Kingdom of Georgia

Kingdom of Georgia საქართველოს სამეფო Sakartvelos Samepo
1008–1463-1490
Flag Coat of arms
Kingdom of Georgia in 1184-1230 at the peak of its might
Capital	Kutaisi (c. 1008-1122) Tbilisi (c. 1122-1490)
Common languages	Georgian
Religion	Eastern Orthodox Christianity (Georgian Orthodox Church)
Government	Feudal Monarchy
King, King of Kings
• 978–1014	Bagrat III (first)
• 1446–1465	George VIII (last)
Historical era	High Middle Ages to Late Middle Ages
• Unification of the Georgian State	1008
• Seljuk invasions	1060-1121
• Golden Age	1184-1226
• Mongol rule	1238-1335
• Timurid invasions	1386-1403
• Civil war	1463-1490
• Constantine II recognizes the independence of Kakheti, Imereti and Samtskhe	1490-1493
Area
1213-1245	380,000 km2 (150,000 sq mi)
Population
• 13th century	2,400,000−2,500,000
Currency	Various Byzantine and Sassanian coins were minted until the 12th century. Dirham came into use after 1122.
ISO 3166 code	GE
Preceded by Succeeded by Principality of Tao-Klarjeti Kingdom of Abkhazia Kingdom of Kakheti-Hereti Seljuq Armenia Emirate of Tbilisi Kingdom of Kartli Kingdom of Kakheti Kingdom of Imereti Principality of Samtskhe
Today part of	Countries today Armenia Azerbaijan Georgia Iran Russia Turkey

The Kingdom of Georgia (Georgian: საქართველოს სამეფო), also known as the Georgian Empire, was a medieval monarchy which emerged circa 1008 AD. It reached its Golden Age of political and economic strength during the reign of King David IV and Queen Tamar the Great from 11th to 13th centuries. At the peak of its dominance, the kingdom's influence spanned from the south of modern-day Russia to the northern provinces of Iran, while also maintaining religious possessions abroad, such as the Monastery of the Cross and Iviron. It was the principal historical precursor of present-day Georgia.

Lasting for several centuries, the kingdom fell to the Mongol invasions in the 13th century, but managed to re-assert sovereignty by the 1340s. The following decades were marked by Black Death, as well as numerous invasions under the leadership of Timur, who devastated the country's economy, population, and urban centers. The Kingdom's geopolitical situation further worsened after the fall of the Empire of Trebizond. As a result of these processes, by the end of the 15th century Georgia turned into a fractured entity. Renewed incursions by Timur from 1386, and the later invasions by the Kara Koyunlu and Ak Koyunlu led to the final collapse of the kingdom into anarchy by 1466 and the mutual recognition of its constituent kingdoms of Kartli, Kakheti and Imereti as independent states between 1490 and 1493.

Unification of the Georgian State

In struggle against the Arab occupation, Bagrationi dynasty came to rule over Tao-Klarjeti and established Kouropalatate of Iberia as a nominal dependency under the Byzantine Empire. The restoration of the Georgian kingship begins in AD 888, when Adarnase IV took the title of "King of Iberians". However, the Bagrationi dynasty failed to maintain the integrity of their kingdom which was actually divided between the three branches of the family with the main branch retaining Tao and another controlling Klarjeti. At the end of the 10th century Curopalate David of Tao invaded the Earldom of Kartli-Iberia and gave it to his foster-son Bagrat III and installed Gurgen as his regent. Three years later, after the death of his uncle Theodosius the Blind, Bagrat III inherited the Abkhazian throne. David III helped Bagrat’s natural father Gurgen to be crowned as King of Kings of the Iberians on the death of Bagrat the Simple (994). In 1008, Gurgen died, and Bagrat succeeded him as King of the Iberians, becoming thus the first king of a unified realm of Abkhazia and Iberia. After he had secured his patrimony, Bagrat proceeded to press a claim to the easternmost Georgian kingdom of Kakheti-Hereti and annexed it in or around 1010, after two years of fighting and aggressive diplomacy. Bagrat’s reign, a period of uttermost importance in the history of Georgia, brought about the final victory of the Georgian Bagratids in the centuries-long power struggles. Anxious to create more stable and centralized monarchy, Bagrat eliminated or at least diminished the autonomy of the dynastic princes. In his eyes, the most possible internal danger came from the Klarjeti line of the Bagrationi. Although seem to have acknowledged Bagrat’s authority, they continued to be styled as Kings, and Sovereigns of Klarjeti. To secure the succession to his son, George I, Bagrat lured his cousins, on pretext of a reconciliatory meeting, to the Panaskerti Castle, and threw them in prison in 1010. Bagrat’s foreign policy was generally peaceful and the king successfully manoeuvred to avoid the conflicts with both the Byzantine and Muslim neighbours even though David's domains of Tao remained in the Byzantine and Tbilisi in the Arab hands.

