Georgia, a Christian kingdom in the Caucasus, is subjected, between 1386 and 1404, to several disastrous invasions by the Turco-Mongol conqueror Timur, whose vast empire stretches, at its greatest extent, from Central Asia into Anatolia.

These conflicts are intimately linked with those between Timur and Tokhtamysh, the last khan of the Golden Horde and Timur’s major rival.Georgians are one of the first non-Muslim peoples to suffer from Timur's onslaughts.

In the first of at least seven invasions, Timur sacks Georgia's capital, Tbilisi, and captures the king Bagrat V in 1386.

Georgians shortly fight back, prompting a renewed attack by the Turco-Mongol armies.

Bagrat’s son and successor, George VII, puts up a stiff resistance and has to spend much of his reign (1395-1405) fighting the Timurid invasions.

Timur personally leads most of these raids to subdue the recalcitrant Georgian monarch.

Although he is not able to establish a firm control over Georgia, the country suffers a blow from which it never recovers.

By the time George VII is forced to accept Timur's terms of peace and agree to pay tribute, he is a master of little more than gutted towns, a ravaged countryside, and a shattered monarchy.