ALLĀHVERDĪ KHAN (d. 1072/1662), son of Ḵosrow Khan (d. 1063/1653), a Safavid ḡolām of Armenian origin. Under Shah Ṣafī I Allāhverdī attained the rank of yūzbāšī-e ḡolāmān-e ḵāṣṣa. At the accession of ʿAbbās II (1052/1642) his father was promoted from amīršekār-bāšī to beglerbegī of Šīrvān, and he was appointed to the vacant post. He distinguished himself in the 1058-59/1648-49 Qandahār campaign, and Shah ʿAbbās rewarded him with the title of moṣāḥeb and the governorship of Astarābād. After the death of Sīāvoš Khan (ca. 1061/1650-51) Allāhverdī Khan was made qullār-āqāsī and beglerbegī of Kohgīlūya. In 1064/1654 he replaced the disgraced ʿAlī-qolī Khan as sardār-e laškar, and then spent several winters in Khorasan guarding against Mughal and Uzbek attacks. In spring 1068/1658 Allāhverdī was to lead a Safavid army to the aid of Morādbaḵš, Awrangzēb’s brother and rival for the Mughal throne, but news of Morādbaḵš’s arrest cancelled these plans. Later that year Allāhverdī built an aviary for ʿAbbās at Isfahan, and soon thereafter he was sent to Azerbaijan and Georgia, where he remained for the next three years. Kaḵatīa (eastern Georgia) had been devastated by ʿAbbās I’s conquest, and Allāhverdī was ordered to fortify and repopulate the region by the forced resettlement of some 1,500 Turkish tribal households. As well as helping to quell Georgian unrest, Allāhverdī repaired fortifications and built and garrisoned the new forts of Šāhābād, Noṣratābād, and Eslāmābād. ʿAbbās recalled Allāhverdī to Isfahan in late summer 1072/1661; the following spring (1072/1662) he died after a long illness. ʿAbbās generously endowed his tomb establishment at Isfahan (near the tomb of Bābā Rokn-al-dīn) and appointed Allāhverdī’s brother, Emāmverdī Beg, as his new amīršekār-bāšī.
Bibliography:
Moḥammad Ṭāher Waḥīd Qazvīnī, ʿAbbās-nāma: yā šarḥ-e zendegānī-e 22 sāla-ye Šāh ʿAbbās-e ṯānī(1052-73), ed.
E. Dehgān, Arānīk, 1329 Š./1950, pp. 85, 114, 140-42, 149, 153-56, 160, 165, 172, 180, 194-95, 215-16, 234-36, 271-77, 288-89, 301, 304, 310, 322-23, 326.
Waḥīd Qazvīnī was court historian (maǰles-nevīs) to ʿAbbās II; his younger brother, Moḥammad Yūsof, was the author of the Ḵold-e barīn, a major world history and Safavid chronicle. Waḥīd composed the ʿAbbās-nāma during the first twenty-two years of the reign of ʿAbbās II, paying particular attention to court activities and official appointments. Neither the Ḏayl-e tārīḵ-e ʿālamārā-ye ʿAbbāsī nor the section of the Ḵold-e barīn dealing with the reign of Ṣafī makes mention of either Allāhverdī Khan or Ḵosrow Khan (Eskandar Beg Torkmān and Moḥammad Yūsof, Ḏayl-e tārīḵ-e ʿālāmāra-ye ʿAbbāsī, ed. S. Ḵᵛānsārī, Tehran, 1317 Š./1938). On the problem of torkī-heǰrī dates see R. McChesney, “A Note on Iskandar Beg’s Chronology,” JNES 39, 1980, pp. 53-63.
(C. Fleischer)
Originally Published: December 15, 1985
Last Updated: August 2, 2011
This article is available in print.
Vol. I, Fasc. 8, p. 892
C. Fleischer, “ALLĀHVERDĪ KHAN (2),” Encyclopædia Iranica, I/8, p. 892, available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/allahverdi-khan-d-2 (accessed on 30 December 2012).