by Lance Ralston | Aug 5, 2018 | English |
This is the last of a dozen episodes on Rabban Sauma.
Having met with all the dignitaries his embassy on Arghun’s behalf required, Sauma was anxious to return home. The delay caused by the Roman Cardinals failure to appoint a new Pope had lengthened his stay beyond what he’d anticipated. Although no record of it is given, Arghun may have urged Sauma to return by a specific date. So he packed up and started the journey back to Persia. It was April 1288.
And remember, accompanying him was the French king Philip’s ambassador who bore a personal letter from the King to Arghun. The one Sauma carried was an official correspondence.
His route was the same as the one he took West. The only change was his trip to Veroli SW of Rome. The Cathedral of St. Andrew was an attraction he decided to include on his way home. It wasn’t much of a detour. What’s interesting about his stay in Veroli was his inclusion with several Roman church officials in the issuing of indulgences. These indulgences, usually issued in the Name of Christ, were rendered under the auspices of God the Father, indicating a nod on the part of the Catholics to The Rabban’s Nestorian emphasis. The Vatican museum has some of these indulgences granted by Sauma. They bear his seal showing a figure with a halo, left hand on chest and right holding a star. It bears the text, “Bar Sauma—Tartar—From the Orient” Tartar being the common word of Europeans for the Mongols.
After Veroli, Sauma took ship and arrived back in Persia in Sept; a journey of five months. He was immediately ushered into the Ilkhan’s presence. He handed off the various gifts and correspondences he’d been given to pass along to Arghun. He then gave his report, a full account of his time in the West.
Arghun was pleased that the kings of England and France were on board for an alliance against the Mamluks. Though the Pope hadn’t pledged to the alliance, he’d made clear his desire for closer relations. Stoked at that prospect, Arghun looked with great favor on the Rabban. He expressed his dismay at the hardships Sauma had endured on his journey and promised to take care of him for the rest of his life. He pledged to build the Rabban a church near the palace where he could retire to a life of quiet service of God. Sauma asked that Arghun send for his old friend Mar Yaballaha, head of the Nestorian Church, to come to court to receive the gifts and letters Western leaders had sent him. While there, he could consecrate the land for the new church. The summons was duly sent.
Arghun had a special tent-church constructed in anticipation of Mar Yaballaha’s arrival. When the Catholicos did, a three-day banquet was thrown with Arghun himself serving both Sauma and the Nestorian Patriarch. He commanded the people of his realm to offer regular prayers for the health of both the Rabban and Catholicos. The favor he showered on the Nestorians led to a greater boldness on their part across Persia. In 1289, Arghun appointed a Jewish physician as his vizier or prime minister and turned over a good part of the governance of the realm to his capable leadership. With both Christianity and Judaism on the rise, unease among Muslims began to roil.
Arghun remained hopeful of the alliance with the West against the Mamluks. He sent a letter by way of a Genoese merchant to Kings Edward & Philip, calling for them to make good on their promise of joining in a campaign to remove the Muslims from the Holy Land. He told them the Mongols would be attacking Damascus in January 1291. They were to attack the Mamluk headquarters in Egypt. They’d then meet in Jerusalem, where Arghun would help them conquer the City, and once secured, turn it over to Europeans control. Both Philip & Edward replied. While Philip’s letter is lost to us, Edward’s remains. He commended the Ilkhan for his zeal in wanting to rid the infidels from the Holy Land, but England wasn’t able to mount a Crusade apart from Papal blessing, which Edward encouraged Arghun to secure. But the Pope had made it clear; no such Crusade was in the offing. Gauging the political winds, Pope Nicholas sensed the monarchs of Europe were pretty much Crusaded out.
Arghun’s campaign against Damascus never materialized, and not because of the failure to gain western support. In the Spring of 1290, the Mongol Golden Horde to his north began a series of raids into Persian territory. When a rebellion broke out in the important city of Khurasan at his eastern border, it meant any movement West toward the Mamluks was out of the question. A half year later, he became gravely ill and died in March of 1291. Subsequent Ilkhans gave up attempts at an alliance with the West against the Mamluks. Though Ghazan converted to Islam, he attacked Syria and was able to hand the Mamluks a temporary defeat. Not able to hold the territory, when the Mongols retreated, the Mamluks returned. They were never able to defeat the Mamluks after that.
