Tamar, Gurji-Khatun

Tamar, Gurji-Khatun ( XIII century), Daughter of Rusudan, Queen of Georgia. In 1236 they married Tamar off to Khusrav II, Sultan of Rum. Beautiful Tamar wielded strong influence on Sultan’s royal court. The legend has it that the Sultan ordered to engrave her face in the symbol, widely spread in the oriental countries - the Sun, which bore Tamar’s image, in the Zodiac of Lion and the Sun - on the money that was coined in 1236. Other Seljuk Sultans followed the suit and later that image took root in Persia. After the death of her husband, the new governor married widowed Gurji-Khatun Tamar, according to the tradition of those times. Gurji-Khatun patronized Jalal-al-Din Rumi, the great poet of the Orient. She was instrumental in creating his first portrait. Tamar Gurji-Khatun also supervised construction of Rumi’s famous Green Sepulcher.