War and peace with Byzantium

Main article: Byzantine–Georgian wars

The major political and military event during George I’s reign, a war against the Byzantine Empire, had its roots back to the 990s, when the Georgian prince Curopalate David of Tao, following his abortive rebellion against Emperor Basil II, had to agree to cede his extensive possessions in Tao and the neighbouring lands to the emperor on his death. All the efforts by David’s stepson and George’s father, Bagrat III, to prevent these territories from being annexed to the empire went in vain. Young and ambitious, George launched a campaign to restore the Kuropalates’ succession to Georgia and occupied Tao in 1015–1016. Byzantines were at that time involved in a relentless war with the Bulgar Empire, limiting their actions to the west. But as soon as Bulgaria was conquered, Basil led his army against Georgia (1021). An exhausting war lasted for two years, and ended in a decisive Byzantine victory, forcing George to agree to a peace treaty, in which he had not only to abandon his claims to Tao, but to surrender several of his southwestern possessions to Basil, and to give his three-year-old son, Bagrat IV, as hostage.

Great Turkish Invasion

Main article: Great Turkish Invasion

The second half of the 11th century was marked by the strategically significant invasion of the Seljuq Turks, who by the end of the 1040s had succeeded in building a vast empire including most of Central Asia and Persia. In 1071, the Seljuq army destroyed the Byzantine army in the Battle of Manzikert. By 1081, all of Armenia, Anatolia, Mesopotamia, Syria, and most of Georgia had been conquered by the Seljuqs in the Great Turkish Invasion.

Georgian Reconquista

David IV

David IV of Georgia, a fresco from the Shio-Mgvime monastery

The Golden Age began with the reign of David IV ("the builder" or "the great"), the son of George II and Queen Helena, who assumed the throne at the age of 16 in a period of Great Turkish Invasions. As he came of age under the guidance of his court minister, George of Chqondidi, David IV suppressed dissent of feudal lords and centralized the power in his hands to effectively deal with foreign threats. In 1121, he decisively defeated much larger Turkish armies during the Battle of Didgori, with fleeing Seljuq Turks being run down by pursuing Georgian cavalry for several days. A huge amount of booty and prisoners were captured by David's army, which had also secured Tbilisi and inaugurated a new era of revival.

David IV founded the Gelati Monastery, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which became an important center of scholarship in the Eastern Orthodox Christian world of that time.

David also played a personal role in reviving Georgian religious hymnography, composing the Hymns of Repentance (Georgian: [გალობანი სინანულისანი, galobani sinanulisani] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)), a sequence of eight free-verse psalms. In this emotional repentance of his sins, David sees himself as reincarnating the Biblical David, with a similar relationship to God and to his people. His hymns also share the idealistic zeal of the contemporaneous European crusaders to whom David was a natural ally in his struggle against the Seljuks.

The reign of Demetrius I and George III

Georgia during the Byzantine Empire, 1045 AD

The kingdom continued to flourish under Demetrius I, the son of David. Although his reign saw a disruptive family conflict related to royal succession, Georgia remained a centralized power with a strong military. After an earthquake in 1139 destroyed the town of Ganja, Demetrius I immediately invaded and captured it; to celebrate his victory, he took the iron gates of its fortress as a trophy to Gelati.

A talented poet, Demetrius also continued his father's contributions to Georgia's religious polyphony. The most famous of his hymns is Thou Art a Vineyard, which is dedicated to Virgin Mary, the patron saint of Georgia, and is still sung in Georgia's churches 900 years after its creation.

