He Was Then
Proceeding To The Deliverance Of Jerusalem, But Was Stopped By The Tigris,
Which He Could Not Cross, And Compelled By Disease In His Host To Retire.
M. d'Avezac first showed to whom this account must apply, and the subject
has more recently been set forth with great completeness and learning by
Dr. Gustavus Oppert.
The conqueror in question was the founder of Kara
Khitai, which existed as a great Empire in Asia during the last two-thirds
of the 12th century. This chief was a prince of the Khitan dynasty of
Liao, who escaped with a body of followers from Northern China on the
overthrow of that dynasty by the Kin or Niuchen about 1125. He is called
by the Chinese historians Yeliu Tashi; by Abulghazi, Nuzi Taigri Ili; and
by Rashiduddin, Nushi (or Fushi) Taifu. Being well received by the Uighurs
and other tribes west of the Desert who had been subject to the Khitan
Empire, he gathered an army and commenced a course of conquest which
eventually extended over Eastern and Western Turkestan, including
Khwarizm, which became tributary to him. He took the title of Gurkhan,
said to mean Universal or Suzerain Khan, and fixed at Bala Sagun, north of
the Thian Shan, the capital of his Empire, which became known as Kara
(Black) Khitai.[1] [The dynasty being named by the Chinese Si-Liao
(Western Liao) lasted till it was destroyed in 1218. - H. C.] In 1141 he
came to the aid of the King of Khwarizm against Sanjar the Seljukian
sovereign of Persia (whence the Samiard of the Syrian Bishop), who had
just taken Samarkand, and defeated that prince with great slaughter.
Though the Gurkhan himself is not described to have extended his conquests
into Persia, the King of Khwarizm followed up the victory by an invasion
of that country, in which he plundered the treasury and cities of Sanjar.
Admitting this Karacathayan prince to be the first conqueror (in Asia, at
all events) to whom the name of Prester John was applied, it still remains
obscure how that name arose. Oppert supposes that Gurkhan or Kurkhan,
softened in West Turkish pronunciation into Yurkan, was confounded with
Yochanan or Johannes; but he finds no evidence of the conqueror's
profession of Christianity except the fact, notable certainly, that the
daughter of the last of his brief dynasty is recorded to have been a
Christian. Indeed, D'Ohsson says that the first Gurkhan was a Buddhist,
though on what authority is not clear. There seems a probability at least
that it was an error in the original ascription of Christianity to the
Karacathayan prince, which caused the confusions as to the identity of
Prester John which appear in the next century, of which we shall presently
speak. Leaving this doubtful point, it has been plausibly suggested that
the title of Presbyter Johannes was connected with the legends of the
immortality of John the Apostle ([Greek: ho presbyteros], as he calls
himself in the 2nd and 3rd epistles), and the belief referred to by some
of the Fathers that he would be the Forerunner of our Lord's second
coming, as John the Baptist had been of His first.
A new theory regarding the original Prester John has been propounded by
Professor Bruun of Odessa, in a Russian work entitled The Migrations of
Prester John. The author has been good enough to send me large extracts
of this essay in (French) translation; and I will endeavour to set forth
the main points as well as the small space that can be given to the matter
will admit. Some remarks and notes shall be added, but I am not in a
position to do justice to Professor Bruun's views, from the want of access
to some of his most important authorities, such as Brosset's History of
Georgia, and its appendices.
It will be well, before going further, to give the essential parts of the
passage in the History of Bishop Otto of Freisingen (referred to in vol i.
p. 229), which contains the first allusion to a personage styled Prester
John:
"We saw also there [at Rome in 1145] the afore-mentioned Bishop of Gabala,
from Syria.... We heard him bewailing with tears the peril of the Church
beyond-sea since the capture of Edessa, and uttering his intention on that
account to cross the Alps and seek aid from the King of the Romans and the
King of the Franks. He was also telling us how, not many years before, one
JOHN, KING and PRIEST, who dwells in the extreme Orient beyond Persia and
Armenia, and is (with his people) a Christian, but a Nestorian, had waged
war against the brother Kings of the Persians and Medes who are called the
Samiards, and had captured Ecbatana, of which we have spoken above, the
seat of their dominion. The said Kings having met him with their forces
made up of Persians, Medes, and Assyrians, the battle had been maintained
for 3 days, either side preferring death to flight. But at last PRESBYTER
JOHN (for so they are wont to style him), having routed the Persians, came
forth the victor from a most sanguinary battle. After this victory (he
went on to say) the aforesaid John was advancing to fight in aid of the
Church at Jerusalem; but when he arrived at the Tigris, and found there no
possible means of transport for his army, he turned northward, as he had
heard that the river in that quarter was frozen over in winter-time.
Halting there for some years[2] in expectation of a frost, which never
came, owing to the mildness of the season, he lost many of his people
through the unaccustomed climate, and was obliged to return homewards.
This personage is said to be of the ancient race of those Magi who are
mentioned in the Gospel, and to rule the same nations that they did, and
to have such glory and wealth that he uses (they say) only an emerald
sceptre.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 220 of 335
Words from 223326 to 224330
of 342071