As for the Europeans, while Edward & Philip were up for a Crusade, the Pope wouldn’t sanction one. The monarchs might have pressed the issue had it not been for their issues at home. This was a time when Europe was fractured and disunited. Their inability to take advantage of the alliance Arghun offered meant the Mamluks were eventually able to conquer the last Outremer fortresses in Tripoli, then Acre.
When Arghun died, Sauma’s promised church next to the palace hadn’t been built. The new Ilkhan wasn’t interested in the project, but at Sauma’s urging, he provided funds and permission for a new church to be built in the Nestorian headquarters in Maragha, next to Mar Yaballaha’s house. It took three yrs to construct the elaborate structure, which became the home for the many artifacts and relics the Rabban had collected on his travels. Now in his mid and late 60’s, Sauma settled into the life he’d lived years before as a young man; one of quiet study and personal ministry to everyday followers of Christ. He reports that this was the happiest and most fulfilling time of his long and eventful life.
His health failing, Sauma was determined to see his good friend Marcos who’d become the Nestorian Patriarch under the name Mar Yaballaha, one last time. Though Marcos’ residence was in Maragha where Sauma’s church was, the headquarters of the Nestorian church was in Baghdad, so the Patriarch spent a good amount of his time there. Sauma made the journey there, the last of his many travels. After an emotional meeting between the two friends who’d shared such amazing adventures and accomplished so much, Sauma’s body, wracked by intense pain, finally gave out. In was January of 1294.
Mar Yaballaha was inconsolable. He wept profusely for three straight days. That was followed by a melancholy that took months to dissipate. Then the Nestorian Catholicos engaged in a series of correspondences with the Roman Popes, following up on the lines of communication forged by Sauma.
But the goodwill toward the Church launched from Arghun’s appreciation for Sauma’s embassy to the West, began to wither with the Ilkhan Ghasan’s conversion to Islam. When Mar Yaballaha died in 1317, Christianity was on the decline across Persia and Central Asia. It would never recover. The glory days of The Church of the East were now in the past, being covered by a thick dust of obscurity.
Sauma’s records were discovered among his papers following his death but were lost after being translated by a Syrian scribe some 20 yrs later. THAT account, as we’ve already suggested, was most likely highly abbreviate, focusing almost entirely on the religious aspects of Sauma’s adventures, specifically the many relics he viewed. The additional information in the Syrian translation comes off as little more than a setting of context for the religious narrative. Sauma’s diplomatic activities are presented as an afterthought. But, in light of Sauma’s ground-breaking and boundary-smashing embassy to the West, surely he took pains to document more than the finger and shin bones of dead saints.
The Syrian translator does include Sauma’s journals of the years he spent in Persia after his return from Europe. He even goes on to recount the persecution of Christians that took place after Sauma’s death when Ghazan became Ilkhan. The translator admitted, “it was not our intention to relate and set out in order all the unimportant things which Rabban Sauma did and saw, we have abridged very much of what he wrote, . . . and even the things which are mentioned here have been abridged, or amplified, according to necessity.” That necessity being the translator’s interest in the religious, rather than political, aspects of Sauma’s quest.
And that may account for why Rabban Sauma has been largely overlooked by popular history. His political impact wasn’t recognized, subsumed as it was under the editorial bias of his early chronicler. Excised as well from his report were his observations of life in Western Europe, what would have been a tremendous boon to historians researching this period.
In conclusion, while Rabban Sauma never returned to China and the court of Khubilai Khan to complete his adventure, he did accomplish most of what he’d set out to do. His original ambition, encouraged by his friendship with the young Marcos, was a religious pilgrimage to the headquarters of the Nestorian Church in Baghdad and the centers of Western Christianity. His dream of visiting Jerusalem birthplace of The Faith went unrealized because of the Mamluk domination of Palestine.
