Kaikhosro IV Gurieli

Kaikhosro IV Gurieli (; died 1829) was a member of the House of Gurieli, a ruling dynasty of the Principality of Guria in western Georgia, which he de facto ruled as regent for his underage nephew Mamia V Gurieli from 1797 to 1809. An energetic and learned man, he presided over a series of measures which brought relative order and stability to Guria. Kaikhosro remained influential even after conceding ruling powers to Mamia V in 1809. Despite rapprochement with the Russian Empire, Kaikhosro was suspicious of the Russian intentions. While Mamia remained loyal to Russia, Kaikhosro became involved in an uprising against the Russian hegemony in western Georgia in 1820. After the rebels' defeat, Kaikhosro had to flee to the Ottoman territory, where he died in 1829. Early career Kaikhosro Gurieli was the third son of Giorgi V Gurieli, Prince-regnant of Guria. As a young man, he was educated at the Georgian Orthodox Gelati Monastery near Kutaisi, the capital of the Kingdom of Imereti. The choice of a career in the clergy for Kaikhosro was aimed at having him become the Bishop of Shemokmedi, a principal diocese in Guria. He had command of several languages and was able to read old authors in Greek and Latin. On the death of his brother, Prince-regnant Simon II Gurieli, in 1792, the government of Guria was taken over by another brother, Vakhtang II Gurieli, on account of Simon's son and heir Mamia being underage. Simon's widow Marine accused Vakhtang of persecution of her family and sought protection from Kaikhosro, who unfrocked himself and returned to Guria in 1797. That same year, Kaikhosro deposed and expelled Vakhtang, making Mamia prince-regnant and himself a regent, a position he nominally shared with the dowager-princess Marine. Regency Once in power, Kaikhosro Gurieli embarked on an energetic campaign to stabilize the impoverished principality, troubled by internal dissensions, Ottoman encroachments, abductions and slave-trade. He summoned joint lay and church councils, threatened slave traders with death, and persecuted the recalcitrant nobles, accused of being pro-Ottoman or involved in slave-trading. Kaikhosro had the notoriously unruly Davit Asatiani murdered—sending this nobleman's foster-father to lure him out so that he could be shot dead—and stormed Asatiani's castle of Askana. The castle of Lanchkhuti, defiantly defended by Zabuedil Zhordania, fell next.