Mongol invasions of Georgia

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Mongol invasions of Georgia
Part of the Mongol conquests, Toluid Civil War, BerkeHulagu war, KaiduKublai war
Genghis Khan empire-en.svg
Date Throughout the 13th century
Location Caucasus, eastern Anatolia, western Iran
Result Mongols conquer most of the Caucasus and subjugate the controlling
kingdoms. Assassin strongholds destroyed.
Territorial
changes Mongol Empire gains control of western Iran, most of the Caucasus and
eastern Anatolia.
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Mongol invasions and
conquests
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Mongol conquest of Khwarezmia
Mongol conquests of Kingdom of Georgia, which at that time consisted of Georgia
proper, Armenia, and much of the Caucasus, involved multiple invasions and large-
scale raids throughout the 13th century. The Mongol Empire first appeared in the
Caucasus in 1220 as generals Subutai and Jebe pursued Muhammad II of Khwarezm
during the destruction of the Khwarezmian Empire. After a series of raids in which
they defeated the Georgian and Armenian armies (Battle of Caucasus Mountain),[1]
Subutai and Jebe continued north to invade Kievan Rus'. After his empire was
destroyed, Khwarazm ruler Jalal ad-Din Mingburnu, son of Muhammed II, battled both
the Mongols and the Georgians before moving on to challenge the Seljuks in
Anatolia. A full-scale Mongol conquest of the Caucasus and eastern Anatolia began
in 1236, in which the Kingdom of Georgia, the Sultanate of Rum, and the Empire of
Trebizond were subjugated, the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia and other Crusader
states voluntarily accepted Mongol vassalage, and the Assassins were eliminated.
The Mongols also invaded Dzurdzuketia, modern-day Chechnya, but faced continual
resistance in that area. After the death of Mngke Khan in 1259, the Mongol Empire
descended into civil war and Berke of the Golden Horde and Hulagu of the Ilkhanate
repeatedly invaded each other in the Caucasus until the ascension of Kublai Khan in
1264.

The second Mongol invasion of the Caucasus started with the expedition of Chormaqan
against Jalal ad-Din Mingburnu, ordered by khan gedei in 1231. The Southern
Persian dynasties in Fars and Kerman voluntarily submitted to the Mongols and
agreed to pay tributes.[2] To the west, Hamadan and the rest of Persia was secured
by Chormaqan. The Mongols turned their attention to Armenia and Georgia in 1236.
They completed the conquest of the Kingdom of Georgia in 1238 and the Mongol Empire
began to attack the kingdom's southern possessions in Armenia, which was under the
Seljuks the next year. In 1236 Ogedei despoiled Khorassan and populated Herat. The
Mongol military governors mostly made their camp in Mughan plain. Realizing the
danger of the Mongols, rulers of Mosul and Cilician Armenia submitted to the Great
Khan. Chormaqan divided the Transcaucasia region into three districts based on
military hierarchy.[3] In Georgia, the population were temporarily divided into
eight tumens.[4] By 1237 the Mongol Empire had subjugated most of Persia, excluding
Abbasid Iraq and Ismaili strongholds, and all of Afghanistan and Kashmir.[5] The
Mongols began conquering the North Caucasus in 1237, but encountered bloody
resistance from the local populations there.

After the battle of Kse Dag in 1243, the Mongols under Baiju occupied Anatolia,
and the Seljuk Sultanate of Rm and the Empire of Trebizond became vassals of the
Mongols.[6] Assassin strongholds lay scattered throughout Persia and the Caucasus,
and Mongol commander Kitbuqa, under orders from Mngke Khan, began laying siege to
them in 1253. Hulagu launched a full-scale assault in 1256 and eradicated Assassin
presence from the region.
Following the destruction of Baghdad in 1258, civil war broke out between Berke
Khan of the Golden Horde and Hulagu Khan of the Ilkhanate. Part of the larger
Toluid Civil War succession conflict between Kubilai and Ariq Bke, the war
consisted mainly of raids and invasions carried out by both sides throughout the
Caucasus region, with Berke enlisting the aid of the Mamluk Sultanate and Hulagu
the aid of the Byzantine Empire. Neither side gained a real advantage, and the
conflict ceased after the victory of Kublai and his enthronement as Great Khan.

