Byzantine sources record that in the early years of the 10th century Abkhazia stretched three hundred Greek miles along the Black Sea coast, from the frontiers of the thema of Chaldia to the mouth of the river Nicopsis, with the Caucasus behind it.

It lay chiefly along the Black Sea coast in what is now the northwestern part of the modern-day Georgia (disputed Republic of Abkhazia[4]) and extended northward into the territory of today's Krasnodar Krai of Russia.

Dysentery and floods, combined with a stubborn resistance offered by the archon Leon I and his Iberian and Lazic allies, made the invaders retreat.

Towards circa 778, Leon II won his full independence with the help of the Khazars; he assumed the title of "King of the Abkhazians" and transferred his capital to the western Georgian city of Kutaisi.

According to Georgian annals, Leon subdivided his kingdom into eight duchies: Abkhazia proper, Tskhumi, Bedia, Guria, Racha and Takveri, Svaneti, Argveti, and Kutatisi.

The Abkhazian kings controlled duchy of Kartli (central and part of eastern Georgia), and interfered in the affairs of the Armenian and Georgian Bagratids.

In 978, the Bagratid prince Bagrat, nephew (sister's son) of the heirless Theodosius, occupied the Abkhazian throne with the help of his adoptive father David III of Tao.

[citation needed] Writing the kingdom's primary history was dominated by Georgian and Byzantine sources supported by modern epigraphic and archaeological records.

[citation needed] The constitution of the kingdom is presented differently in the Abkhazian and Georgian historiography, with the ethnic composition of the population and the origin of the ruling dynasty being especially contentious.

[10] Most international scholars agree that it is extremely difficult to judge the ethnic identity of the various population segments[11] due primarily to the fact that the terms "Abkhazia" and "Abkhazians" were used in a broad sense during this period—and for some while later—and covered, for all practical purposes, all the population of the kingdom, comprising both the Georgian (including also Mingrelians, Laz, and Svans with their distinct languages that are related to the Georgian language) and Abkhaz (Abasgoi, Apsilae, and Zygii) peoples.