Nevertheless, the unified Georgian realm would de jure collapse in 1490,[6] and western Georgia would secure an independent future under the name of Kingdom of Imereti, that will exist til 1810.

[7] The question of the contemporaneous name of the realm between 1259 and the early 1400s remains without a concrete answer because from the end of the 15th century, Western Georgia extended from the modern-day city of Sochi in the north[8] to Trebizond in the south and the Likhi Range in the east.

The chronology of the adoption of this name for this state is not clear and it is plausible that some monarchs before 1490[9] fragmentation would style themselves as "Kings of Imereti", however, it may well be an anachronism and that an actual change of the title would happen much later.

Modern historians, such as the former head of the historical department of the Tbilisi State University, Professor Nodar Asatiani justifies the naming of the realm as the Kingdom of Western Georgia until the 15th century, demonstrating that the rulers of that fragmented state considered themselves a legitimate line of the Georgian kings who protected the Georgian nation during the Muslim invasions and were fiercely fighting for the unity.

[14] In 1259, David VI, who was nicknamed Narin (meaning "junior" in Mongolian) by the Ilkhanid authorities, rebelled against his suzerain, although he did not drag his royal colleague into the rebellion.

[14] The Ilkhanate soon put an end to this revolt after a few short, bloody battles, while David VI managed to take refuge in western Georgia on a secret journey that took him through Armenia.

The Ilkhanate was preoccupied with its military campaign in Syria against certain Crusader states and Mamluk Sultanate[16] and was content to increase the tributes imposed on eastern Georgia to rectify the difference in revenue following the loss of a large portion of the taxes from some of the richest Georgian provinces.

This situation enabled David VI to protect himself effectively against the mercenaries of the Mongol rebel Tekuder, who took refuge in western Georgia in 1269 after failing in his revolt against Abaqa Khan.

[26] Western Georgia fell into civil war when Michael, Constantine I's younger brother, revolted and succeeded in dominating the eastern regions of the kingdom, including Argveti, Racha and Lechkhumi.

In 1372, Alexander, son of Bagrat, inherited the Duchy of Shorapani[30] and quickly became one of the most powerful nobles in the region, a status he maintained until the tragic events of the end of the century.

In 1386, Timur's troops invaded northern Georgia, ravaging the country, capturing Tbilisi in November and forcing King Bagrat V to convert to Islam, while the royal court went into exile in Imereti.

[32] This proclamation became widely disputed, and the city of Kutaisi remained in the hands of Bagrat V loyalists, while the duchies of Mingrelia, Svaneti, Abkhazia and Guria refused to recognize the sovereignty of the new monarch.

[34] With the region depopulated, the citadels having lost their military defense and the Duke of Mingrelia perishing in 1396, Constantine took advantage of the situation to organize a new revolt against the central government.

When civil war broke out between George VIII and Demetrius, the latter used his father-in-law's regional power to take control of western Georgia, without seceding from Tbilisi, before dying in 1453.

A major confrontation took place in August 1463 at the Battle of Chikhori, during which the troops loyal to King George VIII of Georgia were defeated by the Samtskhe-Saatabago and Bagrat.

But this peace only led to a more serious division: from the early 1470s, the king recognised Constantine as his successor in Kartli, while he designated his eldest son, Alexander, as crown prince of Imereti.

[44] Despite the long-standing hostility between the Muslim states of the Near East and Georgia, David VI Narin maintained relations with some of his Anatolian neighbours, particularly in order to forge alliances against the Ilkhanate.

King David, himself the son of a Seljuk prince, offered his sister in marriage to Sultan Kaykhusraw II and then to the regent Mu'in al-Din Parwana after the latter's death.

In the 1280s, Emperor John II took advantage of the Georgian division to withdraw from the suzerainty of his northern neighbour and sought direct alliance wire-Byzantine Empire, which he visited in 1282.

Understanding the negative relationship between his recognition as a Western ruler and the unity of the Georgian Orthodox Church, David VI managed to create the Catholicate of Abkhazia, based at the Gelati Monastery, with its own patriarch around 1290.

[48] In the 1460s, Bagrat II succeeded in convincing the Patriarch of Antioch Michael IV to draft a special declaration recognizing the unique identity and origins of Christianity in western Georgia.

[53] He also embarked on a program of religious revival and succeeded in reestablishing his kingdom's control over the Monastery of the Cross, a Georgian establishment in Jerusalem transformed into a mosque by the Muslim occupiers of the region,[54] while he is probably at the origin of the construction of the church of Ienachi in Svanetia.