Peoples of the Caucasus
The Safavid emperor, Shah Abbas I ended the rule of Khan Ahmad Khan, the last semi-independent ruler of Gilan, and annexed the province directly to his empire. From this point in history onward, rulers of Gilan were appointed by the Persian Shah. Starting from the Safavid all the way to the Qajar era, Gilan was settled by large amounts of Georgians, Circassians, Armenians, and other Peoples of the Caucasus were settled in the region whose descendants still live or linger across Gilan. A significant amount of these large amounts of Georgians, and Circassians are already assimilated into the mainstream Gilaks. The history of Georgian settlement is described by Iskandar Beg Munshi, the author of the 17th century Tarikh-e Alam-Ara-ye Abbasi, and both the Circassian and Georgian settlements by Pietro Della Valle, among other authors.