11 Facts About Samson Makintsev

Samson Yakovlevich Makintsev, more commonly known as Samson Khan or Sam Khan ;, was a general of Russian origin in the service of Qajar Iran.

Samson Makintsev was born in 1780 in the Caucasian Line of Ukrainian origin and was the child of a soldier.

Samson Makintsev joined the Dragoon regiment in 1799 at the age of 19.

Samson Makintsev quickly gained the complete confidence of Abbas Mirza, who gave the Russians the name Bahadoran and used them to constitute his palace guard.

Samson Makintsev employed a range of methods, including "enticements, money and cunning", and he organized schemes to encourage troops to desert their Russian units.

Samson Makintsev himself married and had children, and those who married were given land and apparently lived well.

Samson Makintsev inhabited a large house in the Tabriz arg, having made an extremely advantageous marriage to the daughter of the exiled Prince Alexander of Georgia who was living in Iran proper as well.

Samson Makintsev's regiment was the fighting core of the Nizam-i-Jadid, and appears to have possessed considerable combat power.

Samson Makintsev then appointed his new son-in-law, Yevstafii Vasilievich Skryplev, a non-commissioned officer recently deserted from the Nasheburg infantry regiment, the new colonel and regimental commander.

Samson Makintsev himself declined the offer apparently out of fear that he would be treated differently from the other deserters, tried separately, and punished.

Samson Makintsev died in 1849 and was buried under the altar of an Orthodox church in Iranian Azerbaijan that he himself had rebuilt in 1840.