Professor Donald Rayfield “Whatever did the Iranians do for Georgia? – coexistence and conflict

Georgians made many important contributions to Iran, particularly under Shah Abbas I, as military men, provincial governors and builders.  Allahverdi Khan Undiladze, who built the eponymous bridge over the Zayandeh Rud in Isfahan, was a Georgian.  In Georgia, however, wherever one looks at a ruined church one is told that it was destroyed by Shah Abbas. Did Iran contribute nothing to Georgia other than ruin and destruction?

Professor Rayfield is Emeritus Professor of Russian and Georgian at Queen Mary University of London. He has written many books about Russian and Georgian history and literature. He has translated Georgian poets and prose writers into English and is also the author of the Georgian-English dictionary.  He is much in demand as a lively and entertaining lecturer on Georgian history and literature.

Members of the British-Georgian Society are invited to this lecture, which should make for some animated discussion afterwards.