ნიკიფორე ირბახის ესპანეთში ელჩობის მიზანი სიმანკასის არქივში მიკვლეული დოკუმენტების მიხედვით

ანოტაცია

The first half of the 17th century was marked by significant foreign policy crises in Georgian history. During this period, Georgia endured devastating attacks from Shah Abbas of Iran, who invaded the country repeatedly. The Georgian victory at the Battle of Martkopi on March 25, 1625, proved vital for national survival, as King Rostom’s report demonstrates: “The order from the Shah was to kill every man and settle Persians in Kakheti.” King Teimuraz I of Kakheti made several attempts to establish diplomatic relations with Russia, notably in 1618 and 1623, but these efforts proved unsuccessful. As a logical extension of this diplomatic strategy, contacts with Western European powers were also pursued. Between 1626 and 1628, Nikoloz Cholokashvili (Niceforo Irbach) was dispatched on a diplomatic mission to Western Europe.
Niceforo Irbach’s European activities and contributions have been inadequately studied in Georgian historiography, with many details of this embassy remaining unknown for centuries. While J. Vateishvili discovered and published some documents related to this mission, the most significant breakthrough came with the publication by Luis Fernández and Ilia Tabagua of Fuentes para la historia de Georgia en bibliotecas y archivos españoles (siglos XV-XVIII) (Madrid, 1993), which contains documents from the Simancas Archive. These diplomatic correspondences and records of Spanish Council of the Kingdom meetings offer new opportunities to reassess established interpretations of this historical episode.