Demetrius was succeeded by his son George in 1156, beginning a stage of more offensive foreign policy. The same year he ascended to the throne, George launched a successful campaign against the Seljuq sultanate of Ahlat. He freed the important Armenian town of Dvin from Turkish vassalage and was thus welcomed as a liberator in the area. George gave his daughter Rusudan, in marriage, to Manuel Komnenos, the son of Emperor Andronikos I Komnenos.

Golden age

Main article: Georgian Golden Age

The unified monarchy maintained its precarious independence from the Byzantine and Seljuk empires throughout the 11th century, and flourished under David IV the Builder (1089–1125), who repelled the Seljuk attacks and essentially completed the unification of Georgia with the re-conquest of Tbilisi in 1122.

With the decline of Byzantine power and the dissolution of the Great Seljuk Empire, Georgia became one of the pre-eminent nations of the region, stretching, at its largest extent, from present-day Southern Russia to northern Iran, and westwards into Anatolia. As a retribution for the attack on Georgian-controlled city of Ani, where 12,000 Christians were massacred in 1208, Georgia's Tamar the Great invaded and conquered the cities of Tabriz, Ardabil, Khoy, Qazvin and others along the way to Gorgan in northeast Persia.

During Tamara's reign, the Kingdom patronized Georgian-built religious centers overseas, such as this Iviron Monastery

In spite of repeated incidents of dynastic strife, the kingdom continued to prosper during the reigns of Demetrios I (1125–1156), George III (1156–1184), and especially, his daughter Tamar (1184–1213).

The Kingdom of Georgia brought about the Georgian Golden Age, which describes a historical period in the High Middle Ages, spanning from roughly the late 11th to 13th centuries, when the kingdom reached the zenith of its power and development. The period saw the flourishing of medieval Georgian architecture, painting and poetry, which was frequently expressed in the development of ecclesiastic art, as well as the creation of first major works of secular literature. It was a period of military, political, economical and cultural progress. It also included the so-called Georgian Renaissance (also called Eastern Renaissance), during which various human activities, forms of craftsmanship and art, such as literature, philosophy and architecture thrived in the kingdom.

Queen Tamar's reign

Queen Tamar and her father King George III (restored fresco from the Betania monastery)

The successes of his predecessors were built upon by Queen Tamar, daughter of George III, who became the first female ruler of Georgia in her own right and under whose leadership the Georgian state reached the zenith of power and prestige in the Middle Ages. She not only shielded much of her Empire from further Turkish invasions but successfully pacified internal tensions, including a coup organized by her Russian husband Yury Bogolyubsky, prince of Novgorod.

Among the remarkable events of Tamar's reign was the foundation of the empire of Trebizond on the Black Sea in 1204. This state was established in the northeast of the crumbling Byzantine Empire with the help of the Georgian armies, which supported Alexios I of Trebizond and his brother, David Komnenos, both of whom were Tamar's relatives. Alexios and David were fugitive Byzantine princes raised at the Georgian court. According to Tamar's historian, the aim of the Georgian expedition to Trebizond was to punish the Byzantine emperor Alexius IV Angelus for his confiscation of a shipment of money from the Georgian queen to the monasteries of Antioch and Mount Athos. Tamar's Pontic endeavor can also be explained by her desire to take advantage of the Western European Fourth Crusade against Constantinople to set up a friendly state in Georgia's immediate southwestern neighborhood, as well as by the dynastic solidarity to the dispossessed Comnenoi.

The country's power had grown to such extent that in the later years of Tamar's rule, the Kingdom was primarily concerned with the protection of the Georgian monastic centers in the Holy Land, eight of which were listed in Jerusalem. Saladin's biographer Bahā' ad-Dīn ibn Šaddād reports that, after the Ayyubid conquest of Jerusalem in 1187, Tamar sent envoys to the sultan to request that the confiscated possessions of the Georgian monasteries in Jerusalem be returned. Saladin's response is not recorded, but the queen's efforts seem to have been successful. Ibn Šaddād furthermore claims that Tamar outbid the Byzantine emperor in her efforts to obtain the relics of the True Cross, offering 200,000 gold pieces to Saladin who had taken the relics as booty at the battle of Hattin – to no avail, however.

