By The Circulation Of
This Letter, Glaring Fiction As It Is, The Idea Of This Christian
Conqueror Was Planted Deep In The Mind Of Europe, And Twined Itself Round
Every Rumour Of Revolution In Further Asia.
Even when the din of the
conquests of Chinghiz began to be audible in the West, he was invested
with the character of a Christian King, and more or less confounded with
the mysterious Prester John.
The first notice of a conquering Asiatic potentate so styled had been
brought to Europe by the Syrian Bishop of Gabala (Jibal, south of
Laodicea in Northern Syria), who came, in 1145, to lay various grievances
before Pope Eugene III. He reported that not long before a certain John,
inhabiting the extreme East, king and Nestorian priest, and claiming
descent from the Three Wise Kings, had made war on the Samiard Kings of
the Medes and Persians, and had taken Ecbatana their capital. 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.
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