Childir Eyalet

Origins

After decades of Ottoman-Safavid wars over Samtskhe, the Ottomans turned the Principality of Samtskhe into a province in 1628. Its first governor was Safar Pasha, a member of the Georgian Jaqeli family who had converted to Islam, and the post remained largely hereditary in his house.

Rule and society

Governed from Akhaltsikhe, the eyalet included Ardahan, Artvin and the upper Kura valleys. Much of the population, Georgian-speaking Meskhetians, gradually adopted Islam, while Armenian and Jewish merchants lived in the towns. Akhaltsikhe had a notorious slave market fed by raids into Georgia. Its pashas, often semi-independent, intervened in the politics of Kartli and Imereti.

Decline and legacy

During the Russo-Turkish War Russian forces under Paskevich stormed Akhaltsikhe in 1828, and the Treaty of Adrianople in 1829 gave the northern part to the Russian Empire. The remainder stayed Ottoman until 1878. Many Meskhetian Turks descend from its Muslim population.