 Although there had been Georgians both been carried off forcefully and to a lesser extent voluntarily moved since the time of shah Tahmasp I, the large Georgian community in Iran has most of its roots starting from shah Abbas I his ruling era.During the Persian punitive campaign in eastern Georgia by Shah Abbas in 1614–17 against his formerly most loyal Georgian subject Teimuraz I, the region of Kakheti and the city Tbilisi were both devastated, and extremely large amounts of its population forced into exile.In total, just after Shah Abbas' his return to Persia in 1617 after ending the campaign victoriously, about 200,000 ethnic Georgians from Kakheti were expelled to Isfahan province, the Fereydan county, and other regions in mainland Persia, such as in the north (present day Mazandaran province, Gilan province).