Georgia (central Asia)

Autonomous Christian kingdom of the Caucasus from 788, when the Khazars helped Leon II to end Byzantine suzerainty. Its period of glory came under King Davit' Aghmashenebeli (1089-1125), when the use of Cuman mercenaries made the kingdom the most powerful in the region. The Mongol invasion of the Caucasus in the 1220s ended Georgian independence.