The Muslim subjects of the kingdom of Georgia in the 12th-early 13th century

In the first of the 12th century, David IV the Builder, King of Georgia (1089-1125) completed the political unification of the country. Georgia, having thrown away the domination of Turk-Saljuq rule, turned into a powerful feudal monarchy. His seccessors Demetre I (1125-1156), Giorgi I (1156-11840), Tamar (1184-1210) and Giorgi Lasha (1210-1223) continued David the Builder’s political course directed at uniting the Transcaucasian countries under Georgia’s leadership. Georgia’s expansion resulted not only in the redeeming of Georgian lands proper but also in incorporation of non-Georgian regions (part of Shirvan, North Armenia) together with their non-Georgian and non-Orthodox Christian Population: Muslims, Jews and Gregorians/Monophyte Armenians. This raised the problem of the status of the followers of other religions, especially of Muslims, who for the first time came under Georgian rule. The aim of the article is a) to study the question of peaceful coexistence between Christian Georgia and the Islamic World; b) to discuss and explore the policy of tolerance of other religions pursued by Georgian King David IV the Builder and his successors in their Muslim subjects. It is suggested that the status of the Muslim population in the Christian Kingdom of Georgia resembled that of the dhimmis (or members of the “protected” communities) in the Islamic states, although the Muslims living in the Kingdom of Georgia enjoyed more rights than the dhimmis in Islamic countries, legally and socially they were not equal with Christians. The methodological foundation of the research is the method of historism, scholarly objectivity and systematicity which will enable us to explore deeply the issues of the research. Statistical, historical-comparative and chronological methods will be the basis of the analysis of the historical data and adequate conclusions will be reached. These methodologies made it possible for us to discuss the politics of religious tolerance from the analytic point of view on the bases of that data and sources belonging to various types (narrative, epigraphic, documental) and various languages (Georgian, Armenian, Arabic, Persian and Turkish). The 12th-13th century Georgian literature and historical sources, expressing negative feelings towards Islam, keep silent about policy of Georgian kings towards their subjected Muslim population. But the works of Arab and Persian authors, dating from the same period, contain information concerning this fact. One part of these sources will be studied from the standpoint of the history of Georgia for the first time.