page_title: Beylerbey
section_title: Safavid use
hierarchical_section_title: Beylerbey / Safavid use
caption_attribution_description: English: Portrait of Daud Khan Undiladze from the travel album of his contemporary Catholic missionary Cristophoro Di Castelli
context_page_description: Beylerbey or Beylerbeyi was a high rank in the western Islamic world in the late Middle Ages and early modern period, from the Seljuks of Rum and the Ilkhanids to Safavid Persia and the Ottoman Empire. Initially designating a commander-in-chief, it eventually came to be held by senior provincial governors. In Ottoman usage, where the rank survived the longest, it designated the governors-general of some of the largest and most important provinces, although in later centuries it became devalued into a mere honorific title. Its equivalents in Arabic were amir al-umara, and in Persian, mir-i miran.
  The title was also used by the Khans of the Indian princely state of Kalat
context_section_description: Under the Safavid dynasty of Persia, the title was used from ca. 1543/44 on for governors (generically styled hakim) of the more important provinces. The title was thus used for the governors of Herat, Azerbaijan, Ganja, Karabakh, Shirvan, Fars, Iraq, and Astarabad. The Safavids also used the title of wali for provinces even more important than those of beylerbeys. Towards the end of the Safavid period, the title of beylerbey had been eclipsed by that of wali, most notably being the wali's of the shah's their Georgian lands.
caption: Daud Khan Undiladze, ghilman and the beylerbey of Ganja and Karabakh from 1625 to 1630.
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