Iran and Georgia have had relations for thousands of years. Eastern and Southern Georgia had been under intermittent Persian suzerainty for many centuries up to the early course of the 19th century, while western Georgia had been under its suzerainty for much shorter periods of time throughout history. Georgia especially rose to importance from the time of the Persian Safavids.
Due to these millennia long intertwined relations, there has been a lot of political and cultural exchange between the two nations for thousands of years. In the words of Keith Hitchins / Encyclopædia Iranica:
Ancient period Evidence from Achaemenid cuneiform inscriptions suggest that there was trade between the Achaemenids and Georgian tribes. According to Herodotus, the proto-Georgians of Transcaucasia were included in the 18th and 19th satrapies (see: Districts of the Achaemenid Empire). Although the Achaemenids had Southern Georgia under their control, they never managed to subdue the tribes to the north. Following the collapse of the Achaemenids, the first Iberian king, Parnavaz (whose mother was a Persian woman),Georgian royal annals, page of edition 20, line of edition 18 adopted a Persian style institutions as models in organizing his realm.
During the Parthian era, the Caucasus was contested between Rome and Persia, with the monarchy of Georgia playing both sides in order to maintain its independence. In the late 2nd century AD, the Arsacid Parthians established an eponymous branch of their dynasty on the Georgian throne, known as the Arsacid dynasty of Iberia. From the first centuries C.E., the cult of Mithras and Zoroastrianism were commonly practiced in Colchis and Iberia. Excavation of rich burials in Bori, Armazi, and Zguderi has produced silver drinking cups with the impression of a horse either standing at a fire-altar or with its right foreleg raised above the altar.Machabeli, pls. 37, 51-54, 65-66 The cult of Mithras, distinguished by its syncretic character and thus complementary to local cults, especially the cult of the Sun, gradually came to merge with ancient Georgian beliefs. It is even thought that Mithras must have been the precursor of St. George in pagan Georgia.Makalatia, pp. 184-93 Step by step, Iranian beliefs and ways of life penetrated deeply the practices of the Iberian court and elite: the Armazian script and “language,” which is based on Aramaic (see Tsereteli), was adopted officially (a number of inscriptions in Aramaic of the Classical/Hellenistic periods are known from Colchis as well,;Braund, pp. 126-27) the court was organized on Iranian models, the elite dress was influenced by Iranian costume, the Iberian elite adopted Iranian personal names,Braund, pp. 212-15 and the official cult of Armazi (q.v.) was introduced by King Pharnavaz in the 3rd century B.C.E. (connected by the medieval Georgian chronicle to Zoroastrianism)Apakidze, pp. 397-401 This ended when the Sassanids took power. There was peace between Iberia and the Sassanids and Iberia helped the Sassanids in their campaigns against Rome. During this time, Zoroastrianism was also established in the region. However, Rome managed to conquer the territory for sixty years, at which point Christianity was established around 317 AD. Iranian elements in ancient Georgian art and archeology gradually started to disappear after the adoption of Christianity in the same century.
Decisive for the future history of Iberia was the foundation of the Sasanian (or Sassanid) Empire in 224. By replacing the weak Parthian realm with a strong, centralized state, it changed the political orientation of Iberia away from Rome. Iberia became a tributary of the Sasanian state during the reign of Shapur I (241-272). Relations between the two countries seem to have been friendly at first, as Iberia cooperated in Persian campaigns against Rome, and the Iberian king Amazasp III (260-265) was listed as a high dignitary of the Sasanian realm, not a vassal who had been subdued by force of arms. But the aggressive tendencies of the Sasanians were evident in their propagation of Zoroastrianism, which was probably established in Iberia between the 260s and 290s.
However, in the Peace of Nisibis (298) while the Roman Empire obtained control of Caucasian Iberia again as a vassal state and acknowledged the reign over all the Caucasian area, it recognized Mirian III, the first of the Chosroid dynasty, as king of Iberia.
However, after the emperor Julian was slain during his failed campaign in Persia in 363, Rome ceded control of Iberia to Persia, and King Varaz-Bakur I (Asphagur) (363-365) became a Persian vassal, an outcome confirmed by the Peace of Acilisene in 387 However, a later ruler of Kartli, Pharsman IV (406-409), preserved his country's autonomy and ceased to pay tribute to Persia. Persia prevailed, and Sassanian kings began to appoint a viceroy (pitiaxae/bidaxae) to keep watch on their vassal. They eventually made the office hereditary in the ruling house of Lower Kartli, thus inaugurating the Kartli pitiaxate, which brought an extensive territory under its control. Although it remained a part of the kingdom of Kartli, its viceroys turned their domain into a center of Persian influence. Sasanian rulers put the Christianity of the Georgians to a severe test. They promoted the teachings of Zoroaster, and by the middle of the 5th century Zoroastrianism had become the second official religion in eastern Georgia alongside Christianity.
Religious issues arose after the Sassanids retook the territory. In 580, the Sassanids abolished the monarchy and made Iberia a province. Fighting between Rome, and later the Byzantines, and the Sassanids continued over the territory until the collapse of the Sassanids during the Islamic conquest of Persia, with Eastern Georgia nevertheless staying under Persian suzerainty.
