Timur's invasions of Georgia
Encyclopedia
Georgia
, a Christian
kingdom
in the Caucasus
, was subjected, between 1386 and 1404, to several disastrous invasions by the Islamic armies of Turco-Mongol
conqueror Timur
, whose vast empire
stretched, at its greatest extent, from Central Asia
into Anatolia
.
These conflicts were intimately linked with the wars
between Timur and Tokhtamysh
, the last khan
of the Golden Horde
and Timur’s major rival for control over the Islamic world. Timur officially proclaimed his invasions to be jihad
against the region's non-Muslims.
In the first of at least seven invasions, Timur sacked Georgia's capital, Tbilisi
, and captured the king Bagrat V
in 1386. Georgian resistance prompted a renewed attack by the Turco-Mongol armies. Bagrat’s son and successor, George VII
, put up a stiff resistance and had to spend much of his reign (1395-1405) fighting the Timurid invasions. Timur personally led most of these raids to subdue the recalcitrant Georgian monarch. Although he was not able to establish a firm control over Georgia, the country suffered a blow from which it never recovered. By the time George VII was forced to accept Timur's terms of peace and agree to pay tribute, he was a master of little more than gutted towns, ravaged countryside and a shattered monarchy.
's first appearance in the Caucasus
was a response to Khan Tokhtamysh
’s marauding inroad into Northern Iran
through the Caucasian lands in 1385. This marked an outbreak of outright hostility between the two Islamic monarchs. Timur responded by launching a full-scale invasion of the small frontier countries, which lay between the western border of his emerging empire and Tokhtamysh’s khanate. After having overrun Azerbaijan
and Kars
, Timur marched into Georgia. The official history of his reign, Zafarnama, represents this campaign in Georgia as a jihad
. Timur set out from Kars and assailed Samtskhe, the southernmost principality within the Kingdom of Georgia
later in 1386. From there, he marched against Tbilisi
which the Georgian king Bagrat V
had fortified. The city fell on November 21, 1386, and King Bagrat V was captured and converted to Islam
at sword point. The Georgian Chronicle and Thomas of Metsoph
mention the apostasy
of the king but represent it as a clever ruse which enabled him to earn a degree of trust of Timur. Bagrat was given some 12,000 troops to reestablish himself in Georgia whose government was run by Bagrat’s son and co-ruler George VII
during his father’s absence at Timur’s court. The old king, however, entered in secret negotiations with George who ambushed Bagrat’s Islamic escort, and freed his father.
In the spring of 1387, Timur returned to Georgia to take revenge for the ambush and escape. Bagrat and George managed to evacuate the civilian population of the frontier regions to the mountains and forests, and began organising their defences. Khan Tokhtamysh’s reappearance in Iran forced Timur to temporarily withdraw. However once the Golden Horde
was defeated, Timur returned to attack Georgia again. In 1394, he dispatched four generals to the province of Samtskhe, with orders to apply the Islamic law of ghaza (i.e. the systematic raiding of non-Muslim lands). The same year, Timur in person punished the mountainous Georgian communities in the Aragvi Valley whom the Zafarnama calls Kara-Kalklanlik ("with black bucklers”, i.e., the eastern Georgian mountaineers, the Pshavs
and Khevsurs
), and returned via Tbilisi to Shekki upon hearing of yet another offensive by Tokhtamysh.
In 1395 the desperate Georgians allied themselves with Sidi Ali of Shekki and inflicted a crushing defeat on the invading armies of the Timurid
Miran Shah who was besieging Alindjak (near Nakhichevan), and captured the Jalayirid
prince Tahir who was shut up in it. This event prompted Timur
to return, later in 1399, to inflict massive revenge on the general population of the region. He took Shekki and devastated the neighboring region of Kakheti
.
In the spring of 1400, Timur moved back to destroy the Georgian state once and for all. He demanded that George VII should hand over the Jalayirid Tahir. George VII refused and met Amir Timur at the Sagim River in Lower Kartli, but suffered a defeat and retreated deeper into the country, being relentlessly chased by Timur. The Amir destroyed the Georgian capital Tbilisi, left a garrison there, and laid siege to Gori
where George had entrenched. The king made a bold sortie westward, but having failed to thwart the enemy’s advance at the fortresses of Dzami and Savaneti, fled to the inaccessible forests of western Georgia where the armies of the Islamic ruler could not penetrate. Timur turned back in fury and thoroughly pillaged the rest of Georgia. This bloody campaign lasted for several months, with Timur’s armies systematically moving from province to province. Virtually all major cities and towns were destroyed and their populations decimated; the countryside (with its villages and food-sources) was burnt; monasteries and churches were systematically razed to the ground. Of those who survived the fighting and reprisals, many thousands died of hunger and disease, and 60,000 survivors were enslaved and carried away by Timur's troops.