Mongol rule in the Caucasus lasted until the late 1330s.[7] Greater Armenia stayed
under Mongol lordship from 1220 to 1344.[8] During that period, the King George V
the Brilliant restored the kingdom of Georgia for a brief period before it finally
disintegrated due to Timur's invasions of Georgia.

Contents [hide]
1 Initial attacks
2 Mongol conquest of Georgia proper
3 Mongol rule
4 Revival and collapse of the kingdom of Georgia
5 References
6 Bibliography
7 External links
8 See also
Initial attacks[edit]
The Mongols made their first appearance in the Georgian possessions when this
latter kingdom was still in its zenith, dominating most of the Caucasus. First
contact occurred early in the fall of 1220 (Battle of Caucasus Mountain),[9] when
approximately 20,000 Mongols led by Subutai and Jebe pursued the ousted Shah
Muhammad II of the Khwarazmian dynasty to the Caspian Sea. With the consent of
Genghis Khan, the two Mongol generals proceeded west on a reconnaissance mission.
They thrust into Armenia, then under the Georgian authority, and defeated some
60,000[citation needed] Georgians and Armenians commanded by King George IV Lasha
of Georgia and his atabek (tutor) and spasalar (commander-in-chief) Iwane
Mkhargrdzeli at the Battle of Khunan on the Kotman River. George was severely
wounded in the chest. The Mongol commanders, however, were unable to advance
further into the Caucasus at that time due to the demands of the war against the
Khwarezmian Empire, and turned back south to Hamadan. Once Khwarezmian resistance
was all but mopped up, the Mongols returned in force in January 1221. Though King
George was initially reluctant to give battle after his previous defeat, Jebe and
Subutai forced him to take action by ravaging the countryside and killing his
people. The ensuing battle at Bardav (Pardav; modern-day Barda, Azerbaijan) was
another decisive Mongol victory, obliterating Georgia's field army. Though Georgia
lay bare, the Mongols had come as a small reconnaissance and plundering expedition,
not an army of conquest.[10] Thus the Mongols marched to the north plundering
northeastern Armenia and Shirvan en route. This took them through the Caucasus into
Alania and the South Russian steppes where the Mongols routed the Rus-Kipchak
armies at the Battle of the Kalka River (1223).

These surprise attacks left the Georgians in confusion as to the identity of their
attackers the record of one contemporary chronicler indicates that he is unaware of
the nature of the attackers and does not mention them by name. In 1223, when the
Mongols had seemingly deferred their plans regarding Georgia, King George IV's
sister and successor Queen Rusudan wrote in a letter to Pope Honorius III, that the
Georgians had presumed the Mongols were Christians because they fought Muslims, but
they had turned out to be pagans. The Mongol invasion also inadvertently altered
the fate of the 5th Crusade. Georgia had planned to send its splendid army to open
up a second front in the north at the same time as the European crusaders invaded
from the west. Because the Mongols annihilated the Georgian army, it could not
help, and the European Crusaders spent critical time waiting inactively for their
allies who would never come. [11]

During the invasion of Transoxania in 1219 Genghis Khan used a Chinese catapult
unit in battle, they were used again in 1220 in Transoxania. The Chinese may have
used the catapults to hurl gunpowder bombs, since they already had them by this
time. In the 1239-1240 Mongol invasion of the North Caucasus, Chinese weapons were
once again used.[12]

Mongol conquest of Georgia proper[edit]

The third and final invasion of the Caucasus by the Mongols took place in 1236.
This offensive, which would prove the ruin of Georgia, was preceded by the
devastating conflict with Jalal ad-Din Mingburnu, a refugee shah of Khwarezmia, who
had demanded in 1225, that the Georgian government support his war against the
Mongols. The ensuing Khwarezmian attack, Tblisi was captured in 1226, and much of
the former strength and prosperity of the Kingdom of Georgia was destroyed, leaving
the country largely defenseless in the face of the forthcoming Mongol conquests.

