Kingdom of Georgia

Who rules

Name

Tamar (Tamar the Great), of the Bagrationi house

Title

King (mepe) of the Abkhazians, Kartvelians, Rans, Kakhs and Armenians, Shirvanshah and Shahanshah, sovereign of East and West

Since

Crowned co-ruler by her father George III in 1178; sole ruler since his death in 1184, crowned a second time at Gelati

Born

About 1160 or about 1166 (sources differ)

Family

Daughter of George III and the Alan princess Burdukhan. Husband: the Alan prince David Soslan, king consort (married between 1187 and 1191, most often given as 1189). Children: George, called Lasha, born 1192 (some say 1194), about seven; Rusudan, born 1194 or about 1195, about five. First husband Yury (son of Andrey Bogolyubsky), married 1185, divorced 1187 or 1188, twice a rebel (1191, 1193), imprisoned after 1193 and not heard of again.

Confidence

high

Tamar's reign is told by two court histories (the anonymous Histories and Eulogies of the Sovereigns and Basil the Treasurer's Life of Tamar), by Armenian historians (Kirakos, Vardan) and by the Arabic chroniclers. The years of her foreign wars are argued over; her rule itself on 1 January 1200 is certain.

Overlord

None. Tamar acknowledges no superior.

Threats

• Revenge from the Eldiguzid atabeg Abu Bakr at Tabriz and Nakhchivan, and his emirs at Ganja and Dvin
• The emir of Kars and the Saltukids of Erzurum, now facing Georgian Ani
• Süleymanshah II of Rum, master of Konya since 1196, who wants Erzurum and the Black Sea road (his march on Georgia is later)
• The old rebel houses (the Dadiani, Abulasanisdze and Botsosdze) and the bitterness of the dispossessed
• Friction in the army between the Armenian (non-Chalcedonian) troops of the Mkhargrdzeli and the Georgian clergy
• The mountain peoples (the Pkhovi and the Didos rise only in 1212: later)

Ruler

Tamar, sole ruler since 1184.

Consort

David Soslan, king (mepe) as consort and the queen's chief commander in the field.

Heirs and children

• George (Giorgi), called Lasha, born 1192 (or 1194), heir; not yet crowned co-ruler (Vardan dates his enthronement beside his mother to 657 of the Armenian era, 1208)
• Rusudan, born 1194 or about 1195

Kin holding land

None of the royal kin holds an appanage. David Soslan holds his rank and command, not a duchy. Tamar's cousin Demna, the rival claimant of 1177, was blinded and castrated and is dead. Her aunt Rusudan (daughter of Demetrius I), who led the court at the start of the reign, is not heard of after the 1180s (whether she is alive on 1 January 1200 is not pinned).

Officers and household

• Amirspasalar (commander-in-chief of the army): Zakare Mkhargrdzeli, since about 1191 (after Gamrekel Toreli, who held it from 1184 and beat Yury's rebels in 1191)
• Mandaturtukhutsesi (chief of the court ushers: palace guard, protocol and order in the kingdom): Zakare Mkhargrdzeli, since about 1195 (Wikipedia's office dates); Shalva Akhaltsikheli follows him in 1202-03 (later)
• Msakhurtukhutsesi (chief of the royal household and its servants): Ivane Mkhargrdzeli, since about 1191
• Mtsignobartukhutsesi-Chqondideli (chancellor, always the archbishop of Chqondidi): Antoni Glonistavisdze, who replaced the Catholicos Mikael Mirianisdze as chancellor after Mikael's death (the year is not pinned; he is the likeliest holder on 1 January 1200)
• Mechurchletukhutsesi (treasurer): not pinned for 1 January 1200 (Qutlu Arslan, the treasurer who led the nobles' demand for a council in 1184-85, was arrested; Shalva Akhaltsikheli holds the office at some date under Tamar)
• Atabeg: no such office yet; it is created for Ivane Mkhargrdzeli about 1212-13 (later)
• Catholicos-Patriarch of Georgia at Mtskheta: not pinned for 1 January 1200 (Mikael IV Mirianisdze, who crowned Tamar and served as chancellor, was dead by the 1190s)
• The amir of Tbilisi (governor of the capital): not pinned for 1200 (Abulasan held it at the start of the reign)