In late 1401, Timur invaded the Caucasus once again. George VII had to sue for peace, and sent his brother with the contributions. Timur was preparing for a major confrontation with the Ottoman dynasty
and apparently wished to freeze the currently prevailing situation in Georgia, until he could return to deal with it more decisively and thoroughly at his leisure. Thus, he made peace with George on condition that the king of Georgia supplied him with troops and granted the Muslims special privileges. The Amir nonetheless undertook some preventive measures and attacked the Georgian garrison of Tortumi, demolishing the citadel and looting the surrounding area.
Once the Ottomans were defeated
, Timur, back to Erzurum
in 1402, decided to punish the king of Georgia for not having come to present his congratulations on his victory. George VII’s brother, Constantine
, who was then on bad terms with his brother, arrived with gifts as did the king’s defiant vassal Iwane Jaqeli, prince of Samtskhe. Sheikh Ibrahim I of Shirvan
went to estimate the revenues and expenses of Georgia. George sent new presents but Timur refused them and summoned George to appear in person. In the meantime, he himself laid siege to the impregnable fortress of Birtvisi
, stubbornly defended by a tiny Georgian garrison. Having captured the fortress in August 1403, Timur sent his army to plunder and clear the frontier regions of Georgia and set out in pursuit of the retreating king George VII as far as Abkhazia
. Timur's historian reports that 700 towns were destroyed and their inhabitants massacred.
Timur only stopped his army when the ulema
and the mufti
decided it was possible to grant the king of Georgia clemency (aman). George VII had to pay a huge tribute including 1,000 tankas of gold struck in the name of Timur, 1,000 horses, a ruby weighing 18 mithkal
s, etc. Timur then passed through Tbilisi, destroying all monasteries and churches on his way, and went to Beylagan
early in 1404. All the territories from Beylagan to Trebizond were officially given by Timur as an appanage to his grandson Khalil Mirza
. Timur then finally left the Caucasus and headed for Central Asia
where he died on February 19, 1405.
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...
, a Christian
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
kingdom
Monarchy
A monarchy is a form of government in which the office of head of state is usually held until death or abdication and is often hereditary and includes a royal house. In some cases, the monarch is elected...
in the Caucasus
Caucasus
The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...
, was subjected, between 1386 and 1404, to several disastrous invasions by the Islamic armies of Turco-Mongol
Turco-Mongol
Turko-Mongol is a modern designation for various nomads who were subjects of the Mongol Empire. Being progressively Turkicized in terms of language and identity following the Mongol conquests, they derived their ethnic and cultural origins from steppes of Central Asia...
conqueror Timur
Timur
Timur , historically known as Tamerlane in English , was a 14th-century conqueror of West, South and Central Asia, and the founder of the Timurid dynasty in Central Asia, and great-great-grandfather of Babur, the founder of the Mughal Dynasty, which survived as the Mughal Empire in India until...
, whose vast empire
Timurid Dynasty
The Timurids , self-designated Gurkānī , were a Persianate, Central Asian Sunni Muslim dynasty of Turko-Mongol descent whose empire included the whole of Iran, modern Afghanistan, and modern Uzbekistan, as well as large parts of contemporary Pakistan, North India, Mesopotamia, Anatolia and the...
stretched, at its greatest extent, from Central Asia
Central Asia
Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...
into Anatolia
Anatolia
Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...
.
These conflicts were intimately linked with the wars
Tokhtamysh-Timur war
The Tokhtamysh–Timur war was fought in the 1380s and early 1390s between Tokhtamysh, khan of the Golden Horde and the Mongol warlord and conqueror Timur, in the areas of the Caucasus mountains, Turkistan and Eastern Europe...
between Timur and Tokhtamysh
Tokhtamysh
Tokhtamysh was the prominent khan of the White Horde, who briefly unified the White Horde and Blue Horde subdivisions of the Golden Horde into a single state. He was a descendant of Genghis Khan's eldest grandson, Orda Khan or his brother Tuqa-Timur...
, the last khan
Khan (title)
Khan is an originally Altaic and subsequently Central Asian title for a sovereign or military ruler, widely used by medieval nomadic Turko-Mongol tribes living to the north of China. 'Khan' is also seen as a title in the Xianbei confederation for their chief between 283 and 289...
of the Golden Horde
Golden Horde
The Golden Horde was a Mongol and later Turkicized khanate that formed the north-western sector of the Mongol Empire...
and Timur’s major rival for control over the Islamic world. Timur officially proclaimed his invasions to be jihad
Jihad
Jihad , an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād translates as a noun meaning "struggle". Jihad appears 41 times in the Quran and frequently in the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of God ". A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid; the plural is...
against the region's non-Muslims.
