Akhsitan I's reign saw raids of Rus' which sailed from Volga and threatening shores of river Kura. They crossed the Caspian Sea on 73 ships and, having dropped anchor near island Ruinas (Sari), went up the Kura to Lemberana. At the same time, the Kipchaks occupied Derbent and, having proceeded to the south, occupied the citadel Shabran. During the period Sharvan had established close matrimonial ties with the Christian Kingdom of Georgia, and the Georgian kings had several times supported Sharvan in its struggle against al-Bab (Derbent). Akhsitan called his ally George III of Georgia, which in 1173 or 1174 accompanied the Georgian army on an expedition to Shirvan up to the Caspian shores, where George with the future Byzantine emperor Andronicus recaptured the fortress of Shabaran from the invaders from Dernemt for his cousin, the Shirvanshah Akhsitan I and strengthened the Georgian dominance in the area.
Yevgeni Pakhomov and Vladimir Minorsky thought the invasion was initiated by the ruler of Darbent, Bek-Bars b. Muzaffar. According to Minorsky, "the initiative of Bek-Bars was independent of Kiev, and he must have used bands of free-lances (Brodnici) who were roaming in the south, as a prototype of the future Cossacks". Georgian sources speak of the Khazars, but do not mention Rus' in connection with this event. Peter Golden argued that the Rus' mentioned by Khaqani were Volga pirates who came in 73 ships.