Sauma as a genuine scholar who did more than read books. He went to the places they wrote about. He was a gifted linguist, a skilled theologian, an effective diplomat. He must have been an imminently likable fellow who got along with everyone. All who met him embraced him quickly and sought to include him as an ally. His immense wisdom was repeatedly demonstrated in his skill at avoiding subjects sure to arouse the ire of his hosts.
Finally, let’s briefly recap his accomplishments.
He began as a scholar-monk in the storied Church of the East. His life of quiet study in a tiny house in the mountains of China was interrupted by a teenager named Marcos who’d made Bar Sauma his hero. They became inseparable friends. Marcos’ itch to visit the places he and Sauma read about eventually infected Sauma with the same hunger. They appeared before the Great Khan Khubilai, asking permission to head West on a heretofore unheard pilgrimage to the birthplaces of their Nestorian Church and the Christian Faith. Khubilai not only permitted them, he endorsed them as envoys of his court to his Mongol allies in Persia, the Ilkhans.
The journey West crossed some of the most inhospitable territories on the Planet. They encountered a mind-numbing plethora of different cultures, languages, customs & foods. When they arrived in Persia, the corrupt Patriarch of their church tried to turn them into political pawns. They adroitly side-stepped his shenanigans. Then, when he died, Sauma helped to have his friend Marcos elected as the new Patriarch, the Nestorian Catholicos known to history as Mar Yaballaha.
After several years in Persia, the Mongol Ilkhan consented to allow Sauma to continue his trek West to visit the centers of European Christianity. He charged him with an additional task; being his official envoy asking for Christian Europe to mount another of the Crusades they’d staged over the previous couple centuries, to clear the Middle East of the Muslim Mamluks. Sauma then embarked on his second great journey, from Persia to Constantinople where he met the Emperor and Eastern Patriarch, then on to Rome where he met the dozen Cardinals meeting to select a new Pope. When they were unable to, he headed to Paris where he met with King Philip, then to Bordeaux to meet the English King Edward. Securing promises of an alliance with the Persian Mongols against the Mamluks, Sauma headed back to Rome where he met with the newly installed Pope Nicholas IV and helped serve the Easter celebrations.
When the Pope proved evasive in pledging support for a new crusade, Sauma headed back to Persia where he was welcomed by a grateful Ilkhan.
Every student in Western schools learns of the famous Marco Polo. Almost any account of the Age of Discovery that helped lift the Medieval world out of its moribundosity lists the adventures and of Marco Polo as one of its premier causes. His chronicle, written down by a fellow prisoner, became a best-seller in Europe and helped whet the appetite of Europeans for the exotic riches of the Far East. Rabban Sauma, who lived at about the same time, has been overlooked in the popular telling of history. Yet his travels and accomplishments far surpass those of Polo.
If only that Syrian translator had translated ALL Sauma’s journals! If only . . .
by Lance Ralston | Jul 29, 2018 | English |
This is the 11th episode in the story of Rabban Sauma, and we’re closing in on the conclusion.
After a month-long tour of the holy sites in and around Paris, Sauma had a final audience with King Philip. He meant it to be the crowning achievement in the royal treatment he’d lavished on the Chinese ambassador.
It was held in the upper chapel of Saint-Chapelle where the just completed stained glass windows filled the room with light, giving the room its nick-name – The Jewel Box. Being newly installed, the colors were vibrant. The windows tell a Biblical history of the world. The room also holds statues of the 12 Apostles and vivid paintings that all combine to literally dazzle the eye. But it was the relics the room held that would have most impressed the Rabban. Philip carefully opened an ornate box holding, what was reputed to be, Jesus’ crown of thorns. Another reliquary held a piece of wood from the cross.
While several of Paris’ relics were indeed brought back from the Holy Land after the first Crusade, these two had been secured by Philip’s grandfather St. Louis in Constantinople 40 yrs before. Saint-Chapelle was built as simply a large reliquary to hold their reliquaries.
