Georgia, a
Christian kingdom in the
Caucasus, was subjected, between 1386 and 1403, to several disastrous invasions by the armies of
Turco-Mongol conqueror
Timur, whose
vast empire stretched, at its greatest extent, from
Central Asia into
Anatolia. These conflicts were intimately linked with
the wars between Timur (Tamerlane) and
Tokhtamysh, the last
khan of the
Golden Horde and Timur’s major rival for control over the Islamic world. Timur officially proclaimed his invasions to be
jihad against the region's non-Muslims. Although he was able to invade parts of Georgia, he was never able to make the country Muslim and even recognized Georgia to be a Christian state.