[10] At the end of the 12th century, the Sultanate of Rum plunged into chaos due to Turkmen raids, Crusades and fierce power struggles among the descendants of Kilij Arslan II (1156–1192).

In 1197, Rukn ad-Din Suleiman Shah, the fifth son of Kilij Arslan II, captured Konya and forced his brother Kaykhusraw I to leave the country and go into exile in Constantinople.

[12] The rise of the Georgian kingdom under King David IV the Builder continued under the reign of Queen Tamar, who managed to defeat a large Muslim coalition at the Battle of Shamkor in 1195.

The interests of Georgia and the Sultanate of Rum clashed on the southern coast of the Black Sea, where both sought to take advantage of Byzantine weakness and establish their own footholds.

[16] The Georgian army, numbering 65,000–90,000 troops,[5] was ready for battle within ten days, and as soon as Rukn ad-Din's envoy left, it entered the battlefield under the command of David Soslan.

[6] In the "Historical Collection", Armenian historian Vardan Areveltsi boasts that David "filled Georgia with captivity and plundering Turks".

[20] In fury for attacking a former vassal, Queen Tamar ordered that Emir of Erzincan (Bahramshah) be sold into slavery for the price of one iron horseshoe.

[10] After the victory, Archbishop Anton Gnolistavisdze, acquired an Arabic medical treatise, which he translated into Georgian, creating the "Book for Doctors" (Tsigni saakimoi), one of the earliest works of Galenic medicine in Georgia.