Sauma’s account of viewing these precious relics reports the King told him they’d been secured during the First Crusade IN Jerusalem. Either Sauma misunderstood, or Philip intentionally misled him. Philip wanted to encourage the Rabban in his appeal for a new Crusade. It’s likely Philip fudged the facts so as to give Sauma the impression the French greatly honored the idea of a campaign to retake the Holy Land, even though he had no intention of making an imminent call for one. His behavior throughout the Rabban’s visit suggests he wanted to curry the favor of the Mongol Ilkhans. Furthering that impression was the envoy and letter he sent with Sauma when he eventually returned to Persia. Before leaving Paris. Philip loaded him with lavish gifts, which the pious and humble monk lumps under the heading, “lavish gifts” in his account.
So, armed by the assumption he’d secured the French King’s commitment to a Crusade in alliance with the Mongols in Persia against the Muslim Mamluks, Sauma headed west to see if he could recruit the English King Edward I. It was fortunate that Edward just so happened to be near at hand, visiting his lands in Gascony, a region on the west coast of France just north of Spain. After a 3 week journey, Sauma arrived in Bordeaux in the Fall of 1287.
Whereas the Parisians had plenty warning of the arrival of the Far Eastern Ambassador from the exotic Mongols and went all out in their celebration of greeting, the people of Bordeaux were surprised. “Who are you and why are you here,” they asked? When word was brought to King Edward, he sought to make amends for the poor way such an august figure had been greeted. Sauma smoothed over the rough start to his embassy among the English by giving Edward the gifts Ilkhan Arghun sent and letters of greeting from he and the Nestorian Catholicus Mar Yaballaha. Edward received them with marked appreciation, but it was when Rabban Sauma proposed an alliance with the Mongols against the Mamluks that he became most animated. “A new Crusade to liberate Jerusalem and bring aid to the beleaguered Outremer? Why that sounds stellar!” was his enthusiastic reaction. Only 6 months earlier, he’d vowed to take the cross. This seemed a glow of divine favor on his pledge, an affirmation of God’s delight in him.
While Edward intended to immediately embark on the adventure, events back home conspired to stall that plan. Wales rebelled, again; and entanglements on the Continent in the fractious politics and schemes of Europe hijacked his resources and attention.
But all of that was yet future; near future to be sure, but not yet. As far as Sauma was concerned, he had the support of both the Kings of England and France in the proposed alliance with the Mongol Ilkhans in Persia in their long desire to rout the Mamluks from the Middle East.
Furthering Sauma’s sense of favor by the English King was the invitation to officiate Communion for the royal court. Though Sauma consecrated and served the elements according to the ancient Syriac formula, it was enough akin to the Mass that the participants were easily able to follow along, understanding not the words, but the meaning behind each movement of the ritual.
And THAT – is simply remarkable!! Think of it. Though it’s the close of the 13th C, and these two branches of The Church have been sundered from each other for 800 yrs, when adherents from the two groups engage in the focal point of their religious service, though they can’t understand one another’s speech, they DO understand what’s happening, because the rite itself hasn’t fundamentally changed. That’s stunning, by anyone’s reckoning.
Once the service was finished, Edward threw a feast. It was his way to finalize and seal the agreement between England and Persia. Sauma didn’t record what this royal feast served, but we have accounts of some of Edwards’ other such feast. Let me just pass along the idea that you can go right ahead and picture the most raucous dining hall scene from any medieval movie with the ox spinning on a spit over a huge fire, chicken bones being thrown across the room in mass quantities, platers laden high with all kinds of bread and vegetables. And keg after keg of drink. Edward was known for these kinds of food & beverage extravaganzas.
And once again, having achieved his official duties as Arghun’s ambassador, Sauma turned to his personal mission; visiting the holy sites of Edwards’ domains on the Continent. Edward not only provided guides, he paid all Sauma’s expenses for this pilgrimage.
