Dedisimedi

Dedisimedi (; died ) was a Georgian noblewoman of the House of Mukhrani, a collateral branch of the royal Bagrationi dynasty. She was princess consort of Samtskhe as wife of Kaikhosro II Jaqeli and regent for her son Qvarqvare IV Jaqeli . She played a leading role in a civil war that plagued Samtskhe from 1576 to 1578. After the Ottoman takeover of her principality, Dedisimedi retired to Kartli, leaving the government to her son, Manuchar II Jaqeli, who continued to rule as an Ottoman pasha.

Family background and name Dedisimedi was born into the princely family of Mukhrani, the Mukhranbatoni, a collateral branch of the royal house of Kartli. The sources differ as to her parents. The 16th-century Chronicle of Meskhian Psalter as well as the 18th century Georgian historian Prince Vakhushti and a church inscription from Vale suggest that Dedisimedi's father was Bagrat, son of King Constantine II. In contrast, Vakhushti's contemporaneous editor of the Georgian Chronicles, Beri Egnatashvili, makes her, erroneously, daughter of Bagrat's son Ashotan and, hence, sister of Saint Ketevan the Martyr.

As Egnatashvili claims, on her marriage into the Jaqeli family she was given the name Dedisimedi—literally, "a mother's hope"—already known in the family earlier: so was named a consort of Qvarqvare IV Jaqeli, who died in 1489. When relating events in her widowhood, one of the editions of the Georgian Chronicles refers to the dowager princess as "Deborah, formerly Dedisimedi". This gave rise to a hypothesis that, at some point of her life and probably after her husband's death in 1573, Dedisimedi might have become a nun under the name of Deborah.

Marriage Dedisimedi married Prince Kaikhosro II Jaqeli, a 22-year-old Atabeg of Samtskhe, in 1545. Kaikhosro's rule over Samtskhe, one of the breakaway states of the Kingdom of Georgia, was marred by incessant Iranian–Ottoman rivalry over the territory, uneasy relations with neighboring Georgian polities, and internecine feuds. Installed through the Ottoman intervention, Kaikhosro ended up his reign, watching the western part of his principality being assimilated by the Ottomans and the eastern moiety—where he preferred to stay—being subjected to Iran. He died while visiting the court of Shah Tahmasp I at Qazvin in 1573. Dedisimedi was personally involved in fighting, directing operations at Queli and Tmogvi.

Qvarqvare IV Jaqeli (–1581), Atabeg of Samtskhe ; Mzetchabuk (March 1549 – 11 January 1572), who married Rodam, daughter of George II Gurieli, in 1572; Manuchar II Jaqeli (1550–1614), Atabeg of Samtskhe ; Ivane-Tvalmshvenieri ("the Fair-Eyed"); Helen (died before 1561); Tamar (born 18 April 1561), who married Kaikhosro Oravzhandashvili in 1572, Vakhtang I Gurieli in 1583, and Manuchar I Dadiani in 1592 (or 1598); Saba-Janko (29 April 1563 – 20 March 1575); Basil (12 August 1564– 3 September 1579), twin brother of Beka-Pavle; he was a monk from childhood; Beka-Pavle III Jaqeli (Sefer Pasha) (12 August 1564–1635), twin brother of Basil and Pasha of Childir (1625–1635).