The Georgian population, having been at war for the better part of twenty years, needs to become productive again.

The people continue to challenge the authority of the king, David IV, and the city of Tbilisi remains in Seljuq hands.

David IV has radically reformed his military, having resettled a Kipchak tribe of fourteen thousand families from the Northern Caucasus in Georgia in 1118–1120 and obliging every Georgian and Kipchak family to provide one soldier with a horse and weapons.

This army, fifty-six thousand strong, is entirely dependent on the King.

Kipchaks have been settled in different regions of Georgia, some in Inner Kartli province, others given lands along the border.

They are quickly assimilated into Georgian society.

David IV had moved his army to western Georgia In 1120, and suddenly attacked a Seljuq force, of whom only an small portion escaped.

The king had then entered neighboring Shirvan and taken the town of Qabala.

In the winter of 1120–1121, the Georgian troops successfully attack the Seljuq settlements on the eastern and southwestern approaches to the Transcaucasus.