Elias III was the Patriarch of Jerusalem from about 879 to 907. According to the

annals Annals ( la, annāles, from , "year") are a concise historical record in which events are arranged chronologically, year by year, although the term is also used loosely for any historical record. Scope The nature of the distinction between ann ...

Eutychius of Alexandria Eutychius of Alexandria (Arabic: ''Sa'id ibn Batriq'' or ''Bitriq''; 10 September 877 – 12 May 940) was the Melkite Patriarch of Alexandria. He is known for being one of the first Christian Egyptian writers to use the Arabic language. H ...

, he was a descendant of the family of

Mansur ibn Sarjun Mansur ibn Sarjun was a Byzantine fiscal official or governor of Damascus of local Syrian origin under emperors Maurice () and Heraclius (), as well as during the Persian occupation of Damascus in 614–628. He surrendered the city to the besieg ...

, the grandfather of John of Damascus. There is evidence that he sent a circular letter to European rulers asking for financial help in restoring the churches in his diocese. One of them was received by the

Carolingian Emperor The Carolingian Empire (800–888) was a large Frankish-dominated empire in western and central Europe during the Early Middle Ages. It was ruled by the Carolingian dynasty, which had ruled as kings of the Franks since 751 and as kings of the Lo ...

Charles the Fat Charles III (839 – 13 January 888), also known as Charles the Fat, was the emperor of the Carolingian Empire from 881 to 888. A member of the Carolingian dynasty, Charles was the youngest son of Louis the German and Hemma, and a great-grandso ...

in 881, and another was probably sent to king Alfred the Great. According to

Asser Asser (; ; died 909) was a Welsh monk from St David's, Dyfed, who became Bishop of Sherborne in the 890s. About 885 he was asked by Alfred the Great to leave St David's and join the circle of learned men whom Alfred was recruiting for his ...

, Elias corresponded with Alfred and sent him gifts, and a medical text in Old English contains information about remedies for Alfred's ailments sent to him by Elias. According to Eutychius, he was appointed in the tenth

regnal year A regnal year is a year of the reign of a sovereign, from the Latin ''regnum'' meaning kingdom, rule. Regnal years considered the date as an ordinal, not a cardinal number. For example, a monarch could have a first year of rule, a second year o ...

of the Abbasid caliph

al-Mu'tamid Abu’l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Jaʿfar ( ar, أبو العباس أحمد بن جعفر; – 14 October 892), better known by his regnal name Al-Muʿtamid ʿalā ’llāh (, "Dependent on God"), was the Caliph of the Abbasid Caliphate from 870 t ...

(), and remained in office until his death, a period of 22 years.

References

Year of birth unknown 907 deaths 10th-century patriarchs of Jerusalem People of the Tulunid dynasty Melkites in the Abbasid Caliphate Foreign relations of the Carolingian Empire Palestine under the Abbasid Caliphate 9th-century patriarchs of Jerusalem {{EasternOrthodoxy-bishop-stub