Mongol rule and the gradual decline of Georgia

Main article: Mongol invasions of Georgia

The invasions by the Khwarezmians in 1225 and the Mongols in 1236 terminated Georgia’s "golden age". The struggle against the Mongol rule created a diarchy, with an ambitious lateral branch of the Bagrationi dynasty holding sway over Imereti, western Georgia. Many powerful Armenian and Georgian families became independent of the Georgian King due to the Mongols' support. Georgians attended all major campaigns of the Ilkhanate and aristocrats' sons served in kheshig.

Detail from the Nautical chart by Angelino Dulcert, depicting Georgian Black Sea coast and Tiflis, 1339

In the year 1327 there occurred in Mongol Persia the most dramatic event of the reign of the Il-Khan Abu Sa'id, namely the disgrace and execution of Chupan, protégé of the Georgian king George. Chupan's son Mahmud, who commanded the Mongol garrison in Georgia, was arrested by his own troops and executed. Subsequently, Iqbalshah, son of Qutlughshah, was appointed to be Mongol governor of Georgia (Gurjistan). In 1330–31 George V the Brilliant annexed Imereti uniting all of Georgia in the process. Therefore, four years prior the last effective Ilkhan Abu Sai'd's demise, two kingdoms of Georgia united again. In 1334, this post was given to Shaykh Hasan of the Jalayir by Abu Sai'd.

Black Death

Main article: Black Death

One of the primary reasons of Georgian political and military decline was the bubonic plague. It was first introduced in 1346 by the soldiers of George the Brilliant returning from a military expedition in south-western Georgia against invading Osmanli tribesmen. It is said that the plague wiped out a large part, if not half of the Georgian populace. This further weakened the integrity of the kingdom, as well as its military and logistic capabilities.

Final disintegration

Georgia 1450th

Main articles: Timur's invasions of Georgia and Turkmen invasions of Georgia

There was a period of reunion and revival under George V the Brilliant (1299–1302, 1314–1346), but the eight onslaughts of the Turco-Mongol conqueror Timur between 1386 and 1403 dealt a great blow to the Georgian kingdom. Its unity was finally shattered and, by 1490/91, the once powerful monarchy fragmented into three independent kingdoms – Kartli (central to eastern Georgia), Kakheti (eastern Georgia), and Imereti (western Georgia) – each led by the rival branches of the Bagrationi dynasty, and into five semi-independent principalities – Odishi, (Mingrelia), Guria, Abkhazia, Svaneti, and Samtskhe – dominated by their own feudal clans.

Government and Society

Georgian monarchs followed a policy of religious tolerance and their Christian, Muslim and Jewish subjects could feel quite comfortable. Medieval Georgia, in its political and cultural development and social structure, resembled Europe, "all the familiar terms of Western feudalism had their equivalents in the social system of medieval Georgia" obviously influenced by Byzantium. In the medieval period, Georgian feudalism or "Patronqmoba" went through three distinct phases. In the first period, taken to have lasted from the 8th to the 11th centuries, Georgian society was organized as a network of personal ties, tying the king with the nobles of various classes. By the early 9th century, Georgia had already developed a system in which homage was exchanged for benefices. Unlike the countries of medieval Europe, where the three elements of political compromise – towns, feudal lords and the church – divided power among themselves and consequently promoted the development of strong centralized nation-States, in Georgia the towns were too weak and were deprived of rights, the feudal lords were too strong, and the church was nominally subjugated to the crown and politically less active.

Administrative division of the medieval Kingdom of Georgia in Georgian golden age.