In the first of at least seven invasions, Timur sacked Georgia's capital, Tbilisi
Tbilisi
Tbilisi is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Mt'k'vari River. The name is derived from an early Georgian form T'pilisi and it was officially known as Tiflis until 1936...
, and captured the king Bagrat V
Bagrat V of Georgia
Bagrat V, “the Great” was the son of the Georgian king Davit IX with whom he was co-ruler from 1355, and became king after the death of his father in 1360....
in 1386. Georgian resistance prompted a renewed attack by the Turco-Mongol armies. Bagrat’s son and successor, George VII
George VII of Georgia
George VII was king of Georgia from 1393 to 1407 .George was the son of the king Bagrat V and his first wife Helena of Trebizond...
, put up a stiff resistance and had to spend much of his reign (1395-1405) fighting the Timurid invasions. Timur personally led most of these raids to subdue the recalcitrant Georgian monarch. Although he was not able to establish a firm control over Georgia, the country suffered a blow from which it never recovered. By the time George VII was forced to accept Timur's terms of peace and agree to pay tribute, he was a master of little more than gutted towns, ravaged countryside and a shattered monarchy.
History
Amir TimurTimur
Timur , historically known as Tamerlane in English , was a 14th-century conqueror of West, South and Central Asia, and the founder of the Timurid dynasty in Central Asia, and great-great-grandfather of Babur, the founder of the Mughal Dynasty, which survived as the Mughal Empire in India until...
's first appearance in the Caucasus
Caucasus
The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...
was a response to Khan Tokhtamysh
Tokhtamysh
Tokhtamysh was the prominent khan of the White Horde, who briefly unified the White Horde and Blue Horde subdivisions of the Golden Horde into a single state. He was a descendant of Genghis Khan's eldest grandson, Orda Khan or his brother Tuqa-Timur...
’s marauding inroad into Northern Iran
Northern Iran
Northern Iran includes the Southern Caspian regions representing provinces of Gilan, Mazandaran, and Golestan of Iran ....
through the Caucasian lands in 1385. This marked an outbreak of outright hostility between the two Islamic monarchs. Timur responded by launching a full-scale invasion of the small frontier countries, which lay between the western border of his emerging empire and Tokhtamysh’s khanate. After having overrun Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...
and Kars
Kars
Kars is a city in northeast Turkey and the capital of Kars Province. The population of the city is 73,826 as of 2010.-Etymology:As Chorzene, the town appears in Roman historiography as part of ancient Armenia...
, Timur marched into Georgia. The official history of his reign, Zafarnama, represents this campaign in Georgia as a jihad
Jihad
Jihad , an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād translates as a noun meaning "struggle". Jihad appears 41 times in the Quran and frequently in the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of God ". A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid; the plural is...
. Timur set out from Kars and assailed Samtskhe, the southernmost principality within the Kingdom of Georgia
Kingdom of Georgia
The Kingdom of Georgia was a medieval monarchy established in AD 978 by Bagrat III.It flourished during the 11th and 12th centuries, the so-called "golden age" of the history of Georgia. It fell to the Mongol invasions of the 13th century, but managed to re-assert sovereignty by 1327...
later in 1386. From there, he marched against Tbilisi
Tbilisi
Tbilisi is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Mt'k'vari River. The name is derived from an early Georgian form T'pilisi and it was officially known as Tiflis until 1936...
which the Georgian king Bagrat V
Bagrat V of Georgia
Bagrat V, “the Great” was the son of the Georgian king Davit IX with whom he was co-ruler from 1355, and became king after the death of his father in 1360....
had fortified. The city fell on November 21, 1386, and King Bagrat V was captured and converted to Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
at sword point. The Georgian Chronicle and Thomas of Metsoph
Thomas of Metsoph
Thomas of Metsoph was an Armenian churchman and chronicler who left an account of Timur’s invasions of the Caucasus . What we know of Thomas’s life comes from a biography written by his own student Kirakos Banaser as well as a number of 15th-century colophons.Born in Aghiovit, north of Lake Van,...
mention the apostasy
Apostasy
Apostasy , 'a defection or revolt', from ἀπό, apo, 'away, apart', στάσις, stasis, 'stand, 'standing') is the formal disaffiliation from or abandonment or renunciation of a religion by a person. One who commits apostasy is known as an apostate. These terms have a pejorative implication in everyday...
of the king but represent it as a clever ruse which enabled him to earn a degree of trust of Timur. Bagrat was given some 12,000 troops to reestablish himself in Georgia whose government was run by Bagrat’s son and co-ruler George VII
George VII of Georgia
George VII was king of Georgia from 1393 to 1407 .George was the son of the king Bagrat V and his first wife Helena of Trebizond...
during his father’s absence at Timur’s court. The old king, however, entered in secret negotiations with George who ambushed Bagrat’s Islamic escort, and freed his father.
