|Eyalet of the Ottoman Empire|
The Childir Eyalet in 1609
• Battle of Çıldır
|Today part of|| Georgia|
The Eyalet of Childir (Ottoman Turkish: ایالت ایالت چلدر; Eyālet-i Çıldır) or Akhalzik[nb 1] was an eyalet of the Ottoman Empire in the Southwestern Caucasus. The area of the former Çıldır Eyalet is now divided between Samtskhe-Javakheti and the Autonomous Republic of Adjara in Georgia and provinces of Artvin, Ardahan and Erzurum in Turkey. The administrative center was Çıldır between 1578-1628, Ahıska between 1628-1829, and Oltu between 1829-1845.
Samtskhe was the only Georgian principality to permanently become an Ottoman province (as the eyalet of Cildir). In the eighty years after the battle of Zivin the region was gradually absorbed into the empire.
The Ottomans took the Ahıska region from the Principality of Guria, a vassal state of Safavid dynasty. In 1578, when the new province was established, they appointed the former Georgian prince, Minuchir (who took the name of Mustafa after converting to Islam) as the first governor. From 1625 onwards the entire eyalet was a hereditary possession of the now-Muslim atabegs of Samtskhe, which administered it as hereditary governors, with some exceptions, until the mid-18th century.
By the treaty of Adrianople, much of the pashalik was ceded to Russia, and became part of the Russian Akhalzik Province. The remaining, smaller inner part was united with the eyalet of Kars (later part of Eyalet of Erzurum) in 1845 and coastal parts was united with Trabzon Eyalet in 1829.
Sanjaks of the Eyalet in the 17th century:
- Sanjak of Oulti (Oltu)
- Sanjak of Harbus
- Sanjak of Ardinj (Ardanuç)
- Sanjak of Hajrek (Hanak)
- Sanjak of Great Ardehan
- Sanjak of Postkhu
- Sanjak of Mahjil (Macahel)
- Sanjak of Ijareh penbek
- Hereditary sanjaks:
- Sanjak of Purtekrek (Yusufeli)
- Sanjak of Lawaneh (Livane/Artvin)
- Sanjak of Nusuf Awan
- Sanjak of Shushad (Şavşat)
- Other variants of this name include Akalzike (from Malthe Conrad Bruun (1822). Universal geography, or A description of all the parts of the world. p. 121. Retrieved 2013-06-02.)
- Society for the diffusion of useful knowledge (1843). The penny cyclopædia [ed. by G. Long]. p. 180. Retrieved 2013-06-01.
- "Some Provinces of the Ottoman Empire". Geonames.de. Archived from the original on 27 August 2013. Retrieved 25 February 2013.
- The Penny Cyclopaedia of the Society for the Difussion of Useful Knowledge. Charles Knight. 1838. p. 174. Retrieved 2013-06-02.
- D. E. Pitcher (1972). An Historical Geography of the Ottoman Empire: From Earliest Times to the End of the Sixteenth Century. Brill Archive. p. 140. GGKEY:4CFA3RCNXRP. Retrieved 2013-06-01.
- Gábor Ágoston; Bruce Alan Masters (2009-01-01). Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire. Infobase Publishing. p. 141. ISBN 978-1-4381-1025-7. Retrieved 2013-06-01.
- The Penny Cyclopædia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. C. Knight. 1843. p. 393. Retrieved 2013-06-01.
- OVER 50,000 PEOPLE VISIT ISHAK PASHA PALACE IN EASTERN TURKEY
- Evliya Çelebi; Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall (1834). Narrative of Travels in Europe, Asia, and Africa in the Seventeenth Century. Oriental Translation Fund. p. 95. Retrieved 2013-06-01.