Battle of Didgori

By the early twelfth century King David IV had spent two decades rebuilding Georgia, reorganising its army and settling tens of thousands of Kipchak families from the steppe to serve as soldiers. Alarmed by his growing power, and by Georgian raids on Muslim-ruled towns, a coalition of Seljuk and Artuqid rulers led by Ilghazi marched into the Caucasus in 1121. David met them on the Didgori plateau west of Tbilisi, and the coalition army broke and was pursued from the field. The next year David took Tbilisi, which had been under Muslim rule for about four centuries, and made it his capital. Georgians still count the victory as the opening of their medieval golden age.

Georgian tradition calls Didgori the 'miraculous victory', and it holds a central place in national memory. The main Georgian source is the royal chronicle of David's reign, written close to the events by a court historian, while Arab chroniclers such as Ibn al-Athir recorded the defeat from the other side, so the battle is better attested than many of its era even though the numbers in both traditions are unreliable. A memorial of giant stone swords now stands on the plateau, and a commemorative festival has been held there in recent years.