Middle Ages
Around the year 1160, Tamar the Great was born to George III, and Burdukhan of Alania; an Iranian speaking nation. The Kingdom of Georgia, under the reign of Tamar the Great, in 1209, laid waste to Ardabil – according to the Georgian and Armenian annals – as a revenge for the local Muslim ruler's attack on Ani and his massacre of the city's Christian population. In a great final burst, the brothers led an army marshaled throughout Tamar's possessions and vassal territories in a march, through Nakhchivan and Julfa, to Marand, Tabriz, and Qazvin in northwest Iran, pillaging several settlements on their way, making northwestern Iran mark the southernmost maximum extent of the empire.
Safavid period
16th century
The Iranian Safavid dynasty (which, due to extensive intermarriages, was of partly ethnic Georgian origin itself as well, see; Safavid dynasty family tree) was in constant conflict with the Ottomans over control and influence in the Caucasus. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, Iran had to deal with several independent kingdoms and principalities, as Georgia was not a single state at the time. These entities often following divergent political courses. Iran's sphere of influence was Eastern Georgia (the kingdoms of Kartli and Kakheti) and Southern Georgia (the kingdoms of Samtskhe-Saatabago), while Western Georgia was under Ottoman influence. These independent kingdoms came under intermittent suzerainty of Persia after Div-Sultan Rumlu's conquests in 1518 (though Kartli and Kakheti had been made vassals as early as 1503), till the early 19th century.
The Georgian kings and princes, however, sought to break loose of their vassalage. David, the king of Kartli refused to adopt Islam, did not present himself at Shah Ismail's court, and made preparations for war. In 1521, Shah Ismail sent out a large army to suppress the rebellion. The army invaded and captured the Georgian capital of Tbilisi. After Ismail's death, the ten-year-old Tahmasp became Shah. Taking advantage of the situation, David retook Tbilisi and freed himself from vassalage. The situation did not end there, as later Georgian kings continued the fight against Safavid Iran, while many others chose the Iranian side. In 1527, Luarsab I ascended came to power in Kartli. Iskandar Beg Munshi, an Iranian historian of the first half of the 17th century, noted that Luarsab was distinguished among Georgian kings for his courage, refusing to show obedience and pay tribute. Only Luarsab continued to fight against the Iranians as other Georgian kings had made deals and accepted Iranian sovereignty, often accepting Islam and taking Persian names and embracing Persian culture for many centuries afterwards. In 1540-1554 Shah Tahmasp led four campaigns against Georgia, devastating the country's eastern and southern regions and taking tens of thousands of Georgian captives to Iran. Luarsab fell in battle in 1556.
On May 29, 1555, Safavid Iran and the Ottoman Empire concluded a treaty at Amasya by which Transcaucasia was divided between the two. Western Georgia and the western part of southern Georgia fell to The Ottomans, while Eastern Georgia and the (largest) eastern part of southern Georgia fell to Iran, thus making Kartli again part of the Safavid Empire.
In 1556 Luarsab's son, Simon (also called Somayun Khan by Iskandar Beg Munshi), ascended the thrown of Kartli and continued the struggle for independence. In 1569 Simon was taken prisoner and sent to Qazvin. Refusing to adopt Islam, he was imprisoned in the fortress of Alamut in Iran. During Simon's captivity Kartli was governed by his Islamised brother Daud-Khan, adopted son of the shah of Iran. Shah Ismail II later freed Simon, making him an ally against the Ottomans. After this period, Iranian Georgians gained increasing influence and power in politics and the military.
17th century In 1603, Shah Abbas attempted to solve the Georgian question by conquering eastern Georgia. Some members of the Georgian monarchy continued their struggle and Shah Abbas invaded and devastated Georgia several times, often killing members of the royal family. Upon the ignoring of Abbas' demand for Teimuraz I and Luarsab II to appear in Mazandaran and his suspicion of their treason, he used it as a pretext to invade his Georgian lands, and settle the issue once and for all. During these punitive campaigns against his formerly two loyal subjects, 200,000 Georgians were deported to mainland Iran (see Abbas I's Kakhetian and Kartlian campaigns). After continued fighting and resistance, both sides agreed to compromise. The monarchies of the Georgian kingdoms were replaced by pro-Iranian monarchs of the Bagrationi line, while those who resisted would be eventually executed in Iran, such as the same Luarsab II of Kartli. But the kingdoms would be controlled as subjects for many centuries afterwards. In 1660 a rebellion took place in which the Georgians attacked the Turkmen settled in their regions by the Iranian Safavids, and defeated the Iranian garrisons. Afterwards, after the rebellion was suppressed, the leaders of the rebellion turned themselves in and were executed, in order to prevent Safavid retaliation.
18th century Early in the 18th century, Iran was under a serious threat of being conquered by the Afghans. The shah of Iran entrusted the command of the troops fighting against Afghanistan to the Islamized Georgian kings. There were about 2000 Georgian troops in Afghanistan. Led by George XI (known as Gurgin Khan in Iran), the Georgians succeeded temporarily in halting the raids of Afghan tribes against Iran. In 1709 George XI was treacherously murdered by instigation of Afghan leader Mirwais Khan Hotak.