From the History of the Foreign Policy of Georgian Kings in the 1st Half of the 14th Century

Abstract

The present paper focuses on the diplomatic relations between Georgia and the Sultan of Egypt. The Georgian envoys were sent to Egypt several times – in 1305/6, 1310/11, 1316/7, 1320. Their goal was restitution of the Monastery of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem confiscated in 1270s by Baybars I, the Sultan of Mamluk Egypt. Considering the issue the author ofthe paper comes to the following conclusions: In all cases the envoys were sent by the king of the West Georgia, Constantine,son to David, who achieved the goal in negotiations with the Mamluk Sultan; Giorgi the Brilliant began his activities on the Holy Land after establishing peaceful relations between Ilkhans and Mamluk Sultan under the treaty concluded in 1323. The latter was carried out with the active parng Giorgi V. Giorgi the Brilliant got independence by the flexible diplomatic policy, alliance with Ilkhans in the confrontation between the Golden Horde and Ilkhans and determining his right function in that situation; “King of kings” David, who is mentioned is a renovator of the Monastery of the Holy Cross in the bead-roll of the Monastery, is not David VIII, as it was supposed in the scholarly literature, but David IX, son of Giorgi the Brilliant.