The Mongol Destruction of Georgia
A Christian Nation Overrun by Steppe Invaders
Few people in the west are aware of the proud history of the Georgian and Armenian peoples as bulwarks of Christianity. The history of Kiriakos describes the end.
Many people who know of Georgia and Armenia these days assume that, because they have been under Russian and Soviet influence since the early part of the twentieth century, they must always have been part of this world. This is far from the truth. In the Middle Ages, both Georgia and Armenia were known as bastions of Christianity and as bulwarks of the faith against the uncertain tides of the Steppes and the Islamic peoples further east.
Much of the modern understanding of those Medieval kingdoms, resplendent with their own chivalrous knights and heroes, comes from the avowedly Christian writer Kiriakos. This Kiriakos provided a quite detailed account of the history of the Armenian people, together with that of their neighbours, including the Georgians. For some unknown reason, the history of Kiriakos breaks off abruptly. Nevertheless, many topics are covered. Each topic is treated nearly always in strictly religious terms. Consequently, everything that the Christian rulers and peoples of Georgia and Armenia and elsewhere do is not simply just and appropriate but the people themselves are beautiful, fair and dignified. By contrast, their enemies, specifically the Mongol peoples, are treated as instruments of the devil. The Mongols, for example, are described in inhuman terms as a ‘plague of locusts’ or ‘torrential rain,’ while carrying out their terrible crimes ‘mercilessly’ and ‘as if they were at a drinking bout.’ However, it should also be noted that the many terrible slaughters described by Kiriakos actually did happen. It was the policy of Genghis Khan and his successors that any city or state that resisted the Mongol armies should be destroyed completely. In this way, other cities would get the message: surrender and live.
When the Mongols came upon Georgia, it was, according to Kiriakos, unfortunate for the Georgians that they were ruled by a queen named Rhuzudan. Kiriakos describes the queen as both promiscuous and barren, thereby offending against the two main injunctions laid upon women by Christianity: first, be faithful to a husband and, second, to produce children by that husband without complaint. Clearly, as any reader of history will be able to predict, an unfortunate people ruled over by such a monstrosity is doomed to destruction and so it transpired. The Mongols are depicted as being as numerous as the grains of sand in the desert and flood Georgia like an evil tide. They kill everyone, young and old, pausing only to violate the ‘beautiful virgins’ and sparing neither young nor old. As a nation, the population of Georgia has never recovered, despite the 800 intervening years.
