Arab rule in Georgia

Compared with other regions which endured Muslim conquests, Georgia's culture, and even political structure was not much affected by the Arab presence, as the people kept their faith, the nobles their fiefdoms, and the foreign rulers mostly insisted on the payment of tribute, which they could not always enforce.

Still, repeated invasions and military campaigns by the Arabs devastated Georgia on many occasions, and the Caliphs retained suzerainty over significant parts of the country and exerted influence over the internal power dynamics during most of the period.

Those years saw the progressive installation of political control over the Georgian lands by the Umayyad Caliphate; from 736 until 853, when the Abbasid Caliphate of Baghdad destroyed Tbilisi to quell a rebellion by the local emir, ending a period of domination of all Eastern Georgia by the Emirate; from 853 until the 2nd half of the 11th century, when the Great Seljuq Empire replaced the Arabs as the main force in the Middle East.

The region still remained marginal in the eyes of the Caliphate, and although it was officially integrated into the newly created province of Armīniya, local rulers retained at first as much autonomy as they had enjoyed under the Byzantine and Sassanid protectorates.

The main manifestation of Arab power over a region was at the same time a religious command of Islam: the payment of a tax (for territories under direct rule), or a tribute (for vassal states), by non-believers, called the jizya.

In Iberia as in Armenia, revolts against the tribute were frequent during the second half of the 7th century, each time the local nobility and presiding princes felt internal weakness in the Caliphate.

Despite a two-year-long struggle, the revolt was quelled, Adarnase was killed, and the Arabs installed in his place Guaram II of the rival Guaramid Dynasty.

Marwan did not only invade Kartli as his predecessors had done, but he also led his armies after the retreating Georgian princes into the western half of the country, from Samtskhe to Abkhazia, where they were eventually stopped.

According to Cyril Toumanoff, Western Georgia, as a dependency of the Byzantine Empire, was actually the primary goal of the campaign, and the Prince of Iberia would have sided with the Arab forces to help repel the Khazars, who had just devastated his lands.

[5] But those hopes were soon quashed after the Abbasids restored the caliphate in Baghdad in 762: the new Muslim state was better organized and more able to claim tribute and impose its authority over border regions.

[8] Some regions, removed from the main cities and trade routes, maintained a large degree of autonomy from the Arab rulers, notably in the west of Georgia.

From 833, under Ishaq ibn Isma'il, the emirate regained power over Georgian lands, imposing its authority over many princes and forcing the Bagrationi to pay tribute: after Ashot's death, his domain had been shared among his three sons and was more vulnerable.

[12] The decision the Abbasids took of not rebuilding the city extensively would considerably weaken their economic and cultural influence in Georgia, and allowed the Bagrationi to become the major power in the country, facilitating its further unification.

The Sajid invasion of Georgia, as it is known, was however a failure, although it devastated Georgian lands, and allowed the Bagratids to restore the alliance with Byzantium, which they had earlier neglected in favour of the Caliphs.

[14] From that moment, the Arabs stopped playing a significant role in the history of Georgia, and the progressive unification of the country under the Bagrationi proceeded without any interference on their part.

During the 11th century, the wealthy citizens of the city gained much power, as a council of elders (birebi), and kept the emirate alive mostly as a way to avoid taxation from the Georgian kings.

[16] By the 1060s, the Great Seljuk Empire, led by Alp Arslan, a Turk, had replaced the Arabs as the main Muslim menace facing Georgia.