When he returned, Edward did something curious. He took pains to make sure Sauma understood that European Christians believed in Christ alone. It seems someone may have gotten to the King and informed him of the ancient rift between the Nestorian and Western Church. For his part, Sauma wasn’t going to throw over the much-needed alliance between East and West over nuances of theological wording that people who 800 years earlier had divided over – and THEY spoke the same language. A lengthy dissertation on the nature of the Trinity through translators just wasn’t practical. So Sauma let it go.
Late in 1287, with two-thirds of his mission accomplished, The Rabban decided it was time to head back to Rome and see if a new Pope had been selected. Two of Europe’s most powerful armies were now committed to the cause. All they needed was permission from Rome’s Bishop. By the end of the year, the obstinate cardinals still had not made a selection.
Fleeing the cold of the French winter, he traveled to Genoa to await the election of the New Pope. Sauma’s report of Genoa makes it clear it was maybe his favorite place in all his travels. The city was a beauty, the people warm and friendly.
As much as he loved Genoa, Sauma’s sense of responsibility began needling him. He wasn’t, as they say, getting any younger. The trip back to Persia with his report to Arghun was going to be another major epic in a life FILLED with them. If the last months’ long journey from Persia to the West had aged him years, the return trip would age the now sexagenarian a decade. He couldn’t return to Persia by hopping aboard a 747. It meant another rickety ship across some of the most dangerous waters of the Med, to Constantinople, then across the Black Sea with its plethora of pirates, to the western end of the Silk Roads, then across Mesopotamia to Persia. [And we complain when we need to hop in the car and drive to the market down the street!]
It’s not difficult sympathizing with Sauma’s rising guilt at enjoying Genoa when he knew how eager both his friend Mar Yaballaha and his ruler, Ilkhan Arghun was for his return and report. Sauma was a man with a profound sense of duty. What else could account for the multitude of manifest difficulties he’d endured over the previous decade? But Genoa had everything he’d been looking for in his pilgrimage. Duty won out over ease and Sauma began to chaff as he waited for the Cardinals in Rome to get it together.
They finally did. In February 1288 they elected Jerome of Ascoli as Pope Nicholas IV. It was an auspicious choice for Sauma’s mission. Some years before, Jerome had been Rome’s ambassador to Constantinople to see about effecting a reconciliation between East & West. The effort proved unfruitful, but it made Jerome more aware of the needs and sensitives of the Eastern Church. If any Europeans can be said to be aware of the threat the Mamluks presented the Faith, Pope Nicholas IV was among them.
It helped Sauma’s cause that Nicholas was one of the people he’d spent considerable time conversing with when he’d before been in Rome. The two had hit it off, despite the language barrier.
Nicholas sent an envoy to Genoa requesting Sauma’s return to the Eternal City. Two weeks later, as Sauma’s party reached Rome’s outskirts, they were met by a delegation of church officials welcoming him to the City.
Ushered into Nicholas’ presence, Sauma showed him the highest form of obeisance he could by bowing on hands and knees, kissing the Pope’s hands and feet, then rising to walk backward with arms crossed at the wrists before his chest; a Nestorian sign of the utmost honor. Sauma then delivered the last of his official letters and gifts from Arghun and Mar Yaballaha.
Nicholas showed his ready acceptance of Sauma’s embassy and person by requesting he stay and celebrate Easter with his Western brethren. Nicholas knew that Sauma, as a Nestorian Rabban, would feel the need to officiate at the events of Holy Week in some church setting. So rather than travel, we suggested he stay and plan on doing so there in Rome. Plush lodgings were secured for him and his attendants.
Sauma then began preparations for Easter celebrations. He requested permission to conduct Mass so as to show Western Christians how it was done in the Nestorian tradition. The pope not only granted him permission, he showed great curiosity to witness the ritual. When the time came, a huge crowd was on hand. When all was said and done, the consensus was the same as in Bordeaux. While the language was different, the ritual was so similar as to make the differences inconsequential. So interesting was Sauma’s conduct at the Mass, the Pope invited him to officiate at more services over the next few weeks. The Rabban asked in return of the Pope would favor him by serving him the Eucharist, which Nicholas heartily assented to. The day was Palm Sunday of 1288.