Great families

• Mkhargrdzeli (Zakarids): Zakare and Ivane, with the cadet lines of Gag and Tmogvi formed at the end of the 12th century; Armenian by origin, lords of Lori and the conquered Armenian districts
• Toreli: the senior line holds the duchy of Akhalkalaki (Javakheti); the junior line, the Akhaltsikheli brothers Shalva and Ivane, holds Akhaltsikhe
• Jaqeli: Botso Jaqeli, a rebel of 1191, lost his titles; Tamar gave them to Ivane-Qvarqvare of Tsikhisjvari, who starts the new Jaqeli line in Samtskhe (the date of the grant is not pinned)
• Surameli: hereditary eristavi of Kartli since Rati Surameli (after 1177)
• Kakhaberidze (of the Baghuashi): eristavi of Racha and Takveri
• Dadiani: eristavi of Odishi (Mingrelia); Vardan Dadiani, a rebel of 1191
• Vardanisdze: eristavi of Svaneti
• Shervashidze: the later lords of Abkhazia; Otagho Shervashidze is the first dated, about 1213
• Abulasanisdze: Abulasan, amir of Tbilisi, led the court in 1184-85; his son Guzan rebelled for Yury in 1191
• Orbeli: exiled since their revolt of 1177; their survivors live at the Eldiguzid court

Castles and towns

Tbilisi with its citadel (the Kala) and Metekhi; Kutaisi with the palace of Geguti nearby; Mtskheta; the crown's Kvemo Kartli castles of Samshvilde and Dmanisi; Rustavi on the Kura; Lori, the Mkhargrdzeli seat; Ani and Amberd in the Armenian conquests; Akhaltsikhe, Akhalkalaki, Tmogvi, Khertvisi and the cave monastery-fortress of Vardzia in the south; Artanuji in Klarjeti; Gori and Surami in Kartli; Ujarma and Telavi in Kakheti; Shorapani and Skanda guarding the Surami pass to the west; Tskhumi (Sukhumi), Anakopia and Bichvinta on the Abkhazian coast; the Darial fortress at the Gates of the Alans.

Mints tolls and markets

The royal mint at Tbilisi strikes copper coins with Georgian and Arabic legends: the Arabic side calls Tamar 'queen of queens, glory of the world and the faith, Tamar daughter of Giorgi, champion of the Messiah'; Wikipedia notes a series of coins minted about 1200 in her name with a local variant of the Byzantine obverse; issues with the monograms of Tamar and David dated by the Georgian era (k'oronikon) 420, that is AD 1200 (in the course of the year), and coins of 430 (AD 1210) are known from numismatic catalogues (not re-checked this session). Tolls on the Kura and on the roads from Tabriz, Ganja and Ani into Tbilisi; the markets of Tbilisi, Dmanisi, Ani and Kutaisi; salt, horses and silk.

Treaties and wars

No truce is recorded with the Eldiguzid atabeg Abu Bakr after Shamkor (1195): the frontier in Arran and on the Araxes is a state of war waged by raids. Shirvan is a protected tributary and an ally. Ani was taken from its last Shaddadid lord in 1199 (see Ani). The emir of Kars, a vassal of the Saltukids of Erzurum (Wikipedia) or of the Shah-Armen lords of Ahlat (emi sheet), faces Ani across the plateau and is the next great target (Kars falls in 1206, Vardan 655 AE; later).

The emi sheet draws the Kars-Ani raiding belt (Kars-Ani frontier). No war yet with the Seljuk sultan Süleymanshah II, whose campaign against Georgia (Basiani) comes in 1202-05 (later). Relations with Byzantium are cool but peaceful; Tamar's Komnenian kinsmen Alexios and David (grandsons of Andronikos I), 'fugitive Byzantine princes raised at the Georgian court' (Wikipedia), will be armed by her to take Trebizond in April 1204 (later); whether they are already at her court on 1 January 1200 is likely but not pinned.

Relations with neighbours

Eldiguzids

Hostile. Abu Bakr was beaten at Shamkor (1195); Georgia backed his brother Amir Amiran, who held Ganja briefly and died, after which Abu Bakr took Ganja back. Iranica (Luther) puts a further war after the fall of Ani, in which Abu Bakr backs a return of Yury and attacks Shirvan and is beaten, with Shamkor and Ganja forced to accept Georgian overlordship; the aze researcher reads that as 596-597 AH (1200-01), so it is treated here as later.

Shirvan

Protector and overlord. Shirvan has been a Georgian protectorate since the mid-12th century; Shirvani troops fought at Shamkor; Tamar styles herself Shirvanshah. The Shirvanshah that winter is the old Akhsitan I or one of his brothers (not pinned: aze sheet).

Derbent

Distant enemy of Shirvan; no direct war recorded in 1199.

Saltukids

Pressure: the Kars emirate (a Saltukid vassal by Wikipedia, Ahlat's by the emi sheet) faces the new Georgian Ani; some modern accounts call the Saltukid emir a Georgian tributary before 1201-02 (thin).

Rum

No war yet. Süleymanshah II's march on Georgia is later (Basiani, dated 1202 to 1205).

Byzantium

Peaceful; Georgian monasteries on Athos (Iviron) and in Thrace (Petritsoni) and Tamar's Komnenian kin tie the courts.

Alans

Kin: Tamar's mother and husband are Alans; the Alan princes are friends and auxiliaries, and Georgian missionaries work among the mountain peoples.

