Thirty Years' Truce Explained

The Thirty Years' Truce or Truce of Khlat was a truce agreed to by Queen Tamar of Georgia and Al-Adil I, an Ayyubid Sultan of Egypt in October, 1210.

By 1208, the Kingdom of Georgia challenged Ayyubid rule in eastern Anatolia and besieged Khlat. In response Ayyubid Sultan al-Adil I assembled and personally led large Muslim army that included the emirs of Homs, Hama, and Baalbek as well as contingents from other Ayyubid principalities to support al-Awhad. During the siege, Georgian general Ivane Mkhargrdzeli accidentally fell into the hands of the al-Awhad on the outskirts of Khlat and was released only after the Georgians agreed to a thirty-year truce on following terms:^[1]

• Georgia had to pay ransom of 100,000 dinars;
• Georgia had to cede 27 castles;
• Georgia had to liberate 5000 muslim prisoners;
• Ivane had to promise the hand of his daughter Tamta to his captor.^[2]

The truce ended the Georgian menace to Ayyubid Armenia.^[3] Georgia refrained from hostilities against enemy with whom Tamar the Great had signed a treaty, and the border or Christian-Muslim world was established. As the result Georgia abandoned its ambitions west of the river Araxes.

Notes and References

1. Book: Rayfield, Donald. Edge of Empires: A History of Georgia. Reaktion Books. 2012. 978-1780230306. London. 114–115. Donald Rayfield.
2. V. Minorsky, Studies in Caucasian history, Taylors Foreign Press, 1953. pg 90-93
3. Humphreys, 1977 p. 131.