In the spring of 1387, Timur returned to Georgia to take revenge for the ambush and escape. Bagrat and George managed to evacuate the civilian population of the frontier regions to the mountains and forests, and began organising their defences. Khan Tokhtamysh’s reappearance in Iran forced Timur to temporarily withdraw. However once the Golden Horde
Golden Horde
The Golden Horde was a Mongol and later Turkicized khanate that formed the north-western sector of the Mongol Empire...
was defeated, Timur returned to attack Georgia again. In 1394, he dispatched four generals to the province of Samtskhe, with orders to apply the Islamic law of ghaza (i.e. the systematic raiding of non-Muslim lands). The same year, Timur in person punished the mountainous Georgian communities in the Aragvi Valley whom the Zafarnama calls Kara-Kalklanlik ("with black bucklers”, i.e., the eastern Georgian mountaineers, the Pshavs
Pshavi
Pshavi is a small historic-geographic area in Georgia, included in today’s Mtskheta-Mtianeti region and laying chiefly on the southern foothills of the Greater Caucasus mountains along Aragvi River and the lower Iori River. The Pshavs, who are locally called the Pshaveli, speak a Georgian dialect...
and Khevsurs
Khevsureti
Khevsureti/Khevsuria is a historical-ethnographic region in eastern Georgia. They are the branch of Kartvelian people located along both the northern and southern slopes of the Great Caucasus...
), and returned via Tbilisi to Shekki upon hearing of yet another offensive by Tokhtamysh.
In 1395 the desperate Georgians allied themselves with Sidi Ali of Shekki and inflicted a crushing defeat on the invading armies of the Timurid
Timurid Dynasty
The Timurids , self-designated Gurkānī , were a Persianate, Central Asian Sunni Muslim dynasty of Turko-Mongol descent whose empire included the whole of Iran, modern Afghanistan, and modern Uzbekistan, as well as large parts of contemporary Pakistan, North India, Mesopotamia, Anatolia and the...
Miran Shah who was besieging Alindjak (near Nakhichevan), and captured the Jalayirid
Jalayirids
The Jalayirids were a Mongol Jalayir dynasty which ruled over Iraq and western Persia after the breakup of the Mongol Khanate of Persia in the 1330s....
prince Tahir who was shut up in it. This event prompted Timur
Timur
Timur , historically known as Tamerlane in English , was a 14th-century conqueror of West, South and Central Asia, and the founder of the Timurid dynasty in Central Asia, and great-great-grandfather of Babur, the founder of the Mughal Dynasty, which survived as the Mughal Empire in India until...
to return, later in 1399, to inflict massive revenge on the general population of the region. He took Shekki and devastated the neighboring region of Kakheti
Kakheti
Kakheti is a historical province in Eastern Georgia inhabited by Kakhetians who speak a local dialect of Georgian. It is bordered by the small mountainous province of Tusheti and the Greater Caucasus mountain range to the north, Russian Federation to the Northeast, Azerbaijan to the Southeast, and...
.
Gori, Georgia
Gori is a city in eastern Georgia, which serves as the regional capital of Shida Kartli and the centre of the homonymous administrative district. The name is from Georgian gora , that is, "heap", or "hill"...
where George had entrenched. The king made a bold sortie westward, but having failed to thwart the enemy’s advance at the fortresses of Dzami and Savaneti, fled to the inaccessible forests of western Georgia where the armies of the Islamic ruler could not penetrate. Timur turned back in fury and thoroughly pillaged the rest of Georgia. This bloody campaign lasted for several months, with Timur’s armies systematically moving from province to province. Virtually all major cities and towns were destroyed and their populations decimated; the countryside (with its villages and food-sources) was burnt; monasteries and churches were systematically razed to the ground. Of those who survived the fighting and reprisals, many thousands died of hunger and disease, and 60,000 survivors were enslaved and carried away by Timur's troops.
