Abstract:
Kartli came under the Ottoman rule in 1723, Russians conquered the coastal regions of Caspian Sea, and weak Safavid Iran was unable to resist the presure from Russian and Ottoman Empires. King of Kartli Vakhtang VI (1703-1712; 1716-1724) emigrated to Russia. The Ottoman administration was established in Kartli. Kingdom of Kartli was renamed to Vilayet of Tbilisi which was divided into small administrative dis-tricts: Nahies, Livas and Kazis. Governor of Vilayet or Vali of Tbilisi was Isaac Pasha. According to dominated opinion in Georgian historiography, dur-ing the Ottoman rule (‘Osmanoba’ – as it was referred to in Georgia) population of Kartli was obliged to pay heavy taxes and for this reason the inhabitants were diminished or annihilated, and the part of population was forced to leave the areas of their settlement. After comparative study of the census of 1721 ordered by King Vakhtang VI and the cadastral tax census of the Ottoman administration carried out in 1728, we came to conclusion that the demographic situation in Kartli during the Ottoman Eve was not changed and the population in villages had remained the same (in several villages population was even increased).
