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

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

of Eutychius of Alexandria, he was a descendant of the family of Mansur ibn Sarjun, the grandfather of

John of Damascus John of Damascus or John Damascene, born Yūḥana ibn Manṣūr ibn Sarjūn, was an Arab Christian monk, priest, hymnographer, and apologist. He was born and raised in Damascus or AD 676; the precise date and place of his death is not know ...

. 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

Charles the Fat Charles the Fat (839 – 13 January 888) was the emperor of the Carolingian Empire from 881 to 887. A member of the Carolingian dynasty, Charles was the youngest son of Louis the German and Hemma, and a great-grandson of Charlemagne. He was t ...

in 881, and another was probably sent to king

Alfred the Great Alfred the Great ( ; – 26 October 899) was King of the West Saxons from 871 to 886, and King of the Anglo-Saxons from 886 until his death in 899. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf and his first wife Osburh, who both died when Alfr ...

. According to

Asser Asser (; ; died 909) was a Welsh people, Welsh monk from St David's, Kingdom of Dyfed, Dyfed, who became Bishop of Sherborne (ancient), Bishop of Sherborne in the 890s. About 885 he was asked by Alfred the Great to leave St David's and join ...

, 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 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 of rule, a t ...

of the

Abbasid caliph The Abbasid caliphs were the holders of the Islamic title of caliph who were members of the Abbasid dynasty, a branch of the Quraysh tribe descended from the uncle of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, Al-Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib. The family came ...

al-Mu'tamid Abu’l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Al-Mutawakkil, Jaʿfar ibn al-Mu'tasim, Muḥammad ibn Harun al-Rashid, Hārūn al-Muʿtamid ʿalā’Llāh (; – 14 October 892), better known by his regnal name al-Muʿtamid ʿalā 'llāh (, 'Dependent on God'), ...

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

References

Year of birth unknown 907 deaths 10th-century patriarchs of Jerusalem 9th-century people from the Abbasid Caliphate 10th-century people from the Abbasid Caliphate People from 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