Hirotake Maeda. « Kokyōni kikanshita Gorām: Safavī-chō kenryokuniyoru Gurujia-naichitsujohōsetsuto sono imi / A Gholam returns home: the function and meaning of Safavid authority over the Georgian landed nobility ». Oriento – Orient, 5

Abstract

In a series of his works on the Safavid ġolāms, Maeda has repeatedly asserted that notwithstanding the general conviction, they did never lose their ethnic identity and connection with their native land, even after beginning to serve the Safavid court. In this prosopographical study also, focusing on the careers of some Georgian ġolāms dispatched to their homeland, the author tries to show how they did not only function as an intermediary between the Safavid court and the Georgian local power...