Kariye Camii - Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City - page 279

5. St. Paul

To left and right of door to nave

6. The Deesis

Right of the door in east wall of south bay

(A Deesis is a representation of Christ with his mother on his
right and - usually, though not here - St. John the Baptist on
his left.). Here Christ is of the type known as Chalkites from the
famous icon over the main gate to the imperial palace. Below
are the figures of two donors (very unusual in a deesis). At the
Virgin's right stands “The son of the most high Emperor Alexius
Comnenus, Isaac Porphyrogenitus”: this is Isaac Comnenus,
third son of Alexius I, who was probably responsible for the
rebuilding of the church in the twelfth century. The inscription
of the other figure is partly lost: what remains reads “... of
Andronicus Palaeologus, the Lady of the Mongols, Melane
the nun.” This was either Maria, half-sister of Andronicus II,
known as the Despoina of the Mongols, who founded the still
extant church of St. Mary of the Mongols (see Chapter 15): or
else another Maria, an illegitimate daughter of Andronicus II,
who also married a Khan of the Mongols of the Golden Horde:
in either case she took the religious name of Melane.

II. The Genealogy of Christ

In the two domes of the inner narthex

7. Southern dome: in the crown a medallion of Christ Pantocrator

and in the flutes two rows of his ancestors, from Adam to Jacob
in the upper zone, in the lower the 12 sons of Jacob and some
others.

8. Northern dome: in the crown a medallion of the Blessed Virgin

with the Christ child; below in the upper zone 16 kings of the
house of David, in the lower 11 figures representing “other
ancestors outside the genealogy”.