The aristocratic élite of this period was divided into two major classes: an upper noble whose dynastic dignity and feudal quality was expressed in the terms Tavadi and Didebuli, respectively; both of these terms were synonymous, from the 11th to the 14th centuries, with Eristavi, and all three terms referred to one of the upper nobles, "a Prince". Lesser nobles, the Aznauri, were either "nobles of race" or "of patent" who acquired their status in specific charters issued by the king or a lord. The power of the feudal nobles over the peasantry also increased and the cultivators began to loss a degree of personal freedom they had formerly enjoyed. At the time of reign Tamar, the Eristavis in western Georgia, beyond the mountains of Likhi, were Baram Vardanisdze in Svaneti, Kakhaber in Racha and Takveri; Otagho Sharvashidze was in Tskhumi, Amanelisdze in Kartli, Bediani in Odishi. In eastern Georgia on this side of the Likhi Mountains was Rati Surameli, in Kartli was Bakur the Younger, son of Dzagama, in Kakheti and in Hereti was Asat, son of Grigol, who took the post by force from Saghir Kolonkelisdze; a little later he handed it over to his son, Grigol, because he obtained for himself Arishiani, and the right to sit on a cushion. Botso Jaqeli was appointed eristavi and spasalar in Samtskhe. Other officials, who enjoyed the right to stand before the throne in the palace, received appointments according to their parentage. Meanwhile Tamar provided the bishops and the churches with endowments, exempting churches of quitrents and duties. Landowners at the time of her reign became Aznauris, aznauris became Didebulis, and didebulis became Rulers.

Religion and Culture

Between the 11th and the early 13th centuries, Georgia experienced a political, economical and cultural golden age, as the Bagrationi dynasty managed to unite

Archangel of Kintsvisi, complete with scarce natural ultramarine paint, evidenced the increasing resources of the realm

western and eastern halves of the country into a single kingdom. To accomplish that goal, kings relied much on the prestige of the Church, and enrolled its political support by giving it many economical advantages, immunity from taxes and large appanages. At the same time, the kings, most notably David the Builder (1089–1125), used state power to interfere in church affairs. Notably, he summoned the 1103 council of Ruisi-Urbnisi, which condemned Armenian Miaphysitism in stronger terms than ever before, and gave unprecedented power, second only to the Patriarch, to his friend and advisor George of Chqondidi. For the following centuries, the Church would remain a crucial feudal institution, whose economical and political power would always be at least equal to that of the main noble families.

Gelati, a UNESCO World Heritage Site

During the Middle Ages, Christianity was the central element of Georgian culture. Specific forms of art were developed in Georgia for religious purposes. Among them, calligraphy, polyphonic church singing, cloisonné enamel icons, such as the Khakhuli triptych, and the "Georgian cross-dome style" of architecture, which characterizes most medieval Georgian churches. The most celebrated examples of Georgian religious architecture of the time include the Gelati Monastery and Bagrati Cathedral in Kutaisi, the Ikalto Monastery complex and Academy, and the Svetitskhoveli Cathedral in Mtskheta.

Outstanding Georgian representatives of Christian culture include Euthymius of Athos (Ekvtime Atoneli, 955–1028), George of Athos (Giorgi Atoneli, 1009–1065), Arsen Ikaltoeli (11th century), and Ephrem Mtsire, (11th century). Philosophy flourished between the 11th and 13th century, especially at the Academy of Gelati Monastery, where Ioane Petritsi attempted a synthesis of Christian, aristotelician and neoplatonic thought.

Despite the Mongol conquests, Georgia continued to produce cultural landmarks, such as the frescoes of Ubisi by Damiane.

Missionary activities

From the 10th century, Georgians had started to play a significant role in preaching Christianity in the mountains of the Caucasus. "Wherever the missions of the patriarchs of Constantinople, Rome, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem failed, the Georgian Church succeeded in bringing Jesus's Cross and preaching His Gospels". This is corroborated not only by old written sources, but also by Christian architectural monuments bearing Georgian inscriptions, which are still to be seen throughout the North Caucasus in Chechnya, Ingushetia, Dagestan, North Ossetia, Kabardino-Balkaria. The golden age of Georgian monasticism lasted from the 9th to the 11th century. During that period, Georgian monasteries were founded outside the country, most notably on Mount Sinai, Mount Athos (the Iviron monastery, where the Theotokos Iverskaya icon is still located), and in Palestine.

See also

• List of the Kings of Georgia
  • Georgian monarchs family tree
• Monarchism in Georgia
• Kipchaks in Georgia

External links

• Media related to Kingdom of Georgia at Wikimedia Commons