SOPHIE IBBOTSON is an entrepreneur and international
business consultant. She is the founder of Maximum Exposure
UK and Panorama: The Journal of Intelligent Travel. Sophie is
also the author of five Bradt Travel Guides, including Kashmir,
Uzbekistan and Sudan.below Paintings of Tamar
can be found in the Church of
the Dormition in Vardzia
leFt A 12th-century painting
of Shota Rustaveli presenting
his poem to King Tamar
below RiGht Tamar’s beauty
was eulogised in folk songs,
myths and literatureModern scholars have been as yet unable to establish
the whereabouts of her grave.
Throughout her life, Tamar was a woman of
fervent faith and she maintained strong links with the
Georgian Orthodox church for strategic, personal and
spiritual reasons. After her death, the church took the
unusual step of canonising her as Saint King Tamar.
This was remarkable for two reasons. With the notable
exceptions of Saint Nino and Saint Queen Nana of
Iberia, both of whom lived some 900 years before
Tamar, there were almost no female saints in the
Georgian canon. Secondly, like her secular subjects, the
Patriarch and other senior church figures continued to
refer to Tamar as King.
Born a woman, Tamar had risen through
circumstance to be anointed king. She defied every
contemporary expectation for her sex and become
the greatest of Georgian rulers. Her triumphs are
remembered by the Georgian Orthodox Church on her
saint’s day, 14 May, but she and her accomplishments
deserve to be recognised and celebrated far more
widely. Whether as King or Queen, saint or mortal
figure, Tamar is an inspiration for us all. agAfter her death, the Georgian
Orthodox Church took the unusual
step of canonising her as Saint
King TamarKing Tamar’s Monogram
King Tamar’s monogram appears on the obverse of Georgia’s
coins, minted in the 12th century. The monogram is
composed of two letters of the old Georgian script, T and R.heritage