Siege of Tbilisi (1386)

Siege of Tbilisi
Part of Timurid Wars
Date 1386 Location Tbilisi, Georgia Result Decisive Timurid victory,
Belligerents
Kingdom of Georgia	Timurid Empire
Commanders and leaders
Bagrat V	Timur
Strength
80.000 [1][2]	39.000 Turk and mongol soldiers [3]
Casualties and losses
70.000 [4]	10.000 , 15.000 [5]

Timur orders campaign against Georgia.

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.

References

• The Timurid Dynasty
• René Grousset, L'empire des Steppes, versio francesa 1938 reedició 4ª 1965, i versió anglesa 1970. ISBN 0-8135-1304-9
• Hodong Kim, "The Early History of the Moghul Nomads: The Legacy of the Chaghatai Khanate." The Mongol Empire and Its Legacy. Ed. Reuven Amitai-Preiss i David Morgan. Leiden: Brill, 1998. ISBN 90-04-11048-8
• Beatrice Forbes Manz, The Rise and Rule of Tamerlane. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 1989. ISBN 0-521-63384-2
• Mirza Muhammad Haidar. The Tarikh-i-Rashidi (A History of the Moghuls of Central Asia). Traduit per Edward Denison Ross, editat per N. Elias. Londres, 1895.
• Historical Dictionary of Georgia . Alexander Mikaberidze
• Tamerlane: Sword of Islam, Conqueror of the World . Justin Marozzi