Mongol invasions of Georgia
Mongol invasions of Georgia | |||||||
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Part of the George IV Lasha on Mongols in 1220. La Flor des estoires de la terre d'Orient by Hayton of Corycus. King George is shown in blue garment on a white horse holding a whip. | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Mongol Empire | Kingdom of Georgia | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Subutai Jebe |
George IV Rusudan |
The Mongol invasions of Georgia (
A full-scale Mongol conquest of the Caucasus and eastern
Initial attacks
The
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.[3] 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
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.[7]
Mongol conquest of Georgia proper
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
After the death of Mingburnu in 1231, the Mongols' hands were finally free and the prominent Mongol commander
Mongol rule
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 his/her 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), Güyük Khan made, in 1247, both pretenders co-kings, in eastern and western parts of the kingdom respectively. The system of tumens 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. Georgians attended all major campaigns of the Ilkhanate and aristocrats' sons served in kheshig.[9]
Large Georgian contingents fought under the Mongol banners at
In 1256, Georgia was placed under the Mongol empire of
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
Revival and collapse of the kingdom of Georgia
There was a brief period of reunion and revival under George V the Brilliant (1299–1302, 1314–1346). With the support of Chupan, ulus-beg of the Ilkhanate, George eliminated his domestic opponents who remained independent of the Georgian crown. George V conquered Imereti, uniting all of the Georgian Kingdom before the death of the last effective Ilkhan Abu Sai'd. In 1319 George and the Mongols suppressed the rebellion of the Ilkhanid governor of Georgia, Qurumshi.[13][14] Presumably due to the internal strife between the Mongol khanates and ilkhanid generals, almost all Mongol troops in Georgia withdrew in 1320s.[15][2] The Ilkhan Abu Sai'd (d.1335) exempted Ani and the neighbouring districts of Georgia from any kind of taxes.[16] In a 1321 letter, Bishop of Avignon mentions schismatic people (Georgians) who are a part of the Tatar Empire (Ilkhanate).[17]
In the year 1327, in Persia, the most dramatic event of the reign of the Il-Khan Abu Sa'id occurred, namely the disgrace and execution of the once all-powerful minister Chupan. This was a heavy blow for George, who lost his patron at the Mongol court. 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 the 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, the post of the Ilkhanid governor in Georgia was given to Shaykh Hasan of the
Before the Timurids, much of Kingdom of Georgia's former vassals were still under the Mongol Jalayirids and Chobanids.
See also
Part of a series on the |
History of Georgia |
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- Ilkhanate
- Mongol invasion of Persia
References
Citations
- ^ a b "Early Ukraine: A Military and Social History to the Mid-19th Century" By Alexander Basilevsky
- ^ a b Wakhusht, Sak'art'velos istoria, p. 276
- ^ Frank McLynn, Genghis Khan.
- ISBN 978-0-7556-3630-3.
- ISBN 978-1-107-16756-8.
- ^ Frank McLynn, Genghis Khan (2015).
- ISBN 0-521-82274-2. Retrieved 2011-11-28.
Chinggis Khan organized a unit of Chinese catapult specialists in 1214, and these men formed part of the first Mongol army to invade Transoania in 1219. This was not too early for true firearms, and it was nearly two centuries after catapult-thrown gunpowder bombs had been added to the Chinese arsenal. Chinese siege equipment saw action in Transoxania in 1220 and in the north Caucasus in 1239-40.
- ^ ISBN 978-90-04-50355-7.
In 1236 the Mongols decided to go up towards the Caucasus, and for the Georgian kingdom, it was the end. Queen Rasudan, the successor of Tamar (r. 1223–1245), was forced to abandon Tbilisi and take refuge in Kutaisi, in the plain overlooking the Black Sea. The Georgian aristocracy was placed under Mongol protection and forced to perform military service in exchange for their lives.
- ^ C.P.Atwood- Encyclopedia of Mongolia and the Mongol Empire, p.197
- ^ "The Turco-Mongol Invasions and the Lords of Armenia in the 13-14th Centuries, R. Bedrosian's Ph.D. Dissertation (Columbia University, 1979)".
- WED Allen delivered at the meeting of the Royal Geographical Society, London, on May 4, 1942
- ^ Rockhill 1967, p. 39.
- ^ W. Barthold, ' Die persische Inschrift an der Mauer der Manucehr-Moschee zu Ani ', trans.and edit. W. Hinz, ZDMG, Bd. 101, 1951, 246;
- ^ Spuler, Die Mongolen in Iran, p. 121;
- ^ Marxist historians believe that George repulsed the Ilkhanids and his country became independent. However, no original sources and historical records mention any open challenge of George after 1327. He remained neutral during the internal strife of the Ilkhans in 1336-1353.
- ^ ZDMG, Bd. 101, 1951, 246.
- ^ Tea Tsitlanadze, Tea Karchava, Giorgi Kavtaradze - Towards the Clarification of the Identity and Sphere of Activities of the Missionaries who Visited the Orient and Georgia in the 14th century,p.187
- ^ Ta'rfkh-i Shaikh Uwais (History of Shaikh Uwais), trans. and ed. J. B. van Loon, The Hague, 1954, 56-58.
- ^ PETER JACKSON and Lockhart - THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF IRAN, vol.6, p.97
Sources
- ISBN 0-253-20915-3, pages 39–44
- Georgian Soviet Encyclopedia (k’art’uli sabch’ota entsiklopedia) (1984), Tbilisi: vol. 7, page 112-3
- Lang, D. M. (1955). "Georgia in the Reign of Giorgi the Brilliant (1314-1346)". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. 17 (1): 74–91. S2CID 154168058.
- Rockhill, William Woodville (1967), The Journey of William of Rubruck to The Eastern Parts of the World, 1253-55, As Narrated by Himself, With Two Accounts of the Earlier Journey of John of Pian de Carpine.