Prester John (Latin:Presbyter Ioannes) was a mythicalChristian patriarch,presbyter, and king. Stories popular in Europe in the 12th to the 17th centuries told of aNestorian patriarch and king who was said to rule over aChristian nation lost amid the pagans and Muslims in theOrient.[1]: 28 The accounts were often embellished with various tropes of medieval popular fantasy, depicting Prester John as a descendant of theThree Magi, ruling a kingdom full of riches, marvels, and strange creatures.
At first, Prester John was imagined to reside in India. Tales of the Nestorian Christians' evangelistic success there and ofThomas the Apostle's subcontinental travels as documented in works like theActs of Thomas probably provided the first seeds of the legend. As Europeans became aware of theMongols and their empire, accounts placed the king inCentral Asia, and eventually Portuguese explorers came to believe that the term was a reference toEthiopia, which at that time was an isolated Christian "exclave" distant from any other Christian-ruled territory.
Though its immediate genesis is unclear, officially the origin of the legend of Prester John originates from a letter that the Byzantine emperorManuel I Komnenos received in 1165. The sender was: "John, Christian Sovereign and Lord of Lords".
The letter described the very rich lands of this monarch located in central Asia. The king said he lived in an immense palace made of gems and gold and said he governed a huge territory extending from Persia to China. For many years the myth of Prester John was associated with the dream of reaching a sumptuous kingdom, where all material pleasures were fulfilled and people lived in opulence.[2][unreliable source]
The legend of Prester John drew strongly from earlier accounts of the Orient and of Westerners' travels there. Particularly influential were the stories ofSaint Thomas the Apostle's proselytizing in India, recorded especially in the third-century work known as theActs of Thomas. This text inculcated in Westerners an image of India as a place of exotic wonders and offered the earliest description of Saint Thomas establishing a Christian sect there, motifs that loomed large over later accounts of Prester John.[3]
Similarly, distorted reports of movements in Asia of theChurch of the East (Nestorianism) informed the legend as well. This church had gained a wide following in the Eastern nations and engaged the Western imagination as an assemblage both exotic and familiarly Christian.[4] Particularly inspiring were the Church of the East's missionary successes among theMongols andTurks of Central Asia; French historianRené Grousset suggests that the Prester John story may have had its origins in theKerait clan, which had thousands of its members join the Church of the East shortly after the year 1000. By the 12th century, the Kerait rulers were still following a custom of bearing Christian names, which may have fueled the legend.[5]
Additionally, the tradition may have drawn from the shadowy early Christian figureJohn the Presbyter ofSyria, whose existence is first inferred by the ecclesiastical historian and bishopEusebius of Caesarea based on his reading of earlier church fathers.[6] This man, said in one document to be the author of two of theEpistles of John,[7] was supposed to have been the teacher of the martyr bishopPapias, who had in turn taughtIrenaeus. However, little links this figure, supposedly active in the late first century, to the Prester John legend beyond the name.[8] The title "Prester" is an adaptation of the Greek word "πρεσβύτερος, presbyteros", literally meaning "elder" and used as a title ofpriests holding a high office (indeed,presbyter is the origin of the English wordpriest).[9][10]
Later accounts of Prester John borrowed heavily from literary texts concerning the East, including the great body of ancient and medieval geographical and travel literature. Details were often lifted from literary and pseudohistorical accounts, such as the tale ofSinbad the Sailor.[11] TheAlexander Romance, a fabulous account ofAlexander the Great's conquests, was especially influential in this regard.[12]
The Prester John legend as such began in the early 12th century, with reports of visits of an archbishop of India toConstantinople, and of a Patriarch of India toRome at the time ofPope Callixtus II.[13] These visits, apparently from the Saint Thomas Christians of India, cannot be confirmed, evidence of both being secondhand reports. What is certain is that German chroniclerOtto of Freising reported in hisChronicon of 1145 that the previous year he had metHugh, bishop ofJabala in Syria, at the court ofPope Eugene III inViterbo.[14][15][16]
Hugh was an emissary of PrinceRaymond of Antioch, sent to seek Western aid against theSaracens after theSiege of Edessa; his counsel inspired Eugene to call for theSecond Crusade. Hugh told Otto, in the presence of the pope, that Prester John, a Nestorian Christian who served in the dual position of priest and king, had regained the city ofEcbatana from the brother monarchs ofMedia and Persia, the Samiardi, in a great battle "not many years ago". Afterwards Prester John allegedly set out forJerusalem to rescue the Holy Land, but the swollen waters of theTigris compelled him to return to his own country. His fabulous wealth was demonstrated by his emerald scepter; his holiness by his descent from theThree Magi.[17]
