ABSTRACT
COMMENTARY 35 The title 'Krym-Shevkal' (ref. Chap. 6, p. 201, n. 1) Krym-Shevkal: This personality and title remain somewhat ambiguous in the texts of the Posolski Prikaz. (Cf. Brosset, EC/BHP, Vol. II, Nos. 16--18, col. 250, n. 87.) In our text (p. 201), and again in May 1590, through his envoy in Moscow, Alexander explained that his quarrel with the Shevkal had arisen because his son Giorgi had been married into the family of the Krym-Shevkal Elisam Sultan (cf. above, Chap. 4, p. 161, n. 2). (Elisam was Elisu, Georgian Eliseni, the region of south-east Kakheti, to the north of the Alazani which had been partly peopled by intrusive Lesghian elements; see also Chap. I I, p. 447, n. 2.) During the embassy of Pies he he ye v to Kakheti in 1592, there is reference to a proposal to conquer the country of Kumukh - 'of which half belongs to Krym-Shevkal, friend of Alexander' (Brosset, ibid., col. 258). In 1593 a combined operation against Tarku, with a view to displacing the Shevkal and installing Krym Shevkal, 'the ally of the King of Georgia' and the father-in-law of Prince Giorgi, was under negotiation (Brosset, ibid., col. 259). In a letter dated 15 January 1963, the late Mr Haidar Bammate, a descendant of the Shevkal's house, stated that 'la succession dans la dynastie des Chamchal se faisait de pere en fils et l'heritier presomptif portait le titre de Krim-Shamkhal'. Alexander described Krym-Shevkal as the cousin of the reigning Shevkal (p. 216 above). The Shevkal in his turn referred to Krym-Shevkal as 'my brother' (p. 201 above). But in Turkish, the language of intercourse between
