Prince Alexander of Georgia - Early Career

Early Career

Alexander was a son of Heraclius II (Erekle), king of Kartli and Kakheti in eastern Georgia, by his third wife Darejan (Darya). He was educated by the Catholic missionaries at the court of his father. Following the devastating Persian invasion of 1795, 18-years-old Alexandre helped his father to restore the capital Tbilisi. After the death of Heraclius, he was in opposition to a new king, his half-brother, George XII (1798–1800), and his pro-Russian politics. Alexander, suspecting that the Russian presence in the country would eventually lead to annexation, was persuaded by the Persian shah Fath Ali Shah Qajar to leave Tbilisi and join his forces with the Avarian warlord Uma Khan in 1799. Alexander's incursion in Kakheti in 1800 ended in a failure after a combined Russo-Georgian force defeated him and his Avar allies at the Battle of Niakhura on November 7, 1800. Alexander fled to Karabakh and finally to Dagestan.

Alexander's association with the Avars gave origin to legend widespread in the area in the 19th century, according to which Imam Shamil, the future leader of Caucasian resistance to the Russian expansion, was his natural son. Apollon Runovsky, an officer in charge of Shamil at Kaluga, claimed in his diaries that Shamil himself forged this legend in an attempt to win the support of Georgian highlanders.