David IV of Georgia
Dawit IV the Builder, David IV or David the Builder ( Davit the Builder native; Georgian დავით IV აღმაშენებელი; * 1073 in Kutaisi, Georgia, † January 24, 1125 ) was King of Georgia. He broke the independence of the nobility, built on a permanent army and liberated Georgia 1110-1122 by the Seljuk Turks. He moved the capital from Kutaisi to Tbilisi and extended the borders of Georgia far to Transcaucasia into it. He is considered the greatest statesman of the medieval Caucasus.
Life
David IV came from the Bagratides Dynasty. Early age of 16, he climbed in 1089 as David IV the Georgian throne. 1103 David was awarded both the secular ( Mtsignobartukhutsesi ) and the ecclesiastical rule ( Bishop of Tschkondidi ) over Georgia. With the help of the Kipchak tribe, he built a new type of army. Composed of 40,000 families tribe moved from the North Caucasus to Georgia over. Each family was required to make the king a soldier with horse and arms, so that a man was 40,000 strong army. David moved the Kipchak clan in different areas, especially at the external borders Georgia to.
1110 freed David eastern Georgia to Samschwilde, 1116 southern Georgia to Tao Klarjeti of the Seljuk Turks. In 1118 he expelled the Turks from the shores of Arak. 1120 David attacked the Turks in Western Georgia on. Only a few escaped. David crossed the border in the east located Shirvan (today Azerbaijan) and conquered the city of Kabala. 1120 to 1121 he attacked the Turkish troops on the eastern and southwestern slopes of Transcaucasia, prepared the attack on Tbilisi.
On August 12, 1121, there was the decisive battle of Didgori. The numerically far superior Seljuk army had camped in the vicinity of the city. King David had 40,000 Georgian soldiers, 20,000 Kipchaks 500 Ossetians 200 European mercenaries and crusaders. Two days later the Georgians won a crushing victory. In 1122 they occupied after heavy fighting Tbilisi. The king moved his residence from Kutaisi to Tbilisi then.
1123 David drove the Turkish emirs of Ani. The following year he conquered the whole territory of Shirvan and occupied a number of forts in Armenia.
Georgia was so completely freed from the Seljuk and united under one monarch. David had also occupied the northern Armenia, the territory of modern Azerbaijan and the North Caucasus. On copper coins of that time he son of David Giorgi, Sword of the Messiah was a king of kings, worshiped.
At the request of David the Gelati Monastery in Kutaisi was built in 1106. Your connected was an academy of sciences, where the most respected theologians, philosophers and legal scholars of Georgia taught. After David's plan should there arise a second Athens.
David died 1125th He was buried in the cathedral of Gelati. Was succeeded by his son Demeter. David was canonized by the Georgian Orthodox Church of the Apostles.
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has vowed one day before he was sworn in, on 24 January 2004, at the grave of David, that he wants to work to make Georgia back to a united and strong country.