The Hundred Thousand Martyrs ( ka, ასი ათასი მოწამე, tr; originally, ათნი ბევრნი მოწამენი, ''at'ni bevrni mots'ameni'') are saints of the

Georgian Orthodox Church The Apostolic Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Georgia ( ka, საქართველოს სამოციქულო ავტოკეფალური მართლმადიდებელი ეკლესია, tr), commonly ...

, who were put to death, according to the 14th-century anonymous

Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...

''Chronicle of a Hundred Years'', for not renouncing

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

by the Khwarezmid

sultan Sultan (; ar, سلطان ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it ...

Jalal ad-Din upon his capture of the Georgian capital of

Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the Capital city, capital and the List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), largest city of Georgia (country), Georgia, lying on the ...

in 1226. The source claims the number of those killed were 100,000. The Georgian church commemorates them on 13 November ( O.S. 31 October).Machitadze, Archpriest Zakaria (2006)
"The Hundred Thousands Martyrs of Tbilisi (†1227)"
i
''The Lives of the Georgian Saints''
. ''pravoslavie.ru''. Retrieved on 2011-11-13.

History

Jalal ad-Din's first encounter with the

Kingdom of Georgia The Kingdom of Georgia ( ka, საქართველოს სამეფო, tr), also known as the Georgian Empire, was a medieval Eurasian monarchy that was founded in circa 1008 AD. It reached its Golden Age of political and economic ...

occurred in 1225, when his army inflicted a crushing defeat on the Georgians at Garni, bringing about the end of Georgia's medieval heyday. Next year, Jalal ad-Din marched on to Tbilisi, forcing Queen

Rusudan of Georgia Rusudan ( ka, რუსუდანი, tr) (c. 1194–1245), a member of the Bagrationi dynasty, ruled as Queen of Georgia in 1223–1245. Life Daughter of King Tamar of Georgia by David Soslan, she succeeded her brother George IV on January 1 ...

and her court into flight. The Georgian forces, left in defense of the capital, put up a fierce resistance, but Jalal's forces eventually broke into the city with the assistance of local Muslims on 9 March 1226. The victorious Khwarezmid soldiers sacked Tbilisi and massacred its Christian population. The anonymous 14th-century Georgian chronicle, conventionally known as the ''Chronicle of a Hundred Years'', laments: "Words are powerless to convey the destruction that the enemy brought: tearing infants from their mothers' breasts, they beat their heads against the bridge, watching as their eyes dropped from their skulls...". The Muslim historians

ibn al-Athir Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ash-Shaybānī, better known as ʿAlī ʿIzz ad-Dīn Ibn al-Athīr al-Jazarī ( ar, علي عز الدین بن الاثیر الجزري) lived 1160–1233) was an Arab or Kurdish historian a ...

and Nasawi, the latter being Jalal's secretary and biographer, confirm the killings of Christians who did not accept

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

at the sultan's order. Minorsky, Vladimir, "Tiflis", in: M. Th. Houtsma, E. van Donzel (1993), ''E. J. Brill's First

Encyclopaedia of Islam The ''Encyclopaedia of Islam'' (''EI'') is an encyclopaedia of the academic discipline of Islamic studies published by Brill. It is considered to be the standard reference work in the field of Islamic studies. The first edition was published in ...

, 1913-1936'', p. 756. Brill, . According to the Georgian source, Jalal had the dome of the Sioni Cathedral torn down and replaced it with a throne for himself. At his order the icons of Christ and Virgin Mary were carried out of the cathedral and placed at the bridge over the

Mtkvari river The Kura is an east-flowing river south of the Greater Caucasus Mountains which drains the southern slopes of the Greater Caucasus east into the Caspian Sea. It also drains the north side of the Lesser Caucasus while its main tributary, the Ar ...

in order to force the Christians to step on them. Those who refused to profane the icons and apostatize to Islam were

beheaded Decapitation or beheading is the total separation of the head from the body. Such an injury is invariably fatal to humans and most other animals, since it deprives the brain of oxygenated blood, while all other organs are deprived of the i ...

. Metreveli, Roin (ed., 2008)
''Kartlis Tskhovreba''
, p. 541. Artanuji, . The medieval Georgian chronicler puts the number of those killed at ათნი ბევრნი (''at'ni bevrni''). The first part of this numeral, ''at'ni'', denotes "ten". The second part, ''bevrni'', in modern Georgian means "much, many", but it also has now-obsolete meaning of "ten thousand", ultimately derived from

Old Persian Old Persian is one of the two directly attested Old Iranian languages (the other being Avestan language, Avestan) and is the ancestor of Middle Persian (the language of Sasanian Empire). Like other Old Iranian languages, it was known to its native ...

*''baiwar/n'' for "ten thousand".Gvozdanović, Jadranka (1992), ''Indo-European numerals'', p. 315. Walter de Gruyter, .

References

{{Reflist 1226 deaths 13th-century Christian saints 13th-century Eastern Orthodox martyrs History of Tbilisi Christian saints killed by Muslims Saints of Georgia (country) Year of birth unknown