Cumans

Kipchak (Cuman) families settled by David IV after 1118 still serve in the army; the steppe Kipchaks pass through Alania by the Darial road.

Cilicia

Fellow Christian kingdom; no recorded treaty.

Churches

The Georgian Orthodox Church under the Catholicos-Patriarch at Mtskheta (name not pinned for 1 January 1200) and, in the west, the Catholicos of Abkhazia at Bichvinta. The chancellor is always the archbishop of Chqondidi. Great royal foundations: Gelati (the royal monastery and academy founded by David IV in 1106, where Tamar was crowned the second time), Vardzia (the cave monastery begun under George III and finished and decorated under Tamar, about 1184-86, and still being enlarged), Shio-Mghvime, David Gareja, the monasteries of Klarjeti (Shatberdi, Opiza, Khandzta).

Georgian houses abroad: Iviron on Mount Athos, Petritsoni in Thrace, the Monastery of the Cross in Jerusalem (Georgian monks kept their houses under Saladin). The Armenian Church in the Mkhargrdzeli lands: Haghpat and Sanahin, the brothers' family monasteries; Zakare keeps the Armenian faith, while Ivane turns to the Georgian (Chalcedonian) church about 1200 (not pinned closer). The Muslims of Tbilisi keep their mosques and judge under the privileges given by David IV and Demetrius I.

Coinage

Copper coins of Tamar, and of Tamar with David Soslan, with Georgian monograms and Arabic legends (see mints). Silver is scarce; Byzantine and Islamic gold and silver circulate.

The host

The royal guard (monaspa) and the household troops; the banners of the eristavi, each lord leading his own men; the Meskhian (south Georgian) troops under the Akhaltsikheli; the Armenian troops of the Mkhargrdzeli; descendants of the Kipchak settlers; Alan auxiliaries. The court histories give large figures for Shamkor; they are not used here. The army is at its height: victorious at Shamkor (1195), it has taken Shirak (1191), Amberd (1196) and Ani (1199).

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

In 1200

1. 1200, in the course of the year (not pinned)Zakare and Ivane secure Ani: Wikipedia's Zakarid Armenia article attributes to Zakare a church at Ani and an inscription dated 1200. The formal grant of Ani to Zakare as a fief follows in 1201.Depends on: Ani staying in Georgian hands and Tamar willing to enfeoff the brothers Stopped by: A Muslim counter-stroke from Kars, Erzurum or Dvin, or a quarrel between the queen and the brothers
2. 1200 (k'oronikon 420)Copper coins of Tamar and David with the date 420 of the Georgian era are struck.Depends on: Nothing but the mint's routine Stopped by: Nothing likely
3. 1200-01 (596-597 AH by Iranica's dating; not pinned)Abu Bakr backs a return of Yury and attacks Shirvan; he is beaten and Shamkor and Ganja are made to accept Georgian overlordship.Depends on: Abu Bakr choosing war; Yury alive and willing; the Georgian army free Stopped by: A settlement with Abu Bakr, or a Georgian war elsewhere

Later, on the likely course

1. 1201Tamar grants Ani to Zakare as a hereditary fief.Depends on: Ani held through 1200 Stopped by: Loss of Ani
2. 1201 (Vardan: 650 of the Armenian era)Zakare and Ivane take Bjni on the Hrazdan.Depends on: No relief from Dvin or Tabriz Stopped by: Eldiguzid relief, or a war elsewhere
3. 1201-02 (later course)Süleymanshah II takes Erzurum from the Saltukids, bringing the Seljuk sultanate to Georgia's south-western border.Depends on: The sultan free of his brothers' appanages and of Byzantium Stopped by: A Georgian or Saltukid defence of Erzurum
4. 1202 to 1205 (later course; the date is argued)Süleymanshah II marches on Georgia and is routed at Basiani by David Soslan and the Mkhargrdzeli.Depends on: The sultan holding Erzurum and choosing war Stopped by: A truce between Tamar and the sultan
5. 1203 (Vardan: 652 of the Armenian era; later course)Dvin falls to the Mkhargrdzeli.Depends on: No Eldiguzid relief Stopped by: Abu Bakr defending the Ararat plain
6. April 1204 (later course)Alexios and David Komnenos, with Georgian troops, seize Trebizond and the Pontus.Depends on: Byzantium weak in the Pontus, and Tamar willing to arm her kinsmen Stopped by: A strong Byzantine governor in Trebizond
7. 1206-07 (later course)Kars surrenders to the Georgians after a siege.Depends on: Kars left without Saltukid or Seljuk relief Stopped by: Relief from Erzurum or Ahlat

