Prester John Legend: Where Was The

Exotic Land of This Christian King?

www.historicmysteries.com |
Doug MacGowan
February 13, 2017

Many explorers were inspired by the Prester

John legend.
European history is full of stories of fabled but foreign lands of
unsurpassed wealth and beauty. Those tales were usually believed to be real until explorers
scoured the Earth and abandoned quests for those lands when they came up with nothing that
could prove the stories. One particularly persistent and wonderful tale is the Prester John legend
(or Elder John). Supposedly, he was a king who ruled over a secret and mysterious country. But
was he really only a legend?

Prester John of the Indies, late 16th century. Source: Wikimedia Commons

The Legend

The Prester John legend tells that he was a King and a Christian leader from a faraway land. His
Christian kingdom was lost in the midst of Muslim and pagan nations, but the story told that the
Patriarch of St. Thomas resided in this land. Reports allude to a country where pepper grows and
people ride elephants, and where the Gates of Alexandria and the Fountain of Youth exist near an
earthly paradise.

The legend begins in earnest in the 12th century with two reports of visits from an archbishop of
India and of a Patriarch of India to Rome at the time of Pope Calixtus II (1119-1124).
Supposedly, there are about 100 letters that reference Prester John. A number of the letters
originated from Roman Jews in the Hebrew language. Evidently, there was as much confusion
about Prester Johns location then as there is now. However, it appears there is a stronger
argument for him originating in India from a place called Malabar. (Chronicles of Malabar).

The journeys in his search explored parts of India, Ethiopia, Central Asia, and remoter parts of
Africa. Like other undiscovered countries, there were few concrete clues. The recurring story was
that Prester Johns land was full of massive riches and beautiful and unusual animals unique to
Johns nation. Additionally, legend indicated that one of the Three Kings of the nativity story in
the New Testament was one of Johns direct ancestors. This may be a result of the possible
journey of the Apostle Thomas to India who spread the gospel there.

Searching for Prester John

In the 1100s, the first known recorded citations of Prester John and his lands are mentioned by
Bishop Otto of Freising (in modern-day Germany). Roman writers of the time soon followed.
Pope Alexander III believed so deeply in the possibility of such a country, that he sent a physician
emissary from the Vatican to find more information about John and (hopefully) about the country
itself. Mysteriously, the man never returned.
More controversy followed in the 1160s when a letter from John himself gave clear and lengthy
descriptions of lands he declared to be a paradise on Earth. Researchers eventually declared this
epistle to be a forgery.

Marco Polo, who lived between 1254-1324, reported that Prester John was the Khan of the Kareit
people. They were a Mongolian tribe made up of Nestorian Christians.

The Kareit ruler, Wan Khan, shown as Prester John. Could he have been Central Asian? Source:
Britannica

Some time later, Portuguese missionary explorers went to Africa to ask for Johns help in
converting Muslims to Christianity. From the opposite direction, the year 1306 saw the arrival
from Ethiopia of 30 ambassadors. They not only described the magnificent sites of their
homeland, but stated that Prester John was the leader of their Christian church. Later, a missionary
traveling through Africa stated that heard many stories about Johns lands. However, he was
unable to see them for himself.

Prester John Becomes a Myth

Over time explorers had discovered most parts of Asia and Africa. However, they found nothing
to substantiate the Prester John legend. Hence, John and his lands slipped into the realm of
folklore. Shakespeare makes reference to Prestor John and his country in his play Much Ado
About Nothing. Also more recently, the legendary king shows up in quite a few comic books!

Prester John and his lands eventually became one of the legendary countries that people believed
to exist in former times. Legend still has it that costly, but futile, expeditions went into lands
around Asia and Africa to set up friendly relations with John.

Those journeys and the written records about them add Prester Johns kingdom to the list of
legendary utopias around the world. But it was not all in vain. Explorations to find Johns land
yielded accurate and detailed information about lands that had never been seen by Europeans
before.

References:
Wikipedia, 2017
The History Guide 2017