Robert Silverberg connects this account with historic events of 1141, when theQara Khitai khanate underYelü Dashi defeated theSeljuk Turks in theBattle of Qatwan, nearSamarkand. The Seljuks ruled over Persia at the time and were the most powerful force in the Muslim world; the defeat at Samarkand weakened them substantially. The Qara Khitai at the time wereBuddhists, not Christians, and there is no reason to suppose Yelü Dashi was ever called Prester John.[18] However, several vassals of the Qara Khitai practiced Nestorian Christianity, which may have contributed to the legend. It is also possible that the Europeans, who were unfamiliar with Buddhism, assumed that if the leader was not Muslim, he must be Christian.[19][20] The defeat encouraged the Crusaders and inspired a notion of deliverance from the East. It is possible Otto recorded Hugh's confused report to prevent complacency in the Crusade's European backers – according to his account, no help could be expected from a powerful Eastern king.[21]
No more of the tale is recorded until about 1165, when copies of what was likely a forgedLetter of Prester John started spreading throughout Europe.[18] An epistolary wonder tale with parallels suggesting its author knew theRomance of Alexander and the above-mentionedActs of Thomas, theLetter was supposedly written to theByzantine emperorManuel I Comnenus by Prester John, descendant of one of the Three Magi and King of India.[22][23] The many marvels of richness and magic it contained captured the imagination of Europeans, and it was translated into numerous languages, includingHebrew. It circulated in ever more embellished form for centuries in manuscripts, examples of which still exist. The invention of printing perpetuated the letter's popularity in printed form; it was still current in popular culture during the period ofEuropean exploration. Part of the letter's essence was that a lost kingdom of Nestorian Christians still existed in the vastness of Central Asia.
The credence given to the reports was such thatPope Alexander III sent a letter to Prester John via his physician Philip on September 27, 1177. Nothing more is recorded of Philip, but it is most probable that he did not return with word from Prester John.[24] TheLetter continued to circulate, accruing more embellishments with each copy. In modern times,textual analysis of the letter's variant Hebrew versions has suggested an origin among theJews of northern Italy orLanguedoc: several Italian words remained in the Hebrew texts.[25] At any rate, theLetter's author was most likely a Westerner.
In 1221,Jacques de Vitry,Bishop of Acre, returned from the disastrousFifth Crusade with good news: King David of India, the son or grandson of Prester John, had mobilized his armies against the Saracens. He had already conquered Persia, then under theKhwarazmian Empire's control, and was moving on towardsBaghdad as well. This descendant of the great king who had defeated the Seljuksin 1141 planned to reconquer and rebuild Jerusalem.[26][27]
Controversial Soviet historian and ethnologistLev Gumilev speculated that the much reducedcrusaderKingdom of Jerusalem in theLevant resuscitated this legend in order to raise Christian hopes and to persuade European monarchs who had lost interest by that time in getting involved in costly crusades, in a distant region that was far removed from their own states and affairs.[28] The bishop of Acre was correct in thinking that a great king had conquered Persia; however "King David", as it turned out, was theTengrist Mongol ruler,Genghis Khan.[29]
TheMongol Empire's rise gave Western Christians the opportunity to visit lands that they had never seen before, and they set out in large numbers along the empire's secure roads. Belief that a lost Nestorian kingdom existed in the east, or that theCrusader states' salvation depended on analliance with an Eastern monarch, was one reason for the numerous Christian ambassadors and missionaries sent to the Mongols. These includeFranciscan explorersGiovanni da Pian del Carpine in 1245 andWilliam of Rubruck in 1253.[30]
The link between Prester John and Genghis Khan was elaborated upon at this time, as the Prester became identified with Genghis' foster father,Toghrul, king of theKeraites, given theJin title Ong Khan Toghrul. Fairly truthful chroniclers and explorers such asMarco Polo,[31] Crusader-historianJean de Joinville,[32] and the Franciscan voyagerOdoric of Pordenone[33]: 244–247 stripped Prester John of much of his otherworldly veneer, portraying him as a more realistic earthly monarch. Odoric places John's land to the west ofCathay en route to Europe, and identifies its capital as "Cosan", variously interpreted by translators as a number of names and locations.[33]: 245–246 Joinville describes Genghis Khan in his chronicle as a "wise man" who unites all the Tartar tribes and leads them to victory against their strongest enemy, Prester John.[32]: 283–288
William of Rubruck says a certain "Vut", lord of the Keraites and brother to the NestorianKing John, was defeated by the Mongols under Genghis Khan. Genghis Khan made off with Vut's daughter and married her to his son, and their union producedMöngke, the Khan at the time William wrote.[34] According to Marco Polo'sTravels, the war between the Prester and Genghis Khan started when Genghis Khan, new ruler of the rebellious Tartars, asked for the hand of Prester John's daughter in marriage. Angered that his lowly vassal would make such a request, Prester John denied him in no uncertain terms. In the war that followed, Genghis Khan triumphed, and Prester John perished.[31]
The historical figure behind these accounts,Toghrul, was a Nestorian Christian monarch defeated by Genghis Khan. He had fostered the future Khan after the death of his fatherYesugei and was one of his early allies, but the two had a falling-out. After Toghrul rejected a proposal to wed his son and daughter to Genghis Khan's children, the rift between them grew, until war broke out in 1203. Genghis Khan capturedSorghaghtani Beki, daughter of Toghrul's brother Jaqa Gambu, and married her to his sonTolui. They had several children, including Möngke,Kublai,Hulagu, andAriq Böke.
