Henry Yule

“ The only conqueror whose career suits in time and approximates in circumstances is the founder of Kara-Khitai, which existed as a great empire in Central Asia during the latter two-thirds of the 13th century. This personage was a prince of the Khitai or Khitaian dynasty of Liao, which had reigned over northern China and the regions beyond the Wall during a great part of the 10th and 11th centuries, and from which came the name Khitai (Cathay) , by which China was once known in Europe and still is known in Russia. ”

“ It is true that the Florentine Simone Sigoli, who visited Cairo in 1384, in his Viaggio al Monte Sinai still speaks of “Presto Giovanni” as a monarch dwelling in India; but it is the India which is conterminous with the dominions of the soldan of Egypt, and whose lord is master of the Nile, to close or open its discharge upon Egypt. Thirty years earlier (c. 1352) the Franciscan Giovanni de' Marignolli, apostolic legate in Asia, speaks in his Chroniea of Ethiopia where the Negroes are, and which is called the land of Prester John. ”

“ Nothing is more likely than that the princes of the “Christian families” who had got possession of the throne of northern Abyssinia should have wished to strengthen themselves by a connexion with European Christendom, and to establish relations with Jerusalem, then in Christian hands. We do not know whether the leech Philip ever reached his destination, or whether a reply ever came back to the Lateran. ”

“ Though the Gur Khan himself is not described as having extended his conquests into Persia, the shah of Kharezm followed up the victory by invading Khorasan and plundering the cities and treasuries of Sanjar. ”

“ We know from Marco Polo that about a century after the date of Pope Alexander’s epistle a mission was sent by the king of Abyssinia to Jerusalem to make offerings on his part at the Church of the Sepulchre. It must be remembered that at the time of the pope’s letter Jerusalem, which had been taken from the Moslem in 1099, was still in Christian possession. Abyssinia had been going through a long period of vicissitude and distraction. In the 10th century the royal line had been superseded by a dynasty of Falasha Jews, followed by other Christian families ”

“ When the king went forth to war thirteen great crosses made of gold and jewels were carried in wagons before him as his standards, and each was followed by 10,000 knights and 100,000 footmen. There were no poor in his dominions, no thief or robber, no flatterer or miser, no dissensions, no lies, and no vices. ”

“ Unc Khan reappears in Marco Polo, who tells much about him as “a great prince, the same that we call Prester John, him in fact about whose great dominion all the world talks.” This Unc was in fact the prince of the Kerait, called by the Chinese Tuli, and by the Persian historians of the Mongols Toghral, on whom the Kin emperor of north China had conferred the title of “wang” or king, whence his coming to be known as Awang or Ung Khan. He was long the ally of jenghiz, but a breach occurred between them, and they were mortal enemies till the death of Ung Khan in 1203. ”

“ In this event—the defeat of Sanjar, whose brother’s son, Mas’ud, reigned over western Persia—occurring four years before the story of the Eastern conqueror was told at Rome to Bishop Otto, we seem to have the destruction of the Samiardi fratres or Sanjar brothers, which was the germ of the story of Prester John.
There is no evidence of any profession of Christianity on the part of the Gur Khan, though the daughter of the last of his race is recorded to have been a Christian. The hosts of the Gur Khan are called by Moslem historians Al-Turk-al-Kuffar, the kafir or infidel Turks ”

“ As regards any real foundation for the title of “Presbvter” we may observe that nothing worth mentioning has been alleged on behalf of any candidate.
When the Mongol conquests threw Asia open to Frank travellers in the middle of the 13th century their minds were full of Prester John; they sought in vain for an adequate representative. nor was it in the nature of things that they should not find some representative. In fact they found several. Apparently no real tradition existed among the Eastern Christians of such a personage ”

“ From the 14th century onwards Prester John had found his seat in Abyssinia. It is there that Fra Mauro’s great map (1459) presents a fine city with the rubric, “Qui il Preste Janni fa residentia principal.” 'When, nearer the end of the century (1481–1495) , King John II. of Portugal was prosecuting inquiries regarding access to India his first object was to open communication with “Prester John of the Indies," who was understood to be a Christian potentate in Africa. ”