Sefer Ali-Bey Shervashidze (also known by the Christian name of Giorgi Shervashidze) was a prince of the

Principality of Abkhazia The Principality of Abkhazia ( ka, აფხაზეთის სამთავრო, tr) emerged as a separate feudal entity in the 15th-16th centuries, amid the civil wars in the Kingdom of Georgia that concluded with the dissolution of t ...

in 1810–21. He was the youngest son of

Kelesh Ahmed-Bey Shervashidze Kelesh Ahmed-Bey (Kelesh-Bey) Chachba (Shervashidze) (1747–1808) was the head of state of the Principality of Abkhazia from the 1780s to 1808. Kelesh-Bey was the son of Manuchar Chachba-Shervashidze. In his childhood, Kelesh-Bey was taken to I ...

. After Kelesh Ahmed-bey was killed by his heir, Aslan-Bey (or, according to George Hewitt by Sefer-bey himself, together with Nino Dadiani and the Russian military administration), Sefer Ali-Bey was forced to hide out in neighboring Mingrelia under the protection of the Mingrelian princess regent Nino. With the help of the Mingrelian nobility, Sefer Ali-Bey tried unsuccessfully, to usurp the throne of Abkhazia. In 1809, Shervashidze asked the

Tsarist Tsarist autocracy (russian: царское самодержавие, transcr. ''tsarskoye samoderzhaviye''), also called Tsarism, was a form of autocracy (later absolute monarchy) specific to the Grand Duchy of Moscow and its successor states ...

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

to take Abkhazia under its protection, with the condition that Ali-Bey be established as the new ruler of the Principality. After decisive Russian victories during the Second Russo-Turkish War, the Russian forces were able to expel pro-Turkish Abkhazians as well as the remaining Turkish forces from the region.

Tsar Alexander I Alexander I (; – ) was Emperor of Russia from 1801, the first King of Congress Poland from 1815, and the Grand Duke of Finland from 1809 to his death. He was the eldest son of Emperor Paul I and Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg. The son of G ...

established Sefer Ali-Bey Shervashidze as the new ruler of Abkhazia on 17 February 1810. He died in 1821 and was buried at the

Lykhny Church The Church of Dormition of Lykhny ( ka, ლიხნის ტაძარი, tr) is a medieval Orthodox Christian church in the village of Lykhny in Abkhazia/Georgia, built in the 10th century. History Its 14th-century frescoes are infl ...

References

* ''Georgian State (Soviet) Encyclopedia.'' 1983. Book 10. p. 689. Year of birth missing 1821 deaths Abkhazian former Muslims Princes of Abkhazia Converts to Eastern Orthodoxy from Islam House of Shervashidze {{abkhazia-bio-stub