View source for Simon I Gurieli

[[File:Simon Gurieli.jpg|thumb|Simon Gurieli, a sketch from [[Teramo Castelli]]'s travelogue.]]
'''Simon I Gurieli''' (also Svimon; {{lang-ka|სიმონ [სვიმონ] I გურიელი}}, 1606 – {{circa|1672}}), of the [[House of Gurieli]], was [[Principality of Guria|Prince of Guria]] from 1625 to 1626. He acceded to power in Guria, a small principality in southwest Georgia, after having murdered his father, [[Mamia II Gurieli]], and was dethroned and [[Blinding (punishment)|blinded]] by his brother-in-law [[Levan II Dadiani]], [[Principality of Mingrelia|Prince of Mingrelia]]. Simon thereafter became a monk and retired to [[Jerusalem]].

== Reign ==
Simon was a son of [[Mamia II Gurieli]], Prince of Guria, by his wife Tinatin Jaqeli. In 1625, Simon murdered his father while sleeping and seized the princely throne of Guria. He sought redemption in making donations to the [[Achi Monastery]].<ref name="dx">{{cite book|last1=Khakhutaishvili|first1=Davit|script-title=ka:სამტომეული, ტ. 2|trans-title=Works in three volumes, Vol. 2|date=2009|publisher=Shota Rustaveli State University|location=Batumi|isbn=978-9941-409-60-8|language=ka|chapter=ნარკვევები გურიის სამთავროს ისტორიიდან (XV-XVIII სს.)|trans-chapter=Studies in the history of the Principality of Guria (15th–18th centuries)|pages = 45–46}}</ref> 

On his accession, Simon quickly came into conflict with Levan II Dadiani of Mingrelia, whose sister [[Mariam Dadiani|Mariam]] he had married in 1621. Dadiani's political ambitions and territorial expansionism was a source of concern for the Gurieli. Simon released Levan Dadiani's disgraced [[vizier]] Paata "Tsutski" Tsulukidze, who had been handed by Dadiani to Mamia Gurieli for custody. Tsulukidze and Gurieli plotted Levan's murder, but Dadiani survived their [[Abkhaz people|Abkhaz]] assassin and had Tsulukidze [[Hanged, drawn and quartered|strangled and quartered]], firing the remains from a cannon. Thereafter, he exploited the patricide committed by Simon as a [[casus belli]] and invaded Guria. Simon resisted, but was defeated at [[Lanchkhuti]] and made prisoner. Dadiani had him blinded and replaced with his client, [[Kaikhosro I Gurieli]]. Simon's wife and son were taken to Mingrelia.<ref name="dx"/><ref name=rayfield>{{cite book|last=Rayfield|first=Donald|author-link=Donald Rayfield|title=Edge of Empires: A History of Georgia|year=2012|publisher=Reaktion Books|location=London|isbn=978-1780230306|pages = 194–195}}</ref>

== Retirement ==
Having lost his throne, sight, and family, Simon, once freed from captivity, retired to Jerusalem and became a monk there. He stayed in touch with his former wife, who went on to become [[List of Georgian consorts|queen-consort]] of [[Kingdom of Kartli|Kartli]] as the wife of two successive kings, [[Rostom of Kartli|Rostom]] and [[Vakhtang V of Kartli|Shah-Nawaz]].<ref name="dx"/> Simon was still alive and residing in Georgia in 1672, when the Frenchman [[Jean Chardin]] was travelling in the [[Caucasus]]. According to Chardin, Mariam hosted her seasoned and frail ex-husband at the border with [[Kingdom of Imereti|Imereti]] and gave him some means to survive. King Shah-Nawaz was jealous but Mariam dismissed his concerns with laughter, asking "whether he were not asham'd to be jealous of a poor, old, blind, miserable creature, and altogether as impotent as himself."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Chardin|first1=John, Sir|author-link1=Jean Chardin|title=The travels of Sir John Chardin into Persia and the East-Indies, Vol. 1|date=1686|publisher=University of Oxford Text Archive|url=http://tei.it.ox.ac.uk/tcp/Texts-HTML/free/A31/A31753.html|access-date=14 April 2017}}</ref>

== Family ==
Simon Gurieli had two known sons:<ref name="DRRI">{{cite book|last1=Grebelsky|first1=P. Kh.|last2=Dumin|first2=S.V.|last3=Lapin|first3=V.V.|script-title=ru:Дворянские роды Российской империи. Том 4: Князья Царства Грузинского|date=1993|publisher=Vesti|language=ru|trans-title=Noble families of the Russian Empire. Vol. 4: Princes of the Kingdom of Georgia|pages = 37–38}}</ref> 

* [[Demetre Gurieli]] (died 1664/1668), Prince of Guria (1659–1664), King of Imereti (1663–1664);
* Otia (died 1645), who followed his mother Mariam in Kartli and died there.

== References ==
{{reflist}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-hou|[[House of Gurieli]]}}
{{s-reg}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Mamia II Gurieli]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Prince of Guria]]|years=1625–1626}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Kaikhosro I Gurieli]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Simon 01 Gurieli}}

[[Category:1606 births]]
[[Category:1672 deaths]]
[[Category:House of Gurieli]]
[[Category:17th-century people from Georgia (country)]]
[[Category:Blind royalty and nobility]]
[[Category:Patricides]]