Alexander (Georgian:ალექსანდრე,Alek'sandre) or Eskandar-Mirza (Persian:اسکندرمیرزا) (c. 1688 – 27 September 1711) was aGeorgian prince royal (batonishvili) of theBagratidHouse of Mukhrani ofKartli. He was killed fighting in theSafavid Iranian ranks against theAfghan rebels.
According to the 18th-century historian and Alexander's close relativePrince Vakhushti, Alexander was a son of PrinceLuarsab, son of KingVakhtang V of Kartli (Shah Nawaz Khan).[1] Alternatively, based on the account ofSekhnia Chkheidze, a contemporary historian and a companion of the Georgian royals to Iran, Alexander is considered by the historiansMarie-Félicité Brosset andCyril Toumanoff to have been a son ofLevan of Kartli (Shah Quli Khan), Vakhtang V's another son.[2]
At that time, the Kingdom of Kartli was under the Safavid vassalage and several Georgian royals occupied important positions in the Iranian military. So did Alexander, who served as a lieutenant to his uncleGeorge XI (Gurgin Khan), a commander-in-chief of the Safavid armies, first inKerman and then in Afghanistan, where an anti-Iranian rebellion of thePashtun andBaloch tribes was in progress. The rebel leaderMir Wais Hotak capitalized on the absence of the Georgian troops under Alexander on a raid into a recalcitrant tribal area, murdered Gurgin Khan inKandahar and took control of that city in April 1709. The detachment under Alexander was able to fight its way back to Iran throughKhorasan.[3] In 1711, the Safavid government dispatched yet another Georgian royal,Kaikhosro of Kartli (Kay Khusraw Khan), at the head of a new army, in which Alexander commanded a 2,000-strong Georgian contingent. This army besieged the rebels in Kandahar, but the Afghans resisted successfully. Alexander was killed during the siege and Kaikhosro fell on his disastrous retreat from Kandahar.[4] The same fate would befall on another member of Alexander's family,Rostom (Rustam Khan), in 1722.[3]
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