The major characteristic of Prester John tales from this period is the king's portrayal not as an invincible hero, but merely one of many adversaries defeated by the Mongols. As the Mongol Empire collapsed, Europeans began to shift away from the idea that Prester John had ever really been a Central Asian king.[35] At any rate they had little hope of finding him there, as travel in the region became dangerous without the security the empire had provided. In works such asThe Travels of Sir John Mandeville[36][37] andHistoria Trium Regum byJohn of Hildesheim,[38] Prester John's domain tends to regain its fantastic aspects and finds itself located not on the steppes of Central Asia, but back in India proper, or some other exotic locale.Wolfram von Eschenbach tied the history of Prester John to theHoly Grail legend in his poemParzival, in which the Prester is the son of the Grail maiden and the Saracen knightFeirefiz.[39]
A theory was put forward by the Russian scholar Ph. Bruun in 1876, who suggested that Prester John might be found among the kings ofGeorgia, which, at the time of Crusades, experienced military resurgence challenging the Muslim power. However, this theory, though regarded with certain indulgence byHenry Yule and some modern Georgian historians, was summarily dismissed byFriedrich Zarncke.[40]: 184 The connection with Georgia is unlikely, considering that country was Orthodox, rather than Nestorian, and due to the fact that it and its predecessor statesColchis/Lazica andIberia were well known and documented at the time, with Episcopoi of Kartli having regular epistolary conversions with Bishops of Rome.
Prester John had been considered the ruler of India since the legend's beginnings, but "India" was a vague concept to the medieval Europeans. Writers often spoke of the "Three Indias", and lacking any real knowledge of theIndian Ocean they sometimes consideredEthiopia one of the three. Westerners knew that Ethiopia was a powerful Christian nation, but contact had been sporadic since the rise of Islam. No Prester John was to be found in Asia, so Europeans began to suggest that the legend was a reference to the Christian kingdom of Ethiopia.[41] Evidence has suggested that locating Prester John's kingdom in Ethiopia entered the collective consciousness around 1250.[42]
Marco Polo had discussed Ethiopia as a magnificent Christian land[43] andOrthodox Christians had a legend that the nation would one day rise up and invadeArabia,[44] but they did not place Prester John there. In 1306, 30 Ethiopian ambassadors from EmperorWedem Arad came to Europe, and Prester John was mentioned as the patriarch of their church in a record of their visit.[45] Another description of an African Prester John is in theMirabilia Descripta ofDominican missionaryJordanus, around 1329. In discussing the "Third India", Jordanus records a number of fanciful stories about the land and its king, whom he says Europeans call Prester John.[46]
After this point, an African location became increasingly popular. This may have resulted from increasing ties between Europe and Africa as 1428 saw theKings of Aragon and Ethiopia actively negotiating the possibility of a strategic marriage between the two kingdoms.[42] On 7 May 1487, two Portuguese envoys,Pêro da Covilhã andAfonso de Paiva, were sent traveling secretly overland to gather information on a possible sea route to India, but also to inquire about Prester John. Covilhã managed to reach Ethiopia. Although well received, he was forbidden to depart.Contact for the purpose of finding allies, such as with Prester John increasingly fueled early European exploration and colonialism.[47][48]
More envoys were sent in 1507, after the island ofSocotra was taken by the Portuguese. As a result of this mission, and facing Muslim expansion, regent queenEleni of Ethiopia sent ambassadorMateus to kingManuel I of Portugal and to the pope, in search of a coalition. Mateus reached Portugal viaGoa, having returned with a Portuguese embassy, along with priestFrancisco Álvares in 1520. Francisco Álvares's book, which included the testimony of Covilhã, theVerdadeira Informação das Terras do Preste João das Indias ("A True Relation of the Lands of Prester John of the Indies") was the first direct account of Ethiopia, greatly increasing European knowledge at the time, as it was presented to the pope, published and quoted byGiovanni Battista Ramusio.[49]
By the time EmperorLebna Dengel and the Portuguese had established diplomatic contact with each other in 1520, Prester John was the name by which Europeans knew theEmperor of Ethiopia.[50] The Ethiopians, though, had never called their emperor that. When ambassadors from EmperorZara Yaqob attended theCouncil of Florence in 1441, they were confused when Roman Catholic-led council prelates insisted that the Ethiopians should refer to themselves as representatives of their monarch Prester John. They tried to explain that nowhere in Zara Yaqob's list of regnal names did that title occur. However, their admonitions did little to stop Europeans from calling the King of Ethiopia Prester John.[51] Some writers who used the title did understand it was not an indigenous honorific; for instance Jordanus seems to use it simply because his readers would have been familiar with it, not because he thought it authentic.[52]