Where the sources disagree

• Ani: Georgian and modern accounts give 1199 for the capture (Lordkipanidze 1987; Wikipedia), Iranica (Peacock) says only that the city was in Mkhargrdzeli hands 'by 1200' and cites a Shaddadid inscription at Ani of 595 AH (1198-99); the grant to Zakare is dated 1201. Ani is drawn as Georgian on 1 January 1200 with medium confidence.
• Dvin and Bjni: Wikipedia's articles on Zakare and Ivane put them among conquests of 1193 or before about 1199; Vardan Areweltsi dates Bjni to 650 AE (1201) and Dvin to 652 AE (1203). Vardan is followed: both are Muslim on 1 January 1200. (The aze sheet anchors Bjni and Hrazdan to georgia.)
• Ani: Vardan Areweltsi dates its capture to 648 of the Armenian era. That year began on 1 Navasard, which in 1199 fell about 30-31 January (the Armenian year of 365 days started on 11 July 552 and slips a day every four Julian years), so 648 AE runs from about 31 January 1199 to about 30 January 1200: the capture almost certainly falls in the campaigning season of 1199.
• Amberd: 645 AE (1196) in Vardan; 1197 in Wikipedia.
• David Soslan's marriage is dated 1187, 1189 or 1191 by different authorities; it is before 1192 in all of them, so it does not affect the map.
• George Lasha's birth: 1192 (most) or 1194; Rusudan's: 1194 or about 1195.

Evidence: The ruler, consort, children, the Mkhargrdzeli offices and the great victories are thick; the names of most eristavi on 1 January 1200 and the exact limits in Tao, Hereti and Abkhazia are thin, and several dates (Ani, Dvin, Basiani) are argued. Much of the detail comes from the Georgian court histories, which flatter the queen.

On the map: Lordship here is over valleys, castles and their people. The northern edge follows the main Caucasus ridge, which the crown claims beyond (Darial, the mountain peoples). The Tao frontier, the eastern edge of Hereti (Shaki) and the north-western end of Abkhazia are drawn on thin evidence.

Primary sources for this realm

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• The Chronicle of Michael the Syrian (Michael the Great), Michael the Syrian, patriarch of Antioch 1166 to 1199 (about 1180 to 1195). The Jacobite patriarch's world chronicle, in parallel columns of church, secular and miscellaneous events, ending four years before 1200 and shortly before his own death on 7 November 1199, which left the Syrian Orthodox church with a disputed succession in 1200. Read online
• The History of Derbent and Shirvan, as preserved in Munejjim-bashi's Jami al-duwal, Anonymous (an 11th-century author of Derbent, excerpted by Munejjim-bashi, died 1702) (about 1075; preserved in an Ottoman compilation of the 1670s). The only local history of the Shirvanshahs and the emirs of Derbent, surviving as extracts in a 17th-century Ottoman compilation.
• The Complete History, Izz al-Din Ibn al-Athir (about 1200 to 1231, at Mosul). The widest Muslim narrative for the years 596 to 597 AH (1199 to 1201): al-Adil's entry into Cairo and his taking of the sultanate from his nephew al-Mansur Muhammad early in 1200, the quarrels of the Ayyubid princes at Damascus, Aleppo and Hama, the Nile failure and the great famine of Egypt, Mosul under Nur al-Din Arslan Shah and the Jazira under Gokbori and the Artuqids, Baghdad under the caliph al-Nasir, the Khwarazmshah Tekish's death in 1200 and Muhammad's accession, the Ghurid wars in Khurasan, the Eldiguzids and Georgia, the Almohads in the west, and the Seljuks of Rum in passing. Read online
• History of the Armenians, Kirakos Gandzaketsi (1241 to 1265). Written at Getik and Gandzak in the Zakarid lands of Georgian Armenia. Read online
• The Georgian Chronicles: the Histories and Eulogies of the Sovereigns, and the Life of Queen Tamar, Anonymous, attributed to the chancellor Theodore of Chqondidi and to Basili, master of the court (about 1210 to 1225). Two court histories of Queen Tamar written within a generation. Read online
• The Historical Compilation of Vardan Areveltsi, Vardan Areveltsi (about 1267 to 1271). A short universal history that for the 12th and 13th centuries follows Samuel of Ani, Michael the Syrian (which Vardan helped translate into Armenian in 1248) and Kirakos. Read online
• The History of the Seljuks of Rum, Ibn Bibi (Nasir al-Din Husayn ibn Muhammad) (about 1281 to 1285, at Konya). The main Seljuk narrative for Rum begins with Kilij Arslan II's partition of the sultanate among his sons and his death (1192), Kaykhusraw I's first reign at Konya, his deposition in 1196 to 1197 by Rukn al-Din Sulayman II, Kaykhusraw's wanderings to Cilician Armenia, Aleppo and Constantinople, Sulayman's reduction of his brothers' towns (Tokat, Malatya, Amasya, and Ankara by 1204) and his Erzurum and Georgian campaigns. Read online