The Turco-Mongol Invasions and the Lords of Armenia in the 13 ...

In the early 1220's, Armenia was subjected to a
number of luroo-Mongol invasions. These invasions, all
related to one another (though hardly coordinated) were
made from different geographical directions. Varying in
scope, participants, and intent, all of them nonetheless
contributed to the destruction of the military capabilities
of the Armeno-Georgian armies. Taken individually, the
consequences of each invasion might have been overcome.
But the invasions were, in a sense, a chain reaction.
One followed the next within the space of a few years.
This quick succession of attacks more than anything else
explains how the mighty Armeno-Georgian forces, so
recently on the aggressive offensive against hostile
and far-flung powers, were so quickly humiliated, destroyed
or neutralized before the onslaught of the Mongol
conquerors in subsequent decades.
Chronologically, the first incursion was made in
1220/21 by a detachment of some 20,000 Mongols who had
been sent across Central Asia by Chlngiz-Khao in pursuit
of the Shah of Khwarazm 1 . The
1
latter succeeded in evading
Useful secondary sources on the Mongol Invasions
are SMP; B. Spuler, The Muslim World, part II The ,
Mongol Period (Leiden , I960) [Hereafter, Spulerj{
J .J .Saunders, The History of the Mongol Conaueets
(London, 1971)jTor Armenia in particular. PI; DiH;
Alizade; SESM; H&P III , ch . 35, L.H.Babayan, "Monfrolakan
areavank nere ev Hayaatani nvaguae [The Mongol
Invasions and the Conquest of Armenia]", pp. 597-613;
HAZ IV (Erevan. 1972) ch . 1, L.S.XaJikyan, "Hayaatani
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