Sauma reports that the crowds attending service that day were beyond anything his imagination could have conjured. People literally filled the streets, carrying branches of palms and olives.
On Maunday Thursday of the next week, so many people packed the church where the Pope held Mass that when they said a united “Amen” the walls shook. The service over, the Pope then made the rounds of several locations in Rome where he bestowed blessing and favor on various people and artifacts. He ended by bringing his entire household staff together and washing their feet. Sauma was hugely impressed with this act of papal humility, describing it in depth. The day ended with a huge feast for some 2000.
Good Friday began with a procession from the Church of the Holy Cross, where the Pope held aloft a piece of the Cross as massive crowds once again attended the scene. The rest of the day was spent in quiet meditation on the sacrifice of Christ.
Saturday saw the Pope making the rounds to bestow more blessing on individual shrines and folk. Then Easter Sunday services were conducted in the ancient Church of Saint Maria Maggiore.
Sauma knew his fellow Nestorians were curious about the practices of their Western Cousins, so he paid close attention to all that was happening around him., recording the events in as intimate detail as he could.
Easter being complete and his mission now finished, Sauma asked permission to return home. Nicholas asked him to stay. Sauma struck for compromise He was more than pleased to stay, especially since it came from a sincere request on the part of the Pope with whom he was getting along well. BUT, a higher purpose was to be served in his return to Persia where he could share with the Mongol ruler the favorable reception he’d been shown across Europe. Certainly, that had to be a good harbinger of a future alliance. When word got out about the success of Sauma’s mission, lingering tensions between East & West would subside. Such was the nature of medieval diplomacy.
Then Sauma made a request that threatened to blow everything up.
Picture that scene in a movie where two parties who are potential enemies, are in fact getting along and everyone’s on pins and needles hoping for a new day of peace. Then there’s a pause, and one of them says something that threatens to ruin it all. But the representative of the other aide at first just stares at them with a look of, well. That’s the problem; no one knows what to think. And everyone starts moving their hand slowly toward their gun because they think, “Oh no. This is it. Get ready to start shooting.” But then the guy breaks out in a huge smile and starts laughing. The tension is immediately released.
That’s the scene when Sauma asked the Pope, for … Ready? è Some sacred relics. At first, Nicholas was stunned at the boldness of Sauma’s request. Nay; it was more than bold; it was brazen. He told the Rabban that if he were in the habit of giving relics to every foreign emissary who came to see him, there’d soon be nothing left in Rome to give.
Still, in light of Sauma’s perilous and long journey, he was pleased to give Sauma some treasures to take home. He gave him some scraps of cloth from clothes that were said to have belonged to Jesus and Mary, as well as various relics of different saints and special vestments for Mar Yaballaha. Maybe the most significant gift Nicholas bestowed was a letter patent authorizing Mar Yaballaha and his Nestorian Catholicus successors as the authority over the Church of the East. He gave Rabban Sauma a letter patent naming him Visitor General for all churches of the East, not just China, as the previous Nestorian Patriarch had done.
Implied in Nicholas’ issuing of these letter-patents was that HE, as the Roman Pope, had jurisdiction over the East. Sauma might like to have contested that. But what point? It’s not like he was going to get Nicholas to back down. For goodness sake, the question of prime ecclesiastical authority had been going on for hundreds of years. Sauma was under no illusion he was going to set things right now. Rather, all he could do was blow up the alliance that seemed to be a done deal.
After giving Sauma a large gift of gold to help pay his expenses, Sauma began preparations to return home.
Nicholas gave Sauma a letter for Arghun, thanking the Mongol ruler for his beneficent rule of the Christians of his realm and thanking him for his offer of an alliance against the Mamluks. A copy resides in the Vatican museum. Then Nicholas launched into an appeal for both Mongols and Nestorians to submit to papal authority. He urged Arghun to convert to Christianity post haste and be baptized under the authority of Rome