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and establish peaceful relations seems questionable in those years. By that
time the foreign policy of Eastern Georgian kings was quite synchronous
and tightly intertwined with the policy of Il-khans. 
It should be pointed out that the Pope of Rome and the rulers of West-
ern Europe also participated in the anti-Egyptian coalition. When Öljeitü
Khan (his Muslim name was Muhammad Khodabandeh) ascended the
throne of Il-khans in 1304, in an attempt to seek an ally in his fight against
the Sultans of Egypt, he immediately sent two envoy missions in the Mon-
golian language in a letter written with Uighurian characters to the French
king Philippe IV. He also sent letters to the King of England, Edward II and
the Pope of Rome Clement V [17, 225]. It is a fact that that Georgian partic-
ipation (together with Crusaders) in the conquest of Palestine-Syria in the
beginning of the 14
th
cent. was a widely-discussed issue in European
sources. The work of Hetum – the King of Cilician Armenia – created round
1300, provides some important information on the Georgia split into two
parts: “each has a king of its own. The King of Georgia is the subordinate of
the Asian Emperor .. The King of Abkhazia never subordinated either Tatars
or the Emperor of Asia”. The Author addressed the Pope of Rome with the
following words:  “would he be willing to write a letter to the King of Geor-
gia. They are Christians and compared to other nations they have greater
willingness to return the Holy Land. Would he ask them help the Crusaders”
[18, 159]. The same author gives a detailed description of the failed cam-
paign of Il-khans - supported by Cilician Armenians and Georgians - to Syria
at the time of Ghazan Khan. In this fight Georgians were led by Vakhtang III
and Beka Jakeli - the ruler of Samtskhe. 
M. Tamarashvili notes that in the year 1307, Pope Clement V has sent
missionaries to Georgia [19,39]. Especially active they became in times of
King Giorgi the Brilliant, and since 1318, many missionaries were sent here.
In 1321 the Pope calls the King of Georgia to join the Western Church and
also, asks Him to give a helping hand to the missionaries, ensuring their se-
curity and free pass to the areas inhabited by the Tatars or any other tribes
[19, 40].
According to some related sources, in the year of 1323, new Crusade
was planned to take start from France and the Egypt was quite aware of it.
Al-‘Ayni points that ‘the Pope of Rome intended to send the whole army
against “the infidels”, i.e. us; our troops marched to stand against, but there
has been no sign of the enemy. Thus we presume that he (the Pope) could
not maintain his menace’ [20, 16].
In the years of 1328-1329, according to the prescript of Pope John XXII,
Episcopacy was transferred from Smirna (Asia Minor) to Tbilisi, and was
put under ascendancy of the Archiepiscopacy established in Il-khan State,
Sultaniye,  in 1318 [19, 32-33, 39. In 1332-1333 King Giorgi the V received
envoys from the Philip V of France, and delivered personal letter urging
Georgian king to participate in joint campaign against Egypt – to liberate the
Holy Land [20,159; 21,96]. In his answer, Giorgi V claims that ‘Divine Lords
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of France often call for the Eastern kings against Muslims, but then change
their minds, never come and desert us alone in this everlasting struggle...
Firstly, tell us, exactly when you are planning to come overseas, and I’ll be
right there with my 30 thousand troops [22, 210; 21, 96; 20, 158].   
Attitudes towards the King of Eastern Georgia is well shown in the let-
ter of the Sultan of Egypt, that Arab authors – one Al-‘Umari and Al-
Qalqashandi had preserved: ‘May God Almighty make permanent the
felicity of the exalted presence, the presence of the great monarch, the hero,
the bold, the lion, the illustrious, the attacker, the dauntless, the enthroned,
the crowned, a scholar of his community, just to his subjects, the successor
of the Greek kings, Sultan of the Georgians…the bulwark of the lands of Rum
and Iran, the strengthener of Christianity..supporter of the religion of Jesus,
who glorifies Jerusalem by sincere purpose, the helper of the Bab who is
the Pope of Rome, the lover of the Muslims, the best of close companions,
and friend of Kings and Sultans” [4,78; 13, 52].
However, the interrelations between Western Georgia and Egypt was
quite different, and started right after breaking Georgia into two parts. Mon-
gols’ apostate, David Narin, son of the Queen Rusudan, was first to send his
envoys to Egypt; though a bit earlier, in 1265, and that before Hulagu’s
death, Sultan Baybars had sent his envoys to Georgia 23, 277].  According
to al-Maqrizi (1364-1442) Georgians visited Baybars in Ramadan, 663/
June-July, 1265 and brought him a lot of gifts and went away burdened with
even more [23, 277].  Then, in 1268, envoys came again and brought letters
from king of Georgia to the Sultan of Egypt [12, 89-90]. Iv. Javakhishvili com-
ments on the issue: ‘Undoubtedly, Sultan would be pleased to find Hulagu
Khan’s enemies his allies: as it was, Il-khan of Iran never abandoned the
plans of conquering his domains’ [24, 88].
Chr. Müller and J.  Pahlitzsch hold the opinion that two Georgian kings
addressed the Sultan of Egypt in 1268: one - the King of Abkhazs and the
other – “King of Tbilisi”; thus the scholars presume that the King of East
Georgia, though under Il-khan control, still hoped to overthrow them [23,
27, 78]. But I still think that that day situation was in no favor for such as-
sumptions. The envoys from Egypt clearly were sent to Western Georgia
and the letters they brought back should have been from the King of west-
ern Georgia, who eventually titled himself the same way as it is in the above-
mentioned writings of Baybars. We believe that in both cases, the King of
West Georgia is the person. It’s rather dubious to think that David, son of
Giorgi-Lasha, once pardoned for his tergiversation by the Mongols, would
dare to step so far – at the very time when he and the Il-khans, confronted
the Sultan of Mamluks. 
In 1263, according to the treaty between Byzantium and Egypt, the lat-
ter got rights to sail the Black Sea. The same time, intensive political, diplo-
matic and cultural relations were set up between the Golden Horde and
Egypt [25, 15, 26, 81]. Also, some sources provide us information about the
West Georgia’s contacts with the Golden Horde. 14
th
century anonymous
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