In late 1401, Timur invaded the Caucasus once again. George VII had to sue for peace, and sent his brother with the contributions. Timur was preparing for a major confrontation with the Ottoman dynasty
Ottoman Dynasty
The Ottoman Dynasty ruled the Ottoman Empire from 1299 to 1922, beginning with Osman I , though the dynasty was not proclaimed until Orhan Bey declared himself sultan...
and apparently wished to freeze the currently prevailing situation in Georgia, until he could return to deal with it more decisively and thoroughly at his leisure. Thus, he made peace with George on condition that the king of Georgia supplied him with troops and granted the Muslims special privileges. The Amir nonetheless undertook some preventive measures and attacked the Georgian garrison of Tortumi, demolishing the citadel and looting the surrounding area.
Battle of Ankara
The Battle of Ankara or Battle of Angora, fought on July 20, 1402, took place at the field of Çubuk between the forces of the Ottoman sultan Bayezid I and the Turko-Mongol forces of Timur, ruler of the Timurid Empire. The battle was a major victory for Timur, and it led to a period of crisis for...
, Timur, back to Erzurum
Erzurum
Erzurum is a city in Turkey. It is the largest city, the capital of Erzurum Province. The city is situated 1757 meters above sea level. Erzurum had a population of 361,235 in the 2000 census. .Erzurum, known as "The Rock" in NATO code, served as NATO's southeastern-most air force post during the...
in 1402, decided to punish the king of Georgia for not having come to present his congratulations on his victory. George VII’s brother, Constantine
Constantine I of Georgia
Constantine I was King of Georgia from 1407 to 1411 .He was the elder son of King Bagrat V of Georgia by his second wife, Anna of Trebizond. His maternal grandparents were Alexios III of Trebizond and Theodora Kantakouzene....
, who was then on bad terms with his brother, arrived with gifts as did the king’s defiant vassal Iwane Jaqeli, prince of Samtskhe. Sheikh Ibrahim I of Shirvan
Ibrahim I of Shirvan
Ibrahim I of Shirvan Shirvanshah was a ruler of Shirvan from the Derbendid dynasty.After the death of Shirvanshah Hushang in 1382, Ibrahim I was selected to be the ruler by the local nobility. At the time, he was an impoverished noble living in Shaki...
went to estimate the revenues and expenses of Georgia. George sent new presents but Timur refused them and summoned George to appear in person. In the meantime, he himself laid siege to the impregnable fortress of Birtvisi
Birtvisi
Birtvisi is a ruined medieval fortress in Kvemo Kartli, Georgia, nested within limestone cliffs in the Algeti river gorge. It is now within the boundaries of the Tetri-Tsqaro municipality, adjacent to the Algeti National Park, south-west of the nation's capital Tbilisi.Birtvisi is essentially a...
, stubbornly defended by a tiny Georgian garrison. Having captured the fortress in August 1403, Timur sent his army to plunder and clear the frontier regions of Georgia and set out in pursuit of the retreating king George VII as far as Abkhazia
Abkhazia
Abkhazia is a disputed political entity on the eastern coast of the Black Sea and the south-western flank of the Caucasus.Abkhazia considers itself an independent state, called the Republic of Abkhazia or Apsny...
. Timur's historian reports that 700 towns were destroyed and their inhabitants massacred.
Timur only stopped his army when the ulema
Ulema
Ulama , also spelt ulema, refers to the educated class of Muslim legal scholars engaged in the several fields of Islamic studies. They are best known as the arbiters of shari‘a law...
and the mufti
Mufti
A mufti is a Sunni Islamic scholar who is an interpreter or expounder of Islamic law . In religious administrative terms, a mufti is roughly equivalent to a deacon to a Sunni population...
decided it was possible to grant the king of Georgia clemency (aman). George VII had to pay a huge tribute including 1,000 tankas of gold struck in the name of Timur, 1,000 horses, a ruby weighing 18 mithkal
Mithkal
The mithkal or sextula is a unit of weight used in Iran, mostly for weighing gold. It is equivalent to a little over 4.5 grams....
s, etc. Timur then passed through Tbilisi, destroying all monasteries and churches on his way, and went to Beylagan
Beylagan (town)
Beylagan is the capital city of Beylagan rayon of Azerbaijan. During the Soviet era, it was renamed Zhdanov after Stalinist politician Andrei Zhdanov. This move was reverted in 1991 when the city assumed its original name again...
early in 1404. All the territories from Beylagan to Trebizond were officially given by Timur as an appanage to his grandson Khalil Mirza
Khalil Sultan
Khalil Sultan was the Timurid ruler of Transoxiana from 1405 to 1409. He was a son of Miran Shah and a grandson of Timur.-Biography:During Timur's lifetime, Khalil Sultan gained the conqueror's particular favor. He distinguished himself during the campaign in India and in 1402 was given rule of...
. Timur then finally left the Caucasus and headed for Central Asia
Central Asia
Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...
where he died on February 19, 1405.