The March North

May - June 1502

Having gathered a large army over over 12,000 men, mostly Qizilbash cavalry, in Tabriz, Ismail Shah set out north to subjugate Georgia and Armenia. Instead of marching right into Armenia, he travelled north with his host via Shirvan on the way to the Khanate of Sheki. It was right next to Georgia, and Ismail had called on the Khan even before he had conquered Tabriz, demanding its servitude. If asked again, the Khan would not dare refuse, but Ismail’s patience had already run out and he was on his way to execute the Khan for his insolence and annex Sheki.

On the way there, he was joined by the Shirvanshah Bahram Beg who had arranged rowboats for the Kura River, which could quickly transport siege artillery and other supplies. Furthermore, the ruler of Shirvan had used his ties to the Caucasus to hire 2,000 mostly Christian mercenaries who were willing to act as scouts and fight their countrymen for a price.

The combined host reached Sheki on June 16th and the city surrendered immediately. It was spared a sack, but all family members of the Khan were killed. The Khan and his most immediately family, however, were nowhere to be found. Ismail learned that the man had accepted an invitation from Georgia to flee west, and that he was now holed up in a Georgian castle somewhere. This only made the next decision easier. After planning and setting up in Sheki for a week, the Safavids marched west, up to and then along the Alazani River, to Gremi, the capital of Kakheti.

The Devastation of Kakheti

July 1502

Ismail Shah crossed the border of northern Kakheti in late June. The kingdom consisted of two valleys, but its capital of Gremi and the second most important city, Telavi, were located in the northern one. Here, Ismail encountered his first opposition. From the moment they set foot in Kakheti, daily raids began. Marching west on a 10 kilometre wide stretch, Ismail had a river to his south and mountains to his north. Every night, Georgian irregulars would descend from the mountains and attack his men, be it the supplies, the sleeping soldiers, or the night guards themselves. Initially, the Caucasian light infantry Bahram Beg has brought as scouts did a good job defending the army and picking off the raiders. However, this changed rapidly.

From the first day that Ismail set foot in Georgia, the Qizilbash raided and pillaged. Every hamlet, village or town they came across was burned to the ground. All the adults in these places were killed. The children were taken as slaves. No exceptions were made, not even for those who begged to be allowed to convert. This cruelty was punishment for the insolence of the Georgians who had occupied Armenia last year. However, the Caucasian scouts were soon confronted with what this cruelty meant for them personally. Not three days into Georgia, the story spread among the Christian soldiers that one of the villages that had been burned had been the home of two brothers serving in the Safavid army. Their wives now dead, their children as captives, they deserted. Almost literally overnight, the mood shifted among these scouts. They had signed up for the coin, and to that end, Christians happily fought other Christians. However, they had not enlisted to be complicit in a genocide against their own people. Hundreds deserted, but the headmen of those who stayed came together as they hatched a much more insidious plot.

Nevertheless, the force of the Qizilbash could not be halted by the incessant raids, only slowed down. They arrived in Gremi on July 15th to an abandoned site. The whole capital – which was honestly not a very big city – had been evacuated. While the news of the devastation and slaughters must have been spreading rapidly, the Safavid leaders realised immediately than an evacuation like this had to have been planned. Quickly, Ismail turned south to Telavi, which only a couple days away, and found the last parts of the evacuation there still underway. Those who could not get away in time were killed, all in all a couple hundred. On top of that, Ismail could confirm that this was a deliberate strategy by Alexander of Kakheti, who had assumed command of the combined Georgian army. The size and location of this army was unknown, but Ismail suspected that they were behind the raiding, and probably much too small to face him head on. Furthermore, he heard tales that King Constantine II of Kartli, who ruled from Tbilisi, had apparently refused to evacuate his own capital in advance. Among those who talked to Ismail (and converted, and were thus spared), there was a feeling that Alexander had abandoned his people and ran. The Safavids failed to realise these converts were in the minority.

Encouraged by the ease of his conquest so far and under the expectation that the enemy would not run from him in Tbilisi, but also unaware of his scouts’ impending treason, he entered the Gombori Pass, which ran from Telavi to Tbilisi...

