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Draft:Battle of Akhaltsikhe (1444)

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Battle of Akhaltsikhe
Part of Turkoman invasions of Georgia
Date1444
Location
Result Georgian victory[1]
Belligerents
 Kingdom of Georgia Qara Qoyunlu
Commanders and leaders
Vakhtang IV Jahan Shah

The Battle of Akhaltsikhe was a battle between the Kingdom of Georgia and the Qara Qoyunlu that was fought in 1444.

Background

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In 1440, Alexander I of Georgia refused to pay tribute to Jahan Shah of the Qara Qoyunlu. In March, Jahan Shah surged into Georgia with 20,000 troops, destroyed the city of Samshvilde and sacked the capital city Tbilisi. He massacred 8,000 and enslaved 9,000 in Tbilisi, put heavy indemnity on Georgia, According to Thomas of Metsoph, Jahan Shah imposed a large tax on the Christians living in Tbilisi in order to convert them to Islam. It is not known from other sources how much this tax was and whether Christians paid it or not,[2] after that Jahan Shah returned to Tabriz.[3]

Battle

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In 1444, Jahan Shah, attempted a new invasion of Georgia.[4] Alexander’s successor, King Vakhtang IV met him in Akhaltsikhe, where the Georgians and Turkomans fought in a bloody battle that ended without a clear victor. At night, Jahan Shah and his troops escaped to Tabriz, putting an end to the Turkoman invasion.[5]

References

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  1. ^ Baumer 2023, p. 81.
  2. ^ Studies in the history of Georgia, Vol. 3, Tbilisi, 1979, p. 732
  3. ^ Kouymjian 1997, p. 7.
  4. ^ Rayfield 2012, p. 158.
  5. ^ Brosset 1849, p. 643.

Bibliography

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  • Brosset, Marie-Félicité (1849). Histoire de la Géorgie depuis l'Antiquité jusqu'au XIXe siècle. Volume I [History of Georgia from Ancient Times to the 19th Century, Volume 1] (in French). Saint-Petersburg: Imperial Academy of Sciences.
  • Rayfield, Donald (2012). Edge of Empires, a History of Georgia. London: Reaktion Books. ISBN 978-1-78023-070-2.
  • Kouymjian, Dickran (1997). "Armenia from the Fall of the Cilician Kingdom (1375) to the Forced Emigration under Shah Abbas (1604)". In Hovannisian, Richard (ed.). The Armenian People from Ancient to Modern Times. Vol. 2. St. Martin Press. pp. 1–50.
  • Baumer, Christoph (5 October 2023). History of the Caucasus: Volume 2: In the Shadow of Great Powers. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 29–30. ISBN 978-0-7556-3630-3.