Qazaq Khan Cherkes

Qazaq Khan Cherkes was a Safavid military commander of Circassian origin, who also served as the governor ("beglarbeg") of Shirvan (1624–1633) and Astarabad (1639–1640). A high-ranking member of the "gholam" military corps, he was furthermore appointed head of the Qaramanlu and Keneslu Qizilbash troops by then incumbent king Abbas I (r. 1588–1629) as part of the latters' policy to diminish the political influence of the Qizilbash. In 1632, during king Safi's (r. 1629–42) bloody purges, his relative, the prominent Circassian courtier Yusuf Agha was murdered, while Qazaq Khan Cherkes was deposed and imprisoned in 1633. He nevertheless later returned on the political scene in the last years of Safi's reign, when he was given a new governorship in 1639. His son Najafqoli Khan Cherkes would hold several influential positions as well.