Between 1386 and 1403 Timur launched a series of campaigns against Georgia. The official history of Timur's reign, "Zafarnama", represents this campaign as a jihad. Samtskhe was in the frontline of these attacks. Timur set out from Kars and assailed Akhaltsikhe. From there, he marched against Tbilisi which the Georgian king Bagrat V had fortified. The city fell on November 21, 1386, and King Bagrat V was captured and converted to Islam at sword point. Bagrat was given some 12,000 troops to reestablish himself in Georgia whose government was run by Bagrat's son and co-ruler George VII during his father's absence at Timur's court. The old king, however, entered in secret negotiations with George who ambushed Bagrat's Islamic escort, and freed his father.