His Character.

No sooner did Aga Mahomed Khan find himself absolute master of the Persian empire than he set about the task of re-establishing the relations which had formerly subsisted between the Czars of Georgia and the Shahs of Persia. When the latter were sufficiently powerful, they had always exacted tribute from the former: Abbass the Great received this contribution punctually during the whole of his reign. It consists of a certain number of children of both sexes, who became household slaves.^[1] During the long period that Persia was torn to pieces by domestic wars after the death of Nadir, the sovereign of Georgia was not called upon to acknowledge the suzerainty of any of the chiefs of his Mahomedan neighbours; but, in the meantime, the countries lying between the Caucasus and Persia were fast falling under the ascendancy of another government, whose grasp they found it impossible to shake off. As the rise and spread of the Russian power in Georgia has exercised a permanent

1. Chardin: Voyage en Perse. Vol. i. p. 332.