Ethiopia has been claimed for many years as the origin of the Prester John legend, but most modern experts believe that the legend was simply adapted to fit that nation in the same fashion that it had been projected upon Ong Khan and Central Asia during the 13th century.[53] Modern scholars find nothing about Prester John or his country in the early material that would make Ethiopia a more suitable identification than any place else, and furthermore, specialists in Ethiopian history have effectively demonstrated that the story was not widely known there until the Portuguese began to circumnavigate around Africa, which is how they reached Ethiopia, via the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea.Czech Franciscan Remedius Prutky asked EmperorIyasu II about this identification in 1751, and Prutky states that the man was "astonished, and told me that the kings of Abyssinia had never been accustomed to call themselves by this name." In a footnote to this passage,Richard Pankhurst states that this is apparently the first recorded statement by an Ethiopian monarch about this tale, and they were likely unaware of the title until Prutky's inquiry.[54]
The Italian historianPeter Martyr d'Anghiera identified the land of Prester John withChicora in hisDecades of the New World.Francisco de Chicora, a native of what is nowSouth Carolina, who was captured by Spaniards and taken to Spain byLucas Vázquez de Ayllón, had told Anghiera that his land was ruled by priests.[55]
Seventeenth-century academics like GermanorientalistHiob Ludolf demonstrated that there was no actual native connection between Prester John and the Ethiopian monarchs,[56] and search for the fabled king gradually ceased. But the legend had affected several hundred years of European and world history, directly and indirectly, by encouraging Europe's explorers, missionaries, scholars, and treasure hunters.
The prospect of finding Prester John had long since vanished, but the tales continued to inspire through the 20th century.William Shakespeare's 1600 playMuch Ado About Nothing contains an early modern reference to the legendary king,[57] as doesTirso de Molina'sEl Burlador de Sevilla.[58] In 1910, Scottish novelist and politicianJohn Buchan used the legend in his sixth book,Prester John, to supplement a plot about aZulu uprising in South Africa. This book is an archetypal example of the early 20th-centuryadventure novel, and proved very popular in its day.
Throughout the rest of the century, Prester John appeared sporadically inpulp fiction andcomics. For example,Marvel Comics has featured "Prester John" in issues ofFantastic Four andThor. He was a significant supporting character in several issues of theDC Comics fantasy seriesArak: Son of Thunder.Charles Williams, a member of the 20th-century literary group theInklings, made Prester John a messianic protector of the Holy Grail in his 1930 novelWar in Heaven. Prester John and his kingdom feature in two works byUmberto Eco. The first is the 2000 novelBaudolino, in which the titular protagonist enlists his friends to write theLetter of Prester John for his adoptive fatherFrederick Barbarossa, but it is stolen before they can send it out. The second is inSerendipities: Language and Lunacy (1998) on the chapter 'The Force of Falsity' where Eco pronounces that the letter from Prester John "... served as an alibi for the expansion of the Christian world..."[59]
In July 1986 issues,Avram Davidson published both a nonfiction essay, "Postscript on Prester John" inAsimov's Science Fiction (part of his "Adventures in Unhistory" series, and later republished in his 1993 book of that title[60]), and a fantasy short story featuring Prester John's realm secretly still ruled by his descendant, "The King Across the Mountains" inAmazing Stories (later republished inThe Adventures of Doctor Eszterhazy, 1990[61]).
Variousattributed arms have been given to Prester John. The nave ofCanterbury Cathedral, which is adorned with heraldicbosses, represents Prester John withAzure, the Saviour on the Crossor.[62][63] In the 16th century, cartographerAbraham Ortelius produced a speculative map of John's empire in Africa, featuringA lion rampant facing to the sinister holding in its paws a quasi-Tau cross of full height.[64]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)(Dec. VII, from McNutt, De orbe novo, II, 260 ; and Quattlebaum, 18)
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