After the death of Mingburnu in 1231, the Mongols' hands were finally free and the
prominent Mongol commander Chormaqan led, in 1236, a large army against Georgia and
its vassal Armenian princedoms. Most of the Georgian and Armenian nobles, who held
military posts along the frontier regions submitted without any serious opposition
or confined their resistance to their castles while others preferred to flee to
safer areas. Queen Rusudan had to evacuate Tbilisi for Kutaisi and some people went
into the mountainous part of Georgia, leaving eastern Georgia (Non-mountain part)
in the hands of atabek Avag Mkhargrdzeli and Egarslan Bakurtsikheli, who made peace
with the Mongols and agreed to pay them tribute. The only Georgian great noble to
have resisted was Iwane Jakeli-Tsikhisjvreli, prince of Samtskhe. His extensive
possessions were fearfully devastated, and Iwane had to finally, with the consent
of Queen Rusudan, submit to the invaders in 1238. The Mongol armies chose not to
cross the Likhi Range in pursuit of the Georgian queen, leaving western Georgia
relatively spared of the rampages. Rusudan attempted to gain support from Pope
Gregory IX, but without any success. Atabek Avag arranged her submission in 1243,
and Georgia officially acknowledged the Great Khan as its overlord. The country was
forced to pay an annual tribute of 50,000 gold pieces and support the Mongols with
an army.

Mongol rule[edit]
See also Armenia under the Ilkhanate
The Mongols created the Vilayet of Gurjistan, which included Georgia and the whole
South Caucasus, where they ruled indirectly, through the Georgian monarch, the
latter to be confirmed by the Great Khan upon hisher ascension. With the death of
Rusudan in 1245, an interregnum began during which the Mongols divided the Caucasus
into eight tumens. Exploiting the complicated issue of succession, the Mongols had
the Georgian nobles divided into two rival parties, each of which advocated their
own candidate to the crown. These were David VII Ulu, an illegitimate son of George
IV, and his cousin David VI Narin, son of Rusudan. After a failed plot against the
Mongol rule in Georgia (1245), Gyk Khan made, in 1247, both pretenders co-kings,
in eastern and western parts of the kingdom respectively. The system of dumans was
abolished, but the Mongols closely watched the Georgian administration in order to
secure a steady flow of taxes and tributes from the subject peoples, who were also
pressed into the Mongol armies.

Large Georgian contingents fought under the Mongol banners at Alamut (1256),
Baghdad (1258), Ain Jalut (1260) and elsewhere, losing tens of thousands of
soldiers while Georgia, and the Caucasus in general, was left without native
defenders against the Mongol forces dispatched to suppress spontaneous revolts
erupting in protest to heavy taxation and the onerous burden of military service.
[13] Ironically, in the Battle of Kse Dag (1243), where the Mongols crushed the
Seljuks of Rm, at least three thousand Georgian auxiliaries fought in the Mongol
ranks, while the Georgian prince Shamadavle of Akhaltsikhe was a commander in the
Seljuk army.[14]

In 1256, Georgia was placed under the Mongol empire of Ilkhanate, centered on
Persia (Iran). In 12591260, Georgian nobles, led by David Narin, rose against the
Mongols, and succeeding in separation of Imereti (western Georgia) from the Mongol-
controlled eastern Georgia. David Ulu decided to join his cousin in rebellion, but
was defeated near Gori and once again submitted to Mongol rule. Beginning with
1261, the Caucasus became a theater of the series of conflicts fought between Il-
Khanids and another Mongol empire of Golden Horde centered in the lower Volga with
its capital at Sarai.

Georgia's unity was shattered; the nobles were encouraged to rise against the crown
that naturally facilitated the Mongol control of the country. In 1266, Prince
Sargis Jakeli of Samtskhe (with Akhaltsikhe as th