The Kingdom of the Iberians[a] (Georgian: ქართველთა სამეფო, romanized: kartvelta samepo) was a medieval Georgian monarchy under the Bagrationi dynasty which emerged circa 888 AD, succeeding the Principality of Iberia, in historical region of Tao-Klarjeti, or upper Iberia in north-eastern Turkey as well parts of modern southwestern Georgia, that stretched from the Iberian gates in the south and to the Lesser Caucasus in the north.

In 813, the last Iberian prince Ashot I of the Bagrationi dynasty established himself in his patrimonial Duchy of Klarjeti, where he restored the castle of Artanuji, said to have been built by the king Vakhtang I of Iberia in the 5th century, and received the Byzantine protection.

[2][3] The geographical position of the princedom, between the great Empires of the East and the West, and the fact that one branch of the Silk Road ran through its territory, meant that it was subject to a constant stream of diverging influences.

Ashot allied himself with king Theodosius II of Abkhazia and met the emir on the Ksani, winning a victory and pushing the Kakhetians from central Iberia.

[3] But when the governor of Arminiya, Khalid ibn Yazid al-Shaybani reasserted control over eastern Georgia, Ashot was pushed back to Tao-Klarjeti.

In 880 he seized the Bagratids' traditional foe, the Arab emir of Tbilisi, named Gabulots, and sent him in chains to Constantinople, a triumph which won him Trialeti and Javakheti.

[citation needed] Liparit, of the Liparitids, took over Trialeti, where he built the stronghold Klde-Karni and placed himself under suzerainty of Guaram's nephew David I (son of Bagrat I) soon after 876.

The two men collaborated in defeating, in 904, the Abkhazian king Constantine III, their common relative, who competed with Adarnase for hegemony in Inner Iberia and with Smbat in Gogarene.

[citation needed] George II of Abkhazia (r. 923–957) continued the expansionist policy of his predecessor aimed primarily at retaining the control of Iberia.

Bagrat frequently appeared as a collaborator of his relative David III of Tao, the most influential person among the Bagratids of that time, aiding him against the Rawadids of Azerbaijan.

[10] The only setback was the 987–989 unsuccessful conflict with the Byzantine Empire that forced David to agree to cede his dominion to Emperor Basil II on his death, whose domains later would be organized into the theme of Iberia.

Bagrat's reign, a period of uttermost importance in the history of Georgia, brought about the final victory of the Georgian Bagratids in the centuries-long power struggles.

To secure the succession to his son, George, Bagrat lured his cousins, on pretext of a reconciliatory meeting, to the Panaskerti Castle, and threw them in prison in 1010.