Kingdom of Georgia (1256–1329)

The Kingdom of Georgia from 1256 to 1329, sometimes called the Kingdom of Eastern Georgia (აღმოსავლეთ საქართველოს სამეფო) was the official prolongation of the Kingdom of Georgia from 1256 to 1329, but limited in its rule to the geographical areas of central and eastern Georgia, while the western part of the country temporarily seceded to form the Kingdom of Western Georgia under its own line of kings. The secession followed a transitional period when the rule of the Kingdom of Georgia was jointly assumed by the cousins David VI and David VII from 1246 to 1256. The entity split into two parts when David VI, revolting from the Mongol hegemony, seceded in the western half of the kingdom and formed the Kingdom of Western Georgia in 1256. David VII was relegated to the rule of Eastern Georgia. During his reign, Eastern Georgia went into further decline under the Mongol overlordship.

Mongol conquest
Since the 1220s, the Kingdom of Georgia had to contend with the numerous Mongol invasions of Genghis Khan and his successors, the Ilkhanids. Following a disastrous campaign, the Kingdom of Georgia recognized defeat against the Mongols and had to accept submission through the 1239 treaty.

Between 1236 and 1256, before the creation of the Il-Khanate, Caucasia was placed under the military governorship of Chormaqan, and divided into 5 vilayets (provinces): Georgia (Gurjistan), Greater Armenia, Shirvan, Arran, and Mughan, with Armenian principalities becoming fragmented and essentially independent. Georgia was partitioned into 8 Mongol tümen, with each tümen ordered to supply 10,000 soldiers. After 1256, Armenia was directly incorporated into the Il-Khanate founded by Hulegu.

Joint rule (1246–1256)
In 1246, the Mongol Empire confirmed the cousins David VII and David VI as joint kings of King of Georgia by the Mongol Empire, effectively laying ground for a division of the Georgian kingdom.

The "two Davids", as incumbents for the throne of Georgia, David VI and David VII, attended the enthronement ceremony of the Mongol Khan Güyük on 24 August 1246, near the Mongol capital at Karakorum, together with a large number of foreign ambassadors: the Franciscan friar and envoy of Pope Innocent IV, John of Plano Carpini and Benedict of Poland; Grand Duke Yaroslav II of Vladimir; the brother of the king of Armenia and historian, Sempad the Constable; the future Seljuk Sultan of Rum, Kilij Arslan IV; and ambassadors of the Abbasid Caliph Al-Musta'sim and Ala ud din Masud of the Delhi Sultanate. all bearing homage, tribute, and presents. This event was related by the 13th century historian Juvayni:

"From Khitai there came emirs and officials; and from Transoxiana and Turkestan the emir Masʿud accompanied by grandees of that region. With the emir Arghun there came the celebrities and notables of Khorasan, Iraq, Lur, Azerbaijan and Shirvan. From Rum came Sultan Rukn al-Din and the Sultan of Takavor (Trebizond); from Georgia, the two Davits; from Aleppo, the brother of the Lord of Aleppo; from Mosul, the envoy of Sultan Badr al-Din Luʾluʾ; and from the city of Peace, Baghdad, the chief qadi Fakhr al-Din. There also came the Sultan of Erzurum, envoys from the Franks, and from Kerman and Fars also; and from ʿAla al-Din of Alamut, his governors in Quhistan, Shihab al-Din and Shams al-Din. And all this great assembly came with such baggage as befitted a court; and there came also from other directions so many envoys and messengers that two thousand felt tents had been made ready for them: there came also merchants with the rare and precious things that are produced in the East and the West."

The Mongols appointed David VII as ulu ("senior") ruler, while David VI was appointed narin (junior) ruler. The Mongols required the Georgians to provide 90,000 soldiers (calculated at 1/9th of the population), and the agriculture and economy were taxed. They reigned jointly throughout the country for almost a decade under Mongol control. However, the Mongol overlords began to impose heavy taxes on the inhabitants of the Caucasus, leading to numerous popular revolts, particularly in Shirvan.

In 1259, David VI, who was nicknamed Narin (meaning "junior" in Mongolian) by the Ilkhanid authorities, rebelled against his Mongol suzerain, although he did not drag his royal colleague into the rebellion. The Ilkhanate soon put an end to this revolt after a few short, bloody battles, while David VI managed to take refuge in western Georgia on a secret journey that took him through Armenia. Arriving in Kutaisi, one of the largest towns in western Georgia, he declared the secession of the domains west of the Likhi mountains, and was proclaimed King of the Kingdom of Western Georgia by the local nobility.

Western Georgia then became an independent kingdom, wishing to preserve Georgian culture outside the sphere of influence of the Mongol world. The Ilkhanate was preoccupied with its military campaign in Syria against certain Crusader states and Mamluk Sultanate and was content to increase the tributes imposed on eastern Georgia to rectify the difference in revenue following the loss of a large portion of the taxes from some of the richest Georgian provinces.

Secession (1256–1329)
The Kingdom of Eastern Georgia was under the direct authority of the Mongol ruler Hulagu Khan (r 1256–1265), founder of the Ilkhanate, and was considered as a vassal of the Īlkhānid state. The Mongols also took direct control of the Samtskhe region in southwestern Georgia, as an autonomous principality under Il-khanate rule.

The successive kings of Eastern Georgia from 1256 to 1329 were David VII, Demetrius II, David VIII, Vakhtang III and George V.

At times, Georgia became a battleground between rival Mongol authorities, and in 1265, Berke Khan, the ruler of the Golden Horde, ravaged Eastern Georgia from the north.

