The Mongols made their first appearance in the Georgian possessions when this latter kingdom was still in its zenith, dominating most of the Caucasus. First contact occurred early in the fall of 1220, when approximately 20,000 Mongols led by Subutai and Jebe pursued the ousted Shah Muhammad II of the Khwarazmian dynasty to the Caspian Sea. With the consent of Genghis Khan, the two Mongol generals proceeded west on a reconnaissance mission.Alexander Basilevsky, Early Ukraine: A Military and Social History to the Mid-19th Century, (McFarland & Co., 2016), 163. The Mongols invaded from Nakhichevan, driving Atabeg Uzbek (leader of the Georgian vassal kingdom of Shirvan, modern-day Azerbaijan) from Ganja in Azerbaijan to Tabriz. King Georgi IV "Lasha" of Georgia hastily assembled an army of about 10,000 men including many Georgian crusaders commanded by him and his atabeg (tutor) Ivane Mkhargrdzeli, and managed to drive the invaders back but were consequently defeated in Armenia by successive Mongol counter-attacks. The Mongols then returned to Arran as they had not intended this as a war of conquest.