The Battle of Psithi

July 28th

King Alexander of Kakheti overlooked the narrow pass from his vantage point on top of a rocky protrusion. He saw the confluence of the small Psithi stream and the Turdo River, which had carved the pass down to Telavi and then the Alazani River. It was relatively dry: there was almost no water in the river and it was easy to cross. Travellers from Telavi had to climb up to this gorge, then cross the Turdo River and climb up to the highest point in the pass, next to Gombori, a small village in the mountains. There, the Iori River guided the way out of the pass, towards the low southern hills where the road to Tbilisi lay. There was Ujarma Fortress on the southern side of the pass, but it was in disrepair and the chance of a breakthrough into the valley had to be considered. As such, Alexander made his stand here. If there was a breakthrough now, the Safavids would have crossed the Turdo River and found themselves in even steeper hills. That was much better.

Down below, the trail along the river was deserted. The hills on either side were completely covered in forests, where for the past week, thousands of Georgian irregular infantrymen had been digging low earthen walls. On the opposite side of the Turdo River, they had also dug a deep trench which was difficult to see from across the river. They had been taking it easy, until the forward scouts of Ismail arrived. These were one and all the remaining Caucasian light infantry, and their plot had hatched: they acted as if nothing was out of the ordinary. The rumour of the cowardly King Alexander being forced to take a stand outside Tbilisi by King Constantine II was something they time and time again confirmed to their Qizilbash and Shirvan superiors. Meanwhile, they conferred with the Georgian army, and led the Safavids into the passes.

The Georgians kept their fires to a minimum and did their best to hide, but it did not even need to be perfect. The Caucasian scouts of the Safavids were almost indistinguishable, so while the Georgians must have been spotted a number of times by Ismail’s army proceeding down the pass, they were mistaken for the scouts which had promised to patrol the hills day and night. Ismail, meanwhile, had to march with his army down to seven to eight men abreast, with cavalry in the vanguard and rear, and all of his supplies well-protected in the centre. His artillery had been left behind, and the rowboats sailed back down the Alazani River to the confluence with the Karu, and would rendezvouz near Tbilisi.

His rearguard had barely entered the pass when the vanguard made it to the Psithi crossing. It would not matter. The entire ten kilometer corridor had been lined with Georgians lying in waiting. Night fell and still slowly the Qizilbash trickled in to the multiple camps established along the Turdo River, the pass being too narrow to stick to one place. The night was not entirely quiet, but a small raid had resulted in no survivors when the attackers had made the mistake of striking too close to Ismail himself by pure accident, and running into his sworn Qurchis guard. Not even shaken, Ismail slept well.

As the morning sun warmed the pass, the first Kakheti banners were seen on the other side of the Turdo River. A small army, nothing more. Knights one and all, they were the heaviest cavalry Georgia had to offer. At heir head rode Prince George, son of Alexander. Loudly and brashly, he taunted the Safavids that he would contest their crossing. He had been riding from the nearest village, where his army of over 3,000 knights had been encamped. This was a nasty complication, and one that immediately made Ismail doubt his scouts, but nothing that made him panic. Instead, he had his soldiers make way for the best of his Qizilbash and planned to oversee a bold charge across the riverbed. The Georgians would break, rout, and scatter into the wind.

Just as his plan to attack was getting ready, however, panicked cries were heard from the north. The rear was under attack! Far from being perfectly coordinated, the Georgian ambushes did not all launch simultaneously. However, as the northernmost irregulars attacked, the others sprung into action and wedged most of the Safavid army between themselves and the riverbed. On the opposite side of the river, archers climbed out of the trees together with more light infantry, ready to attack all those who ran towards or into the riverbed.

Sensing that the only way was forward, Ismail and his Qizilbash still launched the attack. The way behind was mayhem, mess, chaos, and complete and utter disarray. Too late, the first row of the Qizilbash noticed the trench George had been standing behind – a cheap trick, but given the circumstances enough to blunt the undefeated Qizilbash charge. Moving slowly and carefully, the Georgian knights responded – banners from Kartli, Imereti, Samtskhe, Guria and Odishi joined the Kakheti standard and the Holy Cross as George met Ismail head on.

The rest of the battle was a slaughter. The Safavids had nowhere to go but to try and push back. Those who had been at the rear had the best chance of making it out. Those who were with Ismail did not. Shirvanshah Bahram Beg had been in command of the rear and was now running an emergency command out of Telavi, where they received survivors, but most of all made plans to withdraw as soon as possible. Despite the drought, the Turdo ran lively like a true river, its flow not water but deep, red blood. The Qizilbash died in the Gombori Pass at the Psithi Crossing, and their leader did not make it back to Telavi.

However, the Georgians could not find Ismail either. The Shah was gone.