Mongol control
The Mongol maintained control over the Eastern Georgian territory, by maintaining the original kingship within the original Bagratid family, while appointing their own supporters for the offices of the Atabeg (Governor General) and the Amirspasalar (Commander-in-Chief) of the army, as seen with the appointments of Sadun Artsruni (r.1272–1282) or his son Khutlubuga (r.1270–1293). Throughout the 13th century, the high offices Atabeg (Governor General) and Amirspasalar (Commander-in-Chief of the Georgian army) had been held by the Zakarids, but following the Mongol takeover of Eastern Georgia, the Mongol victors gave these offices to the "renegade" Sadun of Mankaberd in 1272. When Abaqa became the new Mongol ruler, Sadun received from him the title of Atabeg Amirspasalar for the Georgian Bagratid Kingdom. He was said to be close to the Mongols, and had been promoted by them: "Sadun Artsruni was appointed as atabeg of Georgia by Abaqa Khan". In his position, he especially controlled the policies of Eastern Georgia, which, while being ruled by Demetre II, remained pro-Mongol throughout.

The Mongols of the Il-Khanate also had a Military Governor or "Viceroy" of Georgia in place, such as Alinaq Noyan (–1289) and his successor Qurumushi (1289–1318).

Military operations
The Eastern Georgians provided substantial military support to the Mongols: they supported the Siege of Baghdad in 1258, and the Mongol campaigns in Syria from 1259 into the 1260s, leading to thousands of casualties. Sadun Artsruni, future Atabeg for Eastern Georgia, is known to have accompanied Hulegu in his military campaigns in Syria in 1259, in the conquest of Sasun, and in the Siege of Aleppo (1260). But when in 1260 Hulegu Khan requested the presence of Georgians and Armenians for the Mongol invasions of the Levant, remembering the losses of his troops in the 1258 Siege of Baghdad, David Ulu rebelled. A large Mongol army led by General Arghun Aqa invaded Georgia from the south, inflicted a heavy defeat on David and Sargis I Jaqeli in a battle near Akhaldaba, and then brutally plundered the country. The Mongol campaign continued during the winter, and the following year the king was forced to flee to Imereti, which the Mongols failed to conquer. David's family was captured, and his wife Gvantsa was killed. Peace with the Mongols was achieved in 1262, when David Ulu returned to Tbilisi to reclaim his crown as a Mongol vassal, pledging allegiance to Hulegu, while David Narin only nominally recognized Mongol rule in Imereti. The reason for Hulegu's tolerance towards the rebel lies in the fact that since 1261, the Il-kan was at war with the Golden Horde, which was on a larger scale.

The territory of the Caucasus, and as part of it the Kingdom of Georgia itself, became the scene of war between Hulegu and the Khan of the Golden Horde Berke in the following years. David Ulu provided his support for the conflict between the Il-Khanate and the Golden Horde in 1263–1265. In 1263, King David's troops participated in the defense of the Siba fortress against the Golden Horde. In 1265, his troops, as the vanguard of the Ilkhanate army, defeated Berke and pushed his troops out of Shirvan. As Hulegu died in the same year, Berke began to prepare a major offensive. The following year, his army penetrated into Georgia, but the offensive was abruptly stopped due to the death of the khan in the vicinity of Tbilisi.

In 1270, David Ulu led Georgian and Armenian troops in support of the Mongol Abaqa against Tekuder, who had found refuge in Western Georgia.

Demetrius II participated to all Mongol campaigns from 1275 to 1281. In 1277, 3000 Georgians founght with the Mongols against the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt in the battle of Abulistan. Georgian troops were present in great number at the Second Battle of Homs (1281).

In 1284, Georgian and Armenian troops had to participate in the dynastic conflict between the Il-Khanate ruler Tekuder and Arghun, with troops under the Vicery of Georgia Alinaq Noyan and under Tekuder himself.

The relationship was tumultuous: in 1289, King Demetrius II was executed by the Mongols, at the instigation of Khutlubuga. His son, the future David VIII, had to participate in the Mongol invasion of Anatolia in 1291–1292.

Religious revolts
The Mongol Emir Nawrūz, son of Arghun Aqa, started to implement anti-Christian policies, in relation with the adoption of Islam by his ruler Ghazan. Suddenly, Christians and Jew were segregated against, and had to wear distinctive types of dresses. Churches were being destroyed throughout the Middle-East, but also in Georgia, at Siwnik‘, Somkhit and Kartli. These events provoked popular rebellions and threat of military uprisings against the Mongols. Because of this, Nawrūz was replaced by Qutlughshāh on the orders of Ghazan. Nawrūz then plotted against Ghazan, but was denounced with the help of the Armenian Princes Eachi Pŕoshian and Liparit Orbelian, and was finally executed.

A unified Georgia was reestablished by George V of Georgia in 1329, as he reasserted royal control over the western part of Georgia through the astute usage of Mongol forces, and ultimately managed to expel the Mongols from Georgian lands. This coincided with a weakening of the Ilkhanate, which was engulfed in civil war in 1335–1344. Georgia would again suffer invasion at the hands of Timurlane from 1386 onward.

Art
Khutlubuga was a patron for the murals at the Church of the Holy Sign, in the Haghpat Monastery, probably during his time as Amirspasalar in the 1280s. He appears in person, with the inscription of his name. He wear a wrap-around caftan with decorative inserts, and has a low triangular headgear. This is a very useful marker for the clothing styles and for the dating of works of art of the period. They are contemporary with the murals at Kobayr by the family of the Zakarids, nominal vassals of the Georgian crown.