Dadeshkeliani or Dadishkeliani was an aristocratic family from the mountainous western Georgian

Georgia (country)

Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...

 province of Svaneti

Svaneti

Svaneti is a historic province in Georgia, in the northwestern part of the country. It is inhabited by the Svans, a geographic subgroup of the Georgians.- Geography :...

. They ruled the Principality of Svaneti

Principality of Svaneti

The Principality of Svaneti was a small principality in the Greater Caucasus mountains that emerged following the breakup of the Kingdom of Georgia in the late 15th century...

 from the 1720s to 1857.

Although the Dadeshkeliani themselves claimed the descent from the Shamkhal

Shamkhal

Shamkhal is the title for the rulers of Kumukh in Dagestan during the 8th-17th centuries. In 1642 the Shamkhalate of Kazi-Kumukh broke up into several independent states. Afterwards Shamkhal moved his capital from Kazi-Kumukh to Tarki, where he formed Shamkhalate of Tarki....

 dynasty of Tarki

Tarki

Tarki is an urban locality under the administrative jurisdiction of Sovetsky City District of the city of Makhachkala in the Republic of Dagestan, Russia, situated on the Tarkitau Mountain. Population:...

, in Dagestan

Dagestan

The Republic of Dagestan is a federal subject of Russia, located in the North Caucasus region. Its capital and the largest city is Makhachkala, located at the center of Dagestan on the Caspian Sea...

, historic evidence shows that they were spun off from the House of Gelovani

Gelovani

House of Gelovani - is a Georgian princely family from the lower part of the mountainous province of Svaneti, formerly - rulers of Svaneti.The family can be traced back to...

, a princely dynasty of Svaneti known since the 11th century. One princess of the Gelovani family is said to have survived the destruction of her clan by the princes Dadiani

Dadiani

Dadiani was a Georgian family of nobles, dukes and princes, and a ruling dynasty of the western Georgian province of Samegrelo.- The House of Dadiani :...

, who usurped the Principality of Svaneti

Svaneti

Svaneti is a historic province in Georgia, in the northwestern part of the country. It is inhabited by the Svans, a geographic subgroup of the Georgians.- Geography :...

 in the mid-17th century, and to have fled to Kabarda in the North Caucasus

North Caucasus

The North Caucasus is the northern part of the Caucasus region between the Black and Caspian Seas and within European Russia. The term is also used as a synonym for the North Caucasus economic region of Russia....

. Her eldest son, called Dadesh, married into a local princely family and his name was later transformed into a separate family name locally pronounced as Dadeshkeliani. His descendants were able to return to Svaneti to reclaim the domain from the Dadiani

Dadiani

Dadiani was a Georgian family of nobles, dukes and princes, and a ruling dynasty of the western Georgian province of Samegrelo.- The House of Dadiani :...

, attaining to the principate of Svaneti in the 1720s for the second time.
Since then, the Gelovani ruled the Lower Svaneti, whilst the Dadeshkelian - the Upper Svaneti. In the 1820s, the Principality of Svaneti effectively split into two as a result of a blood feud between the rival Dadeshkeliani branches. Through the mediation by the princes of Mingrelia, both branches accepted nominal Russian suzerainty in 1833. Nevertheless, they continued to run their affairs independently and did not allow Russian officials or church missions into the area until the late 1840s.

Continuing dynastic strife among the Dadishkeliani, their defiance to the Russian government, and vacillation during the Crimean War

Crimean War

The Crimean War was a conflict fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The war was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining...

 (1854-1856), however, led to direct Russian intervention. In 1857, Prince Alexander Baryatinsky, Viceroy of the Caucasus

Viceroyalty of the Caucasus

The Viceroyalty of the Caucasus is a term used to denote the Imperial Russian administrative and political authority in the Caucasus region exercised through the offices of glavnoupravlyayushchiy and namestnik...

, ordered Svaneti to be subdued by armed force. The prince of Svaneti, Constantine, chose to negotiate, but was ordered into exile to Erivan. On a farewell audience in Kutaisi

Kutaisi

Kutaisi is Georgia's second largest city and the capital of the western region of Imereti. It is 221 km to the west of Tbilisi.-Geography:...

, he quarreled with a local Russian administrator, Alexander Gagarin

Alexander Gagarin

Prince Alexander Ivanovich Gagarin was a Russian general and nobleman of Rurikid ancestry who was involved in the Caucasian and Crimean wars. In 1857, he served as a governor-general of Kutaisi and was killed by Constantine Dadeshkeliani, the deposed Prince of Svanetia, during a quarrel at...

, and stubbed to death him and three of his staff. When captured, Constantine was summarily tried by court martial and shot. In 1858, the principality was abolished and converted into a district administered by a Russian-appointed officer (pristav). Several members of the Dadeshekeliani family were exiled to the remote Russian provinces and those who remained in Georgia were deprived of their privileges of autonomous princes.