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

lands to religious establishments under the control
of clerical representatives of the secular lord's
own family.
She naaarars traditionally attempted to exploit
big power rivalries whenever they believed that they
stood to gain leverage thereby. This required the
existence of two or more foreign rivals powerful enough
potentially to balance each other and also willing to
intervene militarily or diplomatically in the Caucasus.
Did such a situation exist in the 13-14th centuries? At
certain times it did, although it did not produce the
results hoped for by the naxarars. The two Mongol rivals
were the fl-Khan state in Iran, centered at Tabriz, and
the state of the Norther Tatars (the Golden Horde) centered
at Sarai on the Volga river. The rivalry between these
two, which broke into open warfare in the mid-1260's,
manifested itself at least twenty years earlier.
Influence over the Caucasus, which each side regarded
as its own, was but one factor in this dispute, but the
crucial one from the standpoint of certain Caucasian
lords seeking maneuverability.
At the time of the Mongol conquest (1236), queen
Busudan of Georgia fled for safety to the distant city
of Xutals in northwestern Georgia. The Mongols sent
emissaries (including Armenian naxarars) to her demanding
her submission and that she send them her son David Rusudanean
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