| Battle of Sokhoista | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Ottoman Empire |  Kingdom of Imereti Kingdom of Kartli Principality of Guria | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Rustem Pasha | Bagrat III Luarsab I | ||||||
TheBattle of Sokhoista (Georgian:სოხოისტის ბრძოლა,Turkish:Sohoista Savaşı) was fought between theOttoman andGeorgian armies at the Sokhoista field in what is now northeasternTurkey in 1545. It was the last attempt of the separate Georgian dynasts to fight as one unit against the Ottoman expansion, but ended in their decisive defeat.[1] This might be the same battle as mentioned byRüstem Pasha to have been fought at nearbyZivin.[2]
The battle was preceded by an unsuccessful siege of the Georgian-garrisoned fortress of Oltisi (nowOltu, Turkey) by the Ottomanbeylerbey ofErzurum Musa Paşa also known as Kizil-Ahmedlu, and his subsequent defeat at Karagak in 1543. Musa Paşa was himself killed in fighting. The Ottomans returned in force two years later, and moved into the principality ofSamtskhe, then under the control ofBagrat III, king ofImereti in western Georgia. Bagrat called upon the neighboring Georgian potentates to come to aid. Only the king ofKartliLuarsab I and theprince of GuriaRostom Gurieli responded, while the prince ofMingrelia,Levan I Dadiani, refused to participate in the alliance.
The two opposing armies met at the locale called Sokhoista which lay on the border of the district of Basean (nowPasinler District, Turkey). The Georgian chronicle of PrinceVakhushti provides with some details of the battle. According to this source, the nobles of Samtskhe resented the refusal of the Georgian kings to allow them to fight in the vanguard as it long had been established by a medieval custom, and refused to take part in the battle at all. The hard-contested action lasted from the dawn to the evening, and ended in a decisive Ottoman victory.[3]
The victory at Sokhoista gave to the Ottomans the upper hand in southwesternCaucasus and allowed them to overrun Samtskhe, where they installed their protégé,atabek Kaikhosro III.Tortum,İspir, andPasin were detached from Samtskhe and annexed to the Ottoman Empire.[2] The battle also created a favorable precondition prior to the Ottoman-Saffavidpeace deal at Amasya in 1555.[1][4]