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About the identity of Sadun al-Kurji
Authors: Besik V. Khurtsilava
Number of views: 46
The article examines one of the most dramatic episodes in the history of the Georgian
Monastery of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem — the struggle of Georgians to liberate
the monastery, which was in Muslim «captivity», in the early 14th century. The Monastery
of the Holy Cross was taken away from the Georgians and turned into a mosque
in 1272/73. The Georgian kings had spared no effort to liberate it for 40 years, and
finally, at the turn of 1310–1311 they succeeded in this task. Decisive in this case were
the intensive diplomatic relations of the Georgian side with the Mamluk sultans of Egypt,
which, according to written sources, were carried out in the period 1305–1310. This
process involved not only the Georgian kings (David VIII, Vakhtang III, Constantine
I), but also the local abbots of the Monastery of the Holy Cross. One of them was
Sadun al-Kurji, whose identity has not yet been submitted to identification. As a result
of an analysis of a wide range of issues, it turned out that this person is none other
than Simeon Elmelikis-dze. He is also the ancestor of the Sikseks of Jerusalem. Based
on the correction of one postscript from the Largvisi Gospel, as well as the text of the
decree of Sultan An-Nasir Muhammad of January 29, 1311, the author of the article came
to the conclusion that the secular name of this person was not «Sadun», but «Dadun».
This man, at the end of the 13 th century, was sent by the king of Georgia to Jerusalem
as an ambassador with a special assignment — to facilitate in the liberation of the Georgian
Monastery of the Holy Cross from Muslim «captivity». Due to the circumstances,
he and his family had to stay forever in Jerusalem. At the end of the first decade of the
14th century, he himself became the abbot of the Monastery of the Holy Cross and was
an eyewitness and an active participant in the monastery’s eventual return to its original
owners. The article also discusses the origins of Fr. Simeon Elmelikis-dze, the abbot
of the Monastery of the Holy Cross, etc.