After the battle, the Georgians celebrated as one people. Despite the battle being Alexander of Kakheti’s own masterstroke, he awarded the credit to his son, Prince George, who had held the vanguard. In a divine ceremony, bishops from all the realms of Georgia blessed Prince George, anointing him the Chosen of the Lord, Prince of the Holy Cross and Defender of the Faith.

Back The Way We Came

August – September 1502

Five days after the Battle of Psithi, King Alexander walked into an empty Telavi. Two days of hard riding later, Prince George found Gremi just as devoid of life. The inhabitants had yet to return, of course, but the murder of those who had remained still laid a somber and thick atmosphere over both towns. The Safavids, however, were gone too.

Bahram Beg had indeed abandoned everything as quickly as he could. Using the rowboats to transport the (important) wounded and the valuables, he rode fast and did not stop until he made it to Shamakhi in Shirvan. Still there was no sign of Ismail, but all news from Georgia suggested that they did not have him either. Alexander, in command of the overall army, sent a large detachment east to Sheki – and with them the Khan of Sheki, who had indeed been holed up in Tbilisi at the invitation of the Georgians. Meanwhile, Prince Mzetchabuk of Samtskhe detached his own forces and headed west. Alexander, who did not trust this prince one bit, conferred with King Alexander II of Imereti, and sent him along with his most trusted knights. Thus, two similar Georgian armies marched east and west.

On August 25th, the Khan of Sheki was reinstated by the Georgians, but they did not dally and kept marching east. Finally, three weeks later, they had made it close to Shamakhi in Shirvan. Bahram Beg had maybe twenty percent of Ismail’s original army left, though their cohesion was in question given the still unknown fate of Ismail. They had to do something about this Georgian advance, though, and met the enemy at the river Aghsu.

The Battle of Aghsu on the 12th of September was relatively straightforward. With less than 2,000 men left in the saddle, and fewer than that on foot, the Safavid and Shirvan forces were outnumbered by the Georgians, who presented slightly more cavalry but over 6,000 infantry. The Qizilbash were at this point demoralised – despondent even – without their leader or their divine mandate. Prince George now was the one who led an army that considered themselves invincible, and they plowed through the enemy army. While the battle was relatively costly, the Georgian victory was never in doubt. After that, Bahram Beg fully abandoned most of Shirvan and fled to Baku. The Qizilbash disbanded, and western Shirvan came under Georgian occupation.

The Fall

Prince Mzetchabuk had further to go. Marching all through Georgia and spreading the news of the victory with him, he realised that every further Georgian victory was a threat to his own ambitions as an independent prince. However, Alexander II of Imereti would not let Mzetchabuk out of his sights, and the Prince of Samtskhe knew that if he betrayed his fellow Georgians now, nobody would side with him. And so they marched, begrudgingly, together.

At the end of October, they reached the Safavid city of Erzurum. They surrounded it, and set up a siege. After three weeks, with no help in sight, the news of the Battle of Aghsu, and the solem resignation that Ismail might be gone forever, the local leaders surrendered the city after three weeks. The victory would be the last one before winter.

Was Ismail really gone then? No. On November 26th, a ragged band of a dozen men appeared before the gates of Tabriz. Among them, their Shah was soon recognised. Fifteen years old, the boy was carrying the weight of years in his eyes. Those who were of little faith; traitorous conniving bastards who had opportunistically moved to seize Ismail’s empire in his absence, were immediately arrested and eliminated by those who had remained loyal. The gates remained open to him. Such was his charisma and the awe he still inspired. He may have been a defeated, perhaps broken boy, but he was still their Shah.

Meanwhile, the situation in Shirvan was anything but stable. Bahram Beg had lost much of his support, and in the period that Ismail had been absent, calls had gone out by many nobles to replace him with somebody less willing to listen to Tabriz. Similarly, the Armenian Melikdoms turned their backs on Ismail, and promised to pay homage to the Quadrumvirate of Armenia.

Results

• Georgia occupies Erzurum, Shamakhi and other parts of Shirvan.
• Ismail is defeated, the event-troops Qizilbash are disbanded and the faith in his invincibility is shattered.
• The political situation in Shirvan is unstable, as many notables clamour now is the time to turn on Ismail.
• Prince Mzetchabuk of Samtskhe and King Constantine II of Kartli grow jealous and suspicious of King Alexander of Kakheti – but all of Georgia and Armenia now has faith in Prince George of Kakheti.
• The Armenian Melikdoms and Sheki become vassals of Kakheti.

Occupation map

Notes

• Losses will be posted later.