Asian Geographic 3 - 2016 SG

Shirvan (now in Azerbaijan) and Ani (Armenia) fell

first, swiftly followed by Bjni and Dvin. Far from the

weak and easily-controlled queen they had expected,

Tamar was ruffling serious feathers across the Caucasus

and into Persia. Her foes in Kars (Turkey) and Ardabil

(Iran) fought hard, but it must have seemed to them

that this crusading Christian queen had God on her

side. She was able to found a new empire at Trebizond

(Turkey) in 1204, stretching out along the Black

Sea coast and exploited the weakening Byzantine

Tamar was far from the weak

and easily-controlled queen

everyone had expected,

ruffling serious feathers

across the Caucasus