Undiladze

thumb|Daud Khan Undiladze|Daud-Khan, beglarbeg of Ganja and Karabakh The Undiladze family (, ) was a Georgian noble family whose members rose in prominence in the service of Safavid Iran and dominated the Shah's court at a certain period of the late 16th and early 17th centuries.

==History== The first known member of this family, Allahverdi Khan, was born to a Christian family in Georgia, but captured by the Persians during one of their raids, converted into Islam and trained for the ghulam army, a special military structure consisting of Christian captives. His raise to the governorship of Fars in 1595 marked the beginning of Shah Abbas I's policy of replacing Turkic Qizilbash officers with the former ghulams. By 1600, Allahverdi-Khan made it into the most influential minister of the Safavid empire, being succeeded upon his death in 1613 by his older son, Imam-Quli Khan. Both father and son were responsible for the army reforms and major military exploits, including a series of successful campaigns that brought the Portuguese colonial gains in the Persian Gulf to an end. Allahverdi's younger son, Daud Khan, served as governor of Ganja and Karabakh from 1627 to 1633, and had more intimate ties with Georgia, the country of the family's origin.