Tamar of Georgia consolidates her reign

1190

The young queen, who had been crowned co-ruler some years before, now ruled Georgia in her own name. Her court at Tbilisi patronized the poet Shota Rustaveli, whose epic The Knight in the Panther's Skin is the foundational text of Georgian literature. Tamar's reign inaugurated an era of territorial expansion and cultural brilliance that Georgians remember as the golden age of their kingdom.