In the 11^th century, Georgia possessed sufficient forces to repel the Seljuk hordes, but this called for the rallying of the Georgians. The country needed a clever and vigorous leader to organize struggle against the enemy. Decisive measures were imperative to resuscitate the country. Unable to deal effectively with the constant onslaught of the Turks, the throne was passed to Giorgi II's 16-year-old son David, known as David the Builder (1089-1125), possibly the greatest monarch in the Georgian history. Personally leading his loyal forces, he attacked the Seljuks and, routing them, allowed the peasants who had fled to the mountains to return to their land. He gradually expelled the Turks from Kartli. Fortunately, David's war against the Turks corresponded with the arrival of the Crusaders in Asia Minor and Syria, considerably weakening the Turks and distracting their attention from the Caucasus. After winning several victories in 1099, he stopped paying tributes. However, the final liberation of all Georgian lands required an efficient army and further centralized power.

By the early 12^th century, under David the Builder’s reign, regular troops grew to 40,000 strong. In 1104 he drove the Turks from Kartli and Kakheti. In 1105, he defeated a large Turkish army in the Ertsukhi battle. During 1110-1118, he liberated the towns of Samshvilde, Rustavi, Gishi, Kubala, and Lore. Tbilisi, the capital, was still occupied by the invaders and part of the Georgian army still depended upon big feudal lords, who were not always loyal to the King. At the same time, incessant wars kept the most productive part of the population away from home and farming. To solve this problem David IV added to his army 40,000 Kipchak mercenaries from the north Caucasian steppes, whom he settled in Georgia with their families. Feeling uneasy at the prospect of losing the Caucasus, the Seljuk Sultan Mahmud sent to Georgia, at the head of the Turkish coalition forces, one of his best generals: Radjin Al-Din Ilguzi, famous for his battles against the Crusaders. On August 12, 1121, near Didgori, King David IV won a decisive victory over the enemy's numerous army. After this victory, he took Tbilisi in 1122 and moved the capital from Kutaisi to Tbilisi. In 1123, King David IV liberated the city of Dmanisi , the last stronghold of the invaders in Georgia. In 1124, David the Builder, at the request of the citizens of the Armenian city of Ani, also liberated Ani, expanding the southern borders of the Georgian Kingdom up to the Araks basin. King David IV died on January 24, 1125. The modern flag of Georgia began as the standard of King David.

The Georgian Kingdom reached its zenith in the 12th to early 13th centuries. This period has been widely termed as Georgia's Golden Age or Georgian Renaissance during the reign of David the Builder and Queen Tamar. This early Georgian renaissance, which preceded its European analogue, was characterized by the flourishing of romantic- chivalric tradition, breakthroughs in philosophy, and an array of political innovations in society and state organization, including religious and ethnic tolerance. The Golden age of Georgia left a legacy of great cathedrals, romantic poetry and literature, and the epic poem “The Knight in the Panther’s Skin”.

King David the Builder gave close attention to the education of his people. At the time of David the Builder there were quite a few schools and academies in Georgia, among which Gelati occupies a special place. King David's historian calls Gelati Academy "a second Jerusalem of all the East for learning of all that is of value, for the teaching of knowledge - a second Athens, far exceeding the first in divine law, a canon for all ecclesiastical splendor" Life of David . King of Kings, translated by Katharine Vivian, manuscript, p.12).

Gelati Academy was the first one to be established in the period of developed feudalism, it answered the actual needs of the day, anticipating the ideological movement that paved the way for the Georgian Renaissance. Besides Gelati there also were other cultural-enlightenment and scholarly centers in Georgia at that time. There was a higher school at Iqalto - the Iqalto Academy. Its existence is attested by the ruins preserved in the yard of the monastery, most probably forming a single building. Windows are discernible, as well as the base of a pulpit, etc. The founder and first rector of the academy was Arsen Iqaltoeli who came to Iqalto from Gelati in the 1120s. Among other centers of higher education, mention is also made of an academy at Gremi.

Intensive literary, philosophical and translation work was carried on at Georgian centers of culture and education outside Georgia (the Iviron monastery on Mt. Athos, the monastery on the Black Mountain in Syria, Petritsoni monastery in Bulgaria, etc.). In this period, a number of original works were written and important monuments of world culture were translated into Georgian, facilitating the advance of national scholarship and literature.