02 — The Restoration of the Kingdom
How David turned survival into strength: the reconstruction of the Georgian state and the creation of a standing royal army — including the great resettlement of the Qipchaq (Kipchak) nomads and the disciplining of the fractious high nobility; and the campaigns by which he drove the Seljuks out of the Georgian lowlands and reunited the kingdom.
Tradition: Georgian Orthodox
This section covers the middle work of the reign — less dramatic than Didgori but the foundation on which Didgori was possible. The first file treats David’s institutional and military reforms: the building of a centralized administration under the great minister-bishop, the creation of a permanent royal guard (the monaspa), the momentous resettlement of tens of thousands of Qipchaq families from the North Caucasus to furnish a standing army loyal to the crown alone, and the parallel breaking of the over-mighty noble houses. The second file follows the reconquest: the patient, decades-long reduction of the Turkish garrisons and the reincorporation of Kakheti, Hereti, and the marches, until by the eve of Didgori the Seljuks had been pushed to the edge of the land they had once grazed at will.
The great numbers involved — above all the Qipchaq figure — descend from sources prone to inflation and are given here with [Disputed: ...] ranges per the repository methodology.
Files in This Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| rebuilding-the-state-and-the-army.md | The administrative reforms and the centralized monarchy; the standing royal army and the monaspa; the Qipchaq resettlement (the traditional “40,000 families”) and the army it created; and the taming of the great dynasts — the Baghvashi, the Orbeli — that made a strong crown possible. |
| the-liberation-of-the-land.md | The repudiation of Seljuk tribute and the decades-long reconquest of the Georgian lowlands; the reduction of the Turkish garrisons; the reincorporation of Kakheti and Hereti; and the strategic squeeze that provoked the Seljuk coalition of 1121. |
See Also
- The Young King (1089) — the ruined starting point of the restoration
- The Battle of Didgori (1121) — the army built here brought to its supreme test
- King and Catholicos — the ecclesiastical side of the same centralization
References
- The Life of the King of Kings David (Cxovreba mepet-mepisa Davitisi), in Kartlis Tskhovreba: A History of Georgia, ed. Roin Metreveli, trans. Dmitri Gamq’relidze et al. (Tbilisi: Artanuji, 2014).
- Ronald Grigor Suny, The Making of the Georgian Nation, 2nd ed. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994).
- Donald Rayfield, Edge of Empires: A History of Georgia (London: Reaktion Books, 2012).
- Alexander Mikaberidze, Historical Dictionary of Georgia, 2nd ed. (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015).