Kirkdamalti Kilise, also known as St George's Church, is a cave church in the Ihlara Valley in Cappadocia - read, in the very heart of modern Turkey. It was constructed around 1290, when the Ihlara Valley (once called Peristrema) belonged to the Sultanate of Rum that was then nearing the end of its independent existence (being already a vassal to the mongols, following a few decades of the glorious rule across the vast majority of Anatolia, from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea).
The Peristrema Valley was home to Greek Christian monks since the 7th century, and numerous churches were carved in the rocks of the Ihlara Valley between the 7th and the 13th centuries. In fact, Greeks were present in Cappadocia since antiquity. There is even a specific term - Cappadocian Greeks. Despite being disconnected from their historic homeland, the community maintained the use of the Greek language, and some Cappadocian Greeks raised to ranks as high as emperors of the Eastern Roman Empire (Maurice Tiberius and Heraclius, namely). When in the 11th century the Seljuk Turks from Central Asia conquered Turkey and Turkish language and Islam were introduced in the area, the Christian churches in the Ihlara Valley still continued to grow in number up till the end of the 13th century. These churches remained home to Christians until as recently as the 20th century.
The Kirkdamalti Church appears to be the last church built in the valley, dated the last decade of the 13th century. There are a few opened tombs and numerous depictions over the church walls. One of the compositions particularly caught my attention: this was a depiction of three people, the largest figure in the centre being a man with a saint's halo above his head, surrounded by a man and a woman (possibly a couple). Unfortunately, the faces of the people could not be seen as, after centuries of the persecution of Christians in the area, they have been destroyed.
Here comes the mysterious part about this church - and potentially a link between the Kirkdamalti Church and the cave monastery in Georgian Vardzia (that I happened to have visited a year earlier).
It is generally pretty certain that the person depicted in the centre should be St George the Martyr, to whom this church is dedicated.
Here is where the certainty ends, and thereafter remains the mystery: who surrounds St George?
The man to the left from St George is wearing a Turkish outfit, which is quite unusual for a Christian Church. It could be Sultan Mesud II, who was the last sultan of Rum. Sultan Mesud II is known to have supported Christians who settled in the Cappadocia region trying to escape the pressures of the Roman Empire, so grateful Christian monks depicted the sultan in the church. Mesud II used to show tolerance towards other religions, and Orthodox Christians found shelter under his auspices while the Catholic Church has generally been oppressing them and raiding Hagia Sofiya during the Crusades.
It could also be Basil Giagoupes - one of those Cappadocian Greeks who succeeded in raising high through the ranks in the Seljuk state and eventually played an important role in the region of the Ihlara Valley. Basil Giagoupes was a feudatory lord and held the title of general (amir) in the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum in the army of Sultan Mesud II.
If this figure is Basil Giagoupes, it is natural to suppose that the lady depicted may be his wife Tamara. This version seems to be supported by the text at the entrance of the church that talks about Tamara "wife of Basileios" and Basil donating funds to construct the church. However the text is pretty vague and does not fully align with another sign present at the location (see below), so Tamara may not necessarily be Basil's wife; it could be that it was an independent Tamara donating to build this church. This is where the biggest mystery lies.
Many think that Tamara may not just be Basil's wife. This "school of thought" pertains that Tamara in the picture is Princess Tamara - wife of Kaykhusraw II (predecessor of Mesud II by a few decades as the Sultan of Rum) of the Georgian origin, who supported Cappadocian Greeks and treated them benevolently. The second sign indeed refers to Tamara as Princess Tamara.
Why would Princess Tamara, wife of the Sultan of Rum, member of the Georgia's royal Bagrationi dynasty, be depicted in a church in the Ihlara Valley? Princess Tamara may have contributed financially to the construction of this church. Called Gurji Khatun in Turkey (meaning "Georgian Lady"), Princess Tamara was thought to be friends with Rumi, the famous poet and Sufi from Konya that was part of the Sultanate of Rum. She was tolerant to many confessions and fostered a multiconfessional community around her. She died in 1286 - construction of this church has started by then, so the timeline holds.
Princess Tamara was the granddaughter of King Tamar (read Queen Tamar), the legendary female ruler of Georgia that oversaw the construction of the Vardzia monastery. This is of particular interest, as her grandmother Queen Tamar led the construction of monumental cave town Vardzia, and Princess Tamara apparently extended to another region the family's passion to carve out buildings from the rocks and supported construction of the St George's Church.
It is a pity the faces in the paintings have been destroyed - there could have been a chance to examine the lady's portrait for any commonalities with the well-known depictions of Queen Tamar of Georgia. Fingers crossed, one day there will be more clarity in this question... but for now we are left with this conundrum of Georgian, Seljuk, Christian and Islamic story lines tangled together in this little church.
To top it all off, there is also another version that Princess Tamara could have been the wife of Basil (so the sign would read as if Basil's wife and Tamara were the same person), but I am not sure it matches other better known historical facts. Also, the person depicted in the Turkish robe could be Mesud II... but that will take another fan of sherlock-holmes'ing to dig deeper.
Many thanks for the featured photos to Mikhail Dubov.