Prester John, also called Presbyter John or John the Elder, legendary Christian ruler of the East, popularized in medieval chronicles and traditions as a hoped-for ally against the Muslims. Believed to be a Nestorian (i.e., a member of an independent Eastern Christian church that did not accept the authority of the patriarch of Constantinople) and a king-priest reigning “in the Far East beyond Persia and Armenia,” Prester John was the centre of a number of legends that hark back to the writings of “John the Elder” in the New Testament.
The legend arose during the period of the Crusades (late 11th–13th century), when European Christians hoped to regain the Holy Land (Palestine) from the Muslims. In 1071 Jerusalem had been conquered by the Seljuq Turks. Based on a report about Prester John by Bishop Hugh ofGebal in Syria (modern Jbail, Lebanon) in 1145 to the papal court at Viterbo, Italy, the story was first recorded by Bishop Otto of Freising, Germany, in his Chronicon (1145). According to this, John, a wealthy and powerful “priest and king,” reputedly a lineal descendant of the Magi who had visited the Christ Child, defeated the Muslim kings of Persia in battle, stormed their capital at Ecbatana, and intended to proceed to Jerusalem but was impeded in the last goal because of difficulties in crossing the Tigris River.
The battle referred to by Hugh may have been that fought at Qatwan, Persia, in 1141, when theMongol khan Yelü Dashi, the founder of the Karakitai empire in Central Asia, defeated the Seljuq sultan Sanjar. The title of the Karakitai rulers was Gur-khan, or Kor-khan, which may have been changed phonetically in Hebrew to Yoḥanan or in Syriac to Yuḥanan, thus producing the Latin Johannes, or John. Though the Gur-khans were Mongol Buddhists, many of their leading subjects were Nestorians, and, according to a report by the Franciscan missionary Willem van Ruysbroeck in 1255, the daughter of the last Gur-khan and wife of King Küchlüg of the Naiman, a Central Asian people, was a Christian. Küchlüg, whose father’s name was Ta-yang Khan (Great King John in Chinese), was defeated by the great Mongol ruler Genghis Khan in 1218. In 1221 Jacques de Vitry, bishop of Acre in Palestine, and Cardinal Pelagius, a Western churchman accompanying Crusaders at Damietta in Egypt, reported to Rome information about a Muslim defeat by a certain King David of India, the son or grandson of Prester John. This King David probably was none other than Genghis Khan. Because of rumours, lack of reliable information, or wishful thinking on the part of European Christians, the historical events, personages of the period, and geographical areas involved became interwoven into the legend of Prester John.
A 13th-century chronicler, Alberic de Trois-Fontaines, recorded that in 1165 a letter was sent by Prester John to several European rulers, especially Manuel I Comnenus, the Byzantine emperor, and Frederick I Barbarossa, the Holy Roman emperor. A literary fiction, the letter was in Latin and was translated into various languages, including Hebrew and Old Slavonic. Though addressed to the Byzantine (Greek) emperor, no Greek text of the letter is known, and its anti-Byzantine bias is demonstrated by the Byzantine emperor’s being addressed as “governor of the Romans” rather than “emperor.” In the letter the realm of Prester John, “the three Indies,” is described as a land of natural riches, marvels, peace, and justice administered by a court of archbishops, priors, and kings. Preferring the simple title “presbyter,” John declared that he intended to come to Palestine with his armies to battle with the Muslims and regain the Holy Sepulchre, the burial place of Jesus. The letter notes that John is the guardian of the shrine of St. Thomas, the apostle to India, at Mylapore (now in Chennai), India.
In response to an embassy from Prester John, Pope Alexander III sent a reply in 1177 to John, “the illustrious and magnificent king of the Indies and a beloved son of Christ.” The fate of this letter is unknown, though its intent probably was to gain support for Alexander in his controversies with Barbarossa. In the 13th and 14th centuries various missionaries and lay travelers, such asGiovanni da Pian del Carpini, Giovanni da Montecorvino, and Marco Polo, all searching for the kingdom of Prester John, established direct contact between the West and the Mongols.
After the mid-14th century, Ethiopia became the centre of the search for the kingdom of Prester John, who was identified with the negus (emperor) of that African Christian nation. The legend, however, locates Prester John in Asia, especially in Nestorian areas.
LEARN MORE in these related Britannica articles:
MORE ABOUT Prester John
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During the Middle Ages, people thought the legendary kingdom of Prester John was in the Far East, India, and, finally, the interior of Africa
The story of Prester John was first mentioned by Bishop Otto of Freising in his Chronicon (1145). According to the bishop, Prester John was a rich king, priest and a lineal descendant of the Magi who had visited the Christ child. It was believed that the great king ruled over a kingdom full of riches, marvels, and strange creatures.
Bishop Otto of Freising had learned about the story from Bishop Hugh of Jabala in Syria. Hugh was an emissary of Prince Raymond of Antioch seeking Western aid against the Saracens after the Siege of Edessa, and his counsel incited Eugene to call for the Second Crusade. He 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 of Ecbatana from the brother monarchs of Medes and Persia, the Samiardi, in a great battle "not many years ago". Afterwards Prester John allegedly set out for Jerusalem to rescue the Holy Land, but the swollen waters of the Tigris compelled him to return to his own country.
Nothing more about Prester John and his kingdom was heard of for many years, not until about 1165 when copies of what scholars believe to be a forged Letter of Prester John started spreading throughout Europe.
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