ARAM, 18-19 (2006-2007) 527-539.T. MGALOBLISHVILI doi: 10.2143/ARAM.19.0.2020744 527

AN UNKNOWN GEORGIAN MONASTERY IN THE HOLY LAND

Dr. TAMILA MGALOBLISHVILI (The Institute of Manuscripts, Georgian Academy of Sciences)

In 1996 the Antiquities Authority was carrying out archaeological ex- cavations in the village of Umm Leisun, near . The excavations were headed by John Zeligman, Jerusalem Regional Archaeologist. During the excavations the Israeli archaeologists unearthed a small monas- tery dating back to the early Byzantine period. There was also a small, beauti- ful chapel with a mosaic floor and a few rooms. Judging by the location of the monastery the archaeologists thought that they had discovered the Monastery of Eustatheus and published the results of the excavations. Later on, in September 2002, due to the construction work going on the ter- ritory of the monastery John Zeligman was obliged to continue the excava- tions. This time under the mosaic floor of the monastery chapel a crypt was revealed where on one of the burials there was a gravestone which bore an in- scription in the language unknown to the archaeologist. On September 18, 2002, at the invitation of Jon Seligman the inscription was seen by Giorgi Gagoshidze (art historian; epigraphist), David Tskhadadze (art historian, photographer), Lasha Zhvania (former consul of to Is- rael), Paata Gigauri (sculptor) and by me. To our great delight the newly-discovered inscription proved to be in an- cient Georgian. It reads: “This is the grave of Iohane Bishop of Purtavi, Georgian” According to palaeographic analysis the inscription should be dated to the end of the 5th or the first half of the 6th centuries.1 Together with the Georgian inscriptions discovered by Virgilio Corbo in the nearby site of Bir el Qutt2 this inscription is one of the oldest Georgian inscriptions in the Holy Land. 1 The paleographic analysis by G.Gagoshidze. 2 V. Corbo and M. Tarchnisvhili, Iscrizioni georgiane del monastero di S. Teodoro a Bir el Qutt (Bettlemme), La Terra Santa, 28, Jerusalem, 1950, 181-186; V. Corbo, Gli Scavi di Kh. Siyar el-Ghanam (Campo dei Pastori) ei monastery dei dintorni, Pabblicazioni dello Studium Biblicum Franciscanum, 11 Gerusalemme, 1955, 279-284; M. Tarkhnishvili, The Newly Discov- ered Georgian Monastery in Bethlehem Bedi Kartlisa, 16, 1954, 12-17 (in Georgian); Sh. Nut- subidze, Georgian Inscriptions in Jerusalem, the “Komunisti” newspaper, 4, I, No. 3 (11309), , 1959 (in Georgian); Sh. Nutsubidze, Critical Essays, Thinking and Creation, Tbilisi, 1966, 97-106, 107-124, 454-474 (in Georgian); K. Kekelidze, An Ancient Georgian Monastery near Jeru- salem and its Mosaic Inscription, Studies, VI, Tbilisi, 1960, 72-80 (in Georgian); K. Kekelidze, A History of Old Georgian Literature, I. Tbilisi, 1980, 39, 89 (in Georgian); S. Qaukhchishvili, The Life of Georgia, vol. II, Tbilisi 1959, 058-062 (in Georgian); G. Tsereteli, Ancient Georgian In- scriptions in , Tbilisi, 1960 (in Georgian); A. Gamqrelidze, Discovery of Ancient Geor-

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GEORGIAN MONASTIC SETTLEMENT IN THE HOLY LAND

I shall briefly review the sparse information dealing with the history of the Georgian settlement in the Holy Land before Arab rule, in order to outline the sig- nificance of this inscription not only for the history of this settlement, but also for the history of monastic life in the Holy Land and of in general. According to Georgian tradition the relations between Georgia and the Holy Land extend over 2600 years. The first Jews came to Georgia in the time of Nebuchadnezzar the Great, after the destruction of Jerusalem3. According to the Georgian written sources, in later centuries, from the first century B.C. to the first century A.D., several other waves of Jews arrived and settled in Georgia4. How- ever, the presence of Jews is currently documented by other direct evidence only from the first centuries A.D.5 But these relations became especially close from the 4th century, when Christi- anity was declared the state religion in Georgia. At that time the began learning Christian culture and translating and distributing the literature the new church required. With this in view, Georgian spiritual and secular figures, readily supported by the monarchy, strove to establish literary centres and seats of Geor- gian culture not only inside the country but also beyond its borders. A special dream of the population of the newly baptized country was to make a pilgrimage to Palestine, to see the holy places with their own eyes and to offer their prayers on the spot. The results were not long in coming, as it seems the first Georgians appeared in Palestine in the latter half of the 4th century,6 their numbers increasing in the following 5th-6th centuries.7

gian Inscriptions in Palestine, the “Literaturuli Gazeti” newspaper, 15, VI, 1956, No. 24 (986) (in Georgian); B. Giorgadze, On the 4th-5th century Monument of Georgian Culture Discovered in Palestine, The “Sabchota Khelovneba” journal, 1959, No 12, 33-38 (in Georgian), and others. 3 S. Qaukhchishvili, The Life of Georgia, vol. I, Tbilisi, 1955, 72-130 (in Georgian). 4 S. Qaukhchishvili, The Life of Georgia, vol. I, 17, 36, 44, 88-89, 95, 98, 115-116. 5 D. Hvolson, Collection of Jewish inscriptions from Mtscheta and other places, St. Peters- burg, 1884 (in Russian); G. Tsereteli, The newly discovered inscription from Mtcheta, Vesnik Instituta Yazika Iatorii i Materialnoy Kulturi, Tbilisi, 1940, 5-6 (in Russian); N. Babalikashvili, Jewish inscriptions in Georgia, Tbilisi, 1971, 4 (in Georgian). 6 According to the opinion of some scholars Evagre Pontoeli (Evagrius Ponticus) is the first Georgian monk in Palestine. See R. Janin, Georgians in Jerusalem, Istanbul, 1921, 11 (in Geor- gian); M. Tarchnishvili, A Remnant of Georgian Art in , Bedi Kartlisa, 11, 1952, 25 (in Geor- gian); M. Tarkhnishvili, Il monachismo georgiano nelle sue origine e nei suoi primi sviluppi, Il monachismo orientale, Roma,1958, 307-319; K. Kekelidze, A forth-century Georgian Thinker and Public Figure Abroad, Studies, VI, Tbilisi, 1960, 5-17 (in Georgian); J. Assfalg and P. Kruger, Kleines Worterbuch des Christlichen Orients, wiesbaden,1975,139; P.N. Egender, OSB, Les Debus du Monachisme en Palestine, Ancient Christianity in the Caucasus, Iberica Causica vol. I, London, 1998, 132; see also S. Qaukhchishvili, Georgica, Byzantine Writers, Information about Georgia, vol. VII, Tbilisi, 1967, 107-117 (in Georgian); The activities of Georgians in the Holy Land at the end of the IV and the beginning of the V century must also have been referred to in the graffiti made on the plastering of the church which stood on the site of the new Catholic church of Annunciation in Nazareth and had been ruined by the 1st half of the 5th century; see Z. Alexidze, The Louvre, Mt. Sinai, Nazareth, Mneme, Tbilisi, 2000, 10-25. 7 L. Menabde, The Seats of Old Georgian Literature, vol. II, Tbilisi, 1980, 20-25 (in Georgian);

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At first, Georgians lived in well-known places, setting up communities and building hostels for newly arrived fellow countrymen. These first Georgian pilgrims were members of the royal family and representatives of nobility. They worshipped in their mother tongue not only in Iberia but also in Pales- tine, in the monastery of Mar Saba, as can be seen from the text of the will of St. Saba (d. 532).8 It is interesting to note that from the 5th to the 10th centuries the divine serv- ice in eastern Georgia (Iberia) followed the tradition and practice of Jerusa- lem.9 It is also well known that the first books used for the liturgy in the Geor- gian Church reflected the Jerusalem practice, the liturgical rites of the church of the Holy Sepulchre.10 During the 5th-6th centuries the geographical extent of the activities of Geor- gians in Palestine is quite impressive. Georgians are encountered not only in Jerusalem and its surroundings, but also in the Judean desert, at most of the oldest monasteries and laurae, as well as the numerous monasteries built and run by Georgians themselves. The number of pilgrims and travellers from Georgia must have been so large that according to Peter the Iberian’s Georgian “Life” he, Peter the Ibe- rian, built not only churches and monasteries but was also obliged to build guest-houses in the Holy City. This is what the Georgian version of “The Life” states: “Peter the Iberian and Ioane the Laz… “built a house for the guests within the city (i.e. Jerusalem) where the visiting Greek and Georgian brethren could take shelter. So they could wash their feet, have their meals and sleep at night and they (Peter the Iberian and Ioane the Laz) spent some of the treasures they had been given by God. Then they went to the desert, gathered their brethren and built a monastery for themselves”. 11 According to the mentioned Georgian version of “The Life” Peter, Ioane and their disciples “went to Egypt and Scetis to visit the monasteries”. They offered prayers in all of them, then selected a site and built a monastery and a church and “again returned to Jerusalem and built another guest-house in the city”.12

I. Lolashvili, The Life of Peter the Iberian, Tbilisi, 1988, 79-203 (in Georgian); I. Abuladze Monu- ments of Ancient Georgian Hagiographic Literature, vol. II, Tbilisi, 1967, 213-263 (in Georgian). 8 K. Kekelidze, A hystory of Literature, I, 38-39; L. Menabde, Seats, 26. 9 See K. Kekelidze, A Jerusalem Lectionary, Tiflis, 1912 (in Russian); M. van Esbroeck, Les plus anciens homeliaires géorgiens, Louvain-La-Neuve, 1975; E. Metreveli, Ts. Chankievi, L. Khevsuriani, An Ancient Tropologion, Tbilisi, 1980; T. Mgaloblishvili, Klarjeti Polycepha- lon, Tbilisi, 1991 (in Georgian) 10 K.Kekelidze, The Lectionary; E. Metreveli, Ts. Chankievi, L. Khevsuriani, An Ancient Tropologion; T. Mgaloblishvili, Klarjeti Polycephalon, 165-190. 11 I. Abuladze, Monuments, II, 229. 12 I. Abuladze, Monuments, II, 235.

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In Peter the Iberian’s Syriac “Life”, which has not been preserved in its original form and has come down to this day only in its edited version, only the construction of the monasteries is mentioned. Nothing is said about the building of the guest- houses.13 In spite of the fact that two versions of “The Life” of Peter the Iberian has been preserved (Georgian and Syrian), the information is too meagre to con- nect data not only about the Georgians living and working in the Holy Land, but also with the activities of Peter the Iberian himself. In fact, so far it has been difficult to find and identify the monasteries Peter the Iberian built. Also very sparse is the general information preserved in the Georgian writ- ten sources and in those in other languages about the building activities of Georgians. Of course, this has some objective reasons. Much was lost during the Persian invasion (6th c.) and during the Arab rule in Palestine (from the 7th to 11th centuries), so the tracing or identifying of the Georgian Christian monu- ments of the pre-Arab period creates complex problems for contemporary scholars. In this connection special attention should be given to information concern- ing the wall painting in the Holy Cross Monastery, provided by Timothe Gabashvili, a Georgian scholar and traveller (18th c.) in the text of his “Mi- moslva” (Pilgrimage).14 In 1758, while traveling in the Holy Land, Timothe Gabashvili saw a group portrait in the Holy Cross Monastery of the Georgian Holy Fathers supplied with legends.15 Nicholas Chubinashvili (20th c.) also saw it.16 It should be noted that a number of historical persons of this group portrait can be identi- fied, but some of the Fathers depicted in it are completely unknown. As E. Metreveli suggests, since the names of these persons are not attested in Georgian liturgical and hagiographic monuments, their popularity may never have reached beyond the Georgian settlement in Palestine.17 The absence of their names in the Collection of Agapes of the Jerusalem Holy Cross Monas- tery evidently means that they lived and worked at the period when it was not yet the tradition to record the activities of Georgian clergymen, i.e. before the 11th century.18 In the Georgian community of Jerusalem this tradition was introduced at a comparatively later period, in the 11th century, after the time Prochore Shav-

13 I. Lolashvili, The Life of Peter the Iberian, 79-203. 14 E. Metreveli, Timothe Gabashvili, Travels, Tbilisi, 1956,85-86( in Georgian); E. Metreveli, Materials on the history of the Georgian Colony in Jerusalem, Tbilisi, 1962, 60 (in Georgian). 15 E.Metreveli, Timothe Gabashvili, Travels, 82-86; E. Metreveli, Materials, 59-60. 16 N. Chubinov, A Description of the Holy Cross Monastery near Jerusalem, Information, vol. I, 3rd issue, 45-469, 1894 (in Russian). 17 E. Metreveli, Materials, 60-61; see also Ioane Batonishvili, Kalmasoba, II, Tbilisi, 1948, 184 (in Georgian). 18 E. Metreveli, Materials, 60-61.

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sheli built the Holy Cross Monastery; the first to be mentioned in the Collec- tion of Agapes of the Holy Cross monastery was Prochore Shavsheli, for his great contribution to the construction of the monastery.19 It cannot be excluded that other materials reflecting the history of the Jerusalem Georgian commu- nity may have also been destroyed during Arab rule. The Holy Fathers and martyrs in the portrait which Timothe Gabashvili saw in the Holy Cross Monastery may have lived and worked in the Holy Land in the 5th to 10th centuries. The names he notes were as follows: “The martyr priest Moses the Georgian Mari, the martyr priest The bishop Kind the Georgian The bishop Nunus the Georgian”.20 Of these names none can be found in other Georgian sources. Only one of these names (Kind) is attested in an Armenian source: in the description of the monasteries of Palestine in the 7th century listing the Armenian monasteries, the author mentions the monastery of the Beatific Kind situated at the ap- proaches to the Jehoshaphat Valley. The publisher of the source G. Alishan, cannot say anything about the Beatific Kind except suggesting that he may have been an ecclesiastic figure of the latter half of the 4th century, a pupil of St. Nerses.21 It is very difficult to connect these two ‘Kinds’, but the fact that a 7th century Armenian source mentions the Beatific Kind and a monastery which bore his name is very interesting in itself. It is clear that this list of the Georgian holy fathers and the martyrs acting in the Holy Land is not complete. This surmise is corroborated by the absence of the name of Samuel, the Georgian bishop. But his name is mentioned in the Greek inscription on the tombstone, which was found by chance during some construction works outside the wall of the Holy City. According to the inscrip- tion the Iberian (i.e. Georgian) monastery of the Iberian bishop Samuel was situated near David’s Tower, at the Jaffa Gate.22 The inscription is dated by the 5th-7th century and is now at the Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem.23 In my opinion, the inscription needs further study in order to make this dating more exact. It is clear that from the 5th century the presence of Georgians in the Holy Land was quite significant. This is attested to not only by the versions both (Syriac and Georgian) of Peter the Iberian’s “Life”, but also by the now lost

19 E. Metreveli, 61; see: A Manuscript of the Collection of the Holy Cross Monastery, Jer. 24-25; R. Blake, Catalogue de manuscripts géorgienne de la biblióthèque patriarchal greque de Jérusalem, Révue de l' Orient Chrétien, 24,1924. 20 E. Metreveli, Timothe Gabashvili, Travels, 85-86; E. Metreveli, Materials, 60. 21 Archive de L'Orient Latin, II, Paris, 1884, 394-399. 22 J.H.Iliffe, Cemeteries and a Monastery at the Y.M.C.A., Jerusalem, QDAP 4 1935, 78-80; Y. Israeli, D. Mevorah, Cradle of Christianity, Jerusalem, 2000, 173. 23 Y.Israeli, D.Mevarah, Cradle of Chrisianity, 173, 224.

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wall painting of the Holy Cross Monastery.24 The same is confirmed by some surviving Byzantine sources concerning St. Gerasimus and his monastery. Ac- cording to these sources both before and after the Crusades, Georgian (Iberian) monks were among the monks living and working in the Judean Desert and Jordan Valley. Some were even stylites who were distinguished by their faith and devotion to God, such that the devout benefited greatly spiritually by a mere contact with them, even by simply approaching them. The same sources preserved information on Georgian monks who lived in Calamon. Special em- phasis is laid on their activities for saving the Calamon monastery and the holy places in the Jordan valley connected with the name of St. Gerasimus, which they were capable of due to their close contacts with the Mamluks and caliphs of Baghdad.25 According to these sources the Georgian inscriptions on the walls of the Calamon Monastery existed even before the Crusades.26 The activities of Georgians in the deserts of Palestine have always aroused great interest among the scholars working in Georgian studies or early Christi- anity. Special mention should be made of the Judean Desert, where from the 4th century, since the emergence of monastic life Christians of all nationalities, and Georgians among them, wished ardently and considered it a great honour to live and work in the monasteries and laurae situated there. From the 5th cen- tury the Judean Desert was the most important centre of the monastic life in the Christian world. Since the written sources dealing with this period are few special impor- tance is attached to archaeological remains. The beginning of archaeological excavations in the Judean Desert in 1918 is associated with the name of Derwas J. Chitty, a British historian.27 Subsequently Virgilio Corbo and Belar- mino Bagatti, well-known Franciscan scholars worked on the monastic sites in the vicinity of Bethlehem and in the Judean desert.28 From 1967 Israeli archae- ologists started intensive work and achieved impressive results.29 Though the work has been carried on a large scale, unfortunately, no particular archaeo- logical research of Georgian sites has ever been attempted. In this connection the material revealed by Jon Seligman at the edge of the Judean Desert near Jerusalem is quite unique. This discovery of a previously unknown Georgian monastery is as significant as Corbo’s uncovering of Peter the Iberian’s mon-

24 E. Metreveli, Timothe Gabashvili, Travels, 82-83. 25 J. Wilkinson, J. Hill, W.F. Ryan, Jerusalem Pilgrimage, 1099-1185, London, 1988, 330- 331; St. Gerasimus Jordanian and His Holy Monastery, Larnaca, , 2001( in Greek). 26 St. Gerasmus Jordanian, 45. 27 D.J. Chitty, A.H.M. Jones, The Church of St. Euthymius at Khan el- Ahmar, near Jerusa- lem, PEFQS,1928, 175-178, D. J. Chitty, Excavations at the Monastery of St. Euthymius, PEFQS, 1930, 43-7, 150-153; D.J. Chitty, The monastery of Euthymius, PEFQS,1932, 188-203; Y. Hirschfeld, The Judean Desert Monasteries in the Byzantine Period, New York, 1992, 2-6. 28 See: Y. Hirschfeld, The Judean Desert, 6. 29 See: Y. Hirschfeld, The Judean Desert, 6; also see: E. Stern, The New Encyclopedia of Archaeological excavations in the Holy Land, Jerusalem, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1993.

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astery in Bir el Qutt. For us, Georgian scholars, it is a great pleasure to have witnessed this important discovery.

THE UMM LEISUN INSCRIPTION AND OTHER GEORGIAN INSCRIP- TIONS

The Umm Leisun inscription proper, on the basis of the palaeographic analysis should be dated to the end of the 5th to the beginning of the 6th centu- ries. The name “Iohane”, mentioned in the inscription also points to its anti- quity. Proceeding from the study of the Georgian written sources it may be stated that the form of this name “Iohane” is attested to in Georgian texts from the 5th century to the first half of the 7th century (Khanmeti Lectionary, Khanmeti Polycephalon, Khanmeti Gospels and so on). The form “Ioane” appears only in the latter half of the 7th century.30 Thus, the form ‘Iohane’, in the inscrip- tion, fixes its antiquity, dating it to the period between the 5th to and 7th centu- ries. Unfortunately, Georgian and foreign written sources do not attest to the name of Iohane, the Bishop of Purtavi among the Georgians living and work- ing in the Palestine of the early Byzantine period (4th-8th centuries). In the Umm Leisun inscription great interest is attached to the explanatory name “Purtaveli”, added to the name of Iohane, a Georgian bishop. When reading the name the Georgian reader is inevitably tempted to identify it with the name of Ioane Tsurtaveli (bishop of Tsurtavi, 5th cent.),31 though, in my opinion, Tsurtavi and Purtavi are quite different. The etymology of Tsurtavi is still unknown, though in the scholarly literature it is associated with Georgia, while Purtavi, to my mind, must be of Semitic origin and must have existed in the Holy Land. This fact is not exceptional in the history of the Georgian set- tlement of the Holy Land. Among the names of Georgian monasteries in the Holy Land there were not only the names of Georgian origin such as Dev- tubani (compound word)32, but also those of Semitic origin, such as Dertavi/ Deltavi, Dertupha (also compound words).33 Another proof for my proposal is the fact that in the inscription together with the name of Iohane, the Bishop of Purtavi (Purtaveli), his nationality

30 E. Chelidze, Old Georgian Theological Terminology, I, Tbilisi, 1996, 286-291 (in Geor- gian). 31 See: I. Abuladze, Monuments of Old Georgian Hagiographic Literature, I, 1964, 11-29 (in Georgian). 32 T. Tseradze, Devtubani, An Unknown Cultural Seat of Georgians in the Holy Land? Mravaltavi, XX, Tbilisi 2003, 179-182 (in Georgian). 33 See: E. Metreveli, On the Dertavi and Dertupha Manuscripts, Oriental Philology, IV, Tbilisi, 1976, 89 (in Georgian); E. Metreveli, Materials, 174.

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‘Kartveli’ (i. e. Georgian) is also mentioned. I guess the ethnonym ‘Kartveli’ (i.e Iberian-Georgian), used in the Umm Leisun inscription only means a na- tive of the east Georgia state- (Iberia). This is the oldest use of this term in this meaning, it appeared in the Georgian sources from the 7th century.34 I don't think it should seen strange, because even the Georgian chronology- Georgian era of creation-was attested in Georgia only from the 9th century, and in the holy Land- from the 5th-6th centuries.35 In the crypt of the monastery the tomb of Bishop Iohane, was separated from the others, indicating Iohane’s prominent position in the monastery. This, and the fact that the inscription of the main tomb in the crypt was inscribed in Georgian, means we should consider the monastery to be Georgian. The in- scription made on his tombstone referred to his nationality. Why was it neces- sary to mention the Georgian bishop’s nationality in a Georgian inscription in the crypt of the Georgian monastery? It may be connected with the problem of the name Purtaveli (of Purtavi). If it had been a word of Georgian origin and if Iohane had been a bishop of some monastery, called Purtavi, situated in Geor- gia, it would not have been necessary to mention the bishop’s nationality in the Georgian inscription, along with mentioning his origin from Purtavi. If we pre- sume, however, that the name Purtaveli was given to him in the Holy Land and that it was not of Georgian origin, it makes the mentioning of the nationality of the Georgian bishop in the inscription of the Georgian monastery more com- prehensible. In contrast to this inscription, it is quite understandable why the nationality of Georgian bishop Samuel (Georgian, Iberian) is mentioned in the Greek lan- guage inscription made his tombstone found at the Jerusalem YMCA: “Private tomb of Sa(mue)l Bishop of the Georgians (Greek: Iberians) and of the monastery which they bought (or frequented) in the Tower of David”.36 Clearly this inscription tells us about the Iberian monastery founded by Pe- ter the Iberian near the Tower of David in the Holy City. But the burial of the Bishop Samuel with the inscribed tombstone was discovered 700 metres west of the Jaffa Gate in a common Christian cemetery. In this case, it is under- standable, that beyond the walls of the Georgian monastery and generally be- yond the walls of the Holy City, the inscription should be made in the , the lingo franca of Byzantine Christian Palestine. It is also clear that not only the name of the bishop and his nationality but also the location of the monastery and its name (Iberian) should be indicated.

34 D. Muskhelishvili, On the History of the Ethnonym “Kartveli”, as Georgians call them- selves, and the Foreign and Georgian Terminology Denoting Georgians, Tbilisi, 1993, 337-376; D. Muskhelishvili, On the Problem of the Ethnogenesis of the Georgian People, Tbilisi, 2002, 5- 17. 35 Leah Di Segni, The Beit ≤afafa Inscription Reconsidered and the Question of a Local Era in Jerusalem, The Israel Exploration Journal, v. 43, 1993, 158-168. 36 Y. Israeli, D. Mevorah, Cradle of Christianity, 173.

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All the above allows me to surmise that bishop Iohane’s additional name – Purtaveli, in my opinion, is more likely to be of local, Semitic origin. This explanatory name must have been derived from Purtavi that might have been the name of a monastery, though it cannot be excluded that it may have origi- nated from an old toponym associated with this place. There is a temptation to associate the word Purtaveli with the bishop of Porta (arm.) mentioned in the “Book of Epistles”. Portha is attested in the third epistle of Abraham, the Catholicos of Armenia to Kyron, Catholicos of Kartli. It contains a list of Georgian, Armenian, Caucasian Albanian and Siu- nian (from Armenian Siunic) bishops who attended the synod held at Dvin in 506.37 But since the Armenian text of this epistle is based on the Greek transla- tion of the Armenian source – “The Book of Pledge” of the Synod of Dvin – instead of the lost Armenian original, the names of the bishops are distorted. Some of the names are quite impossible to identify, including the identity of the bishopric Portha.38 On the basis of the above, when looking for the etymology of Purtavi / Purtaveli two Semitic words attracted my attention of which one is the Hebrew Pura) meaning – winepress, vessel in which wine was made by treading) פורה Purta) meaning small or, little (a) פורתא the grapes. The other is the Aramaic small part separated from a larger whole). Let us look at each of the meanings: פורה If we consider that the Georgian Purtavi is based on the Hebrew (Pura),39 then the origin of the source of the second part of Purtavi – tavi must also be traced. I think in this case it may be the Aramaic tav meaning sacred, good, blessed.40 If we assume that the Georgian Purtavi is a compound word consisting of the Hebraic and Aramaic words ‘Pura + Tav’, the final ‘a’ of Pura is dropped according to laws of the and we receive Georgian Purtav-i, where the final ‘i’ is the nominative case inflexion. The meaning of this com- pound word, which may have given the name to the monastery, was thus a ‘sa- cred winepress’ or the site where the sacred winepress was located. It is interesting to note that in the opinion of some of the commentators of the Bible the winepress and treading the grapes must have a symbolic meaning – the punishment of the enemies of God.41 I think that it is by the in- fluence of this symbolic meaning that the Hebrew Pura (winepress) can be seen in the stems of the Arabic toponyms, such as – Kh. el Fureihiyye in

37 Z. Alexidze, A Book of Epistles, Tbilisi, 1968, 97. 38 Z. Alexidze, A Book of Epistles, 161-162. 39 A. Even-Shoshan, Explanatory Dictionary, Jerusalem, 1999; F.A. Shapiro, Ivrit-Russian Dictionary, Moscow, 1963. 40 J. Payne Smith D.D., A Compendious Syriac, Dictionary founded upon the thesaurus Syriacus, Oxford, 1973. 41 A.P. Lopukhin, Defining Bible (in Russian), II, Petersburg, 1987, 526-527 (in Russian).

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Samaria, meaning the ruins of the winepress42 and Kh. Fureir – ruins of Fureir.43 It should be noted that remains of the early Roman period were found at the site at Umm Leisun. Could it be assumed that this compound word Hebrew ‘Pura’ and Aramaic ‘tav’ (Pura+tav) meaning the sacred winepress, may have been the name of this location? If it is so, after the Arab invasions this name probably disappeared and was preserved only in the ancient Georgian inscrip- tion. If this proposal is correct we can suggest that the name of one of the Geor- gian monasteries in Palestine “Dertavi” is a compound word composed of the Arabic Dar / Deir and Aramaic tav, which might mean the holy (blessed) mon- astery.44 Purta) – little, a small part (of a bigger) פורתא Let us look now at Aramaic whole).45 The word is not found in the Bible. If we accept that Georgian Purtavi was derived from Aramaic Purta, the former must mean a small, minor monastery which was separated from a bigger one; it is very easy for the Georgian language to form Purtaveli from Purta. If the name of the monastery was Purta, then its bishop would be Purta-el-i episkoposi (bishop of Purta), where between the final ‘a’ and the suffix ‘el’, ‘v’ could very easily appear according to the nature of the Georgian language, the result being ‘Purtaveli (Purta-v-el-i) episkoposi’ (bishop of Purta, where ‘v’ separates the two vowels, ‘el’ is a suffix of the origin and ‘i’ is the nominative case inflexion). It should be underlined that toponyms derived from Furt (Frt) are attested in Palestine (see Furt).46 If this assumption is acceptable, then the name of one of the other Byzantine monasteries, ‘Katamon’, must have been derived from the Greek “kata” and “mone” with the same meaning – a separated, individual unit,47 i.e. a small monastery subordinated to a bigger one. Katamon was also, for a certain pe- riod, a monastery belonged to Georgians,48 subordinate to the Holy Cross monastery of Jerusalem together with St. Nicholas’s monastery (the latter was situated near the Holy Cross monastery, but now it lies in ruins.49 All three monasteries lay in a 4-5 km. radius of each other.

42 Y. Tsafrir, L. Di Segni, J. Green, Tabula Imperii Romani; Iudaea-Palaestina, Maps and Gazetteer, Jerusalem, 1994, 125. 43 Y. Tsafrir, L. Di Segni, J. Green, Tabula Imperii Romani, 125. 44 E. Metreveli, On the Dertavi and Dertupha Manuscripts, 74-78. 45 A. Evan-Shoshan, Explanatory Dictionary. 46 Y. Tsafrir, L. Di Segni, J. Green, Tabula Imperii Romani, 125. 47 D.D. Lampe, A Patristic Greek Lexicon. 48 E. Metreveli, Materials, 89; Johannes Pahlitzsch, Die Bedeutung fur Konigtum und Kirche in Georgien zur Zeit der Kreuzzuge im Vergleich zu Armenien, L’idea di Geru- salemme nella spiritualità Cristiana del medioevo, Città del Vaticano, 2003, 104-131. 49 E. Metreveli, Materials, 145.

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The situation may have been analogous with that of Purtavi. The Umm Leisun monastery is situated between the two monasteries of Peter the Iberian, one near the Tower of David, the other in Bir el Qatt. All three were within a 4-5 km. radius, and perhaps Umm Leisun was a branch of Peter the Iberian’s monastery, this explaining the name. It should also be noted that the bishop of Purtavi must have been the bishop of only one monastery as in the case of the Bishop Samuel. This fact cannot have been an exception in the Palestine of those days. And finally, each variant I have discussed above is only a hypothesis and is rather far from concrete conclusions. But in case the excavations are continued in Umm Leisun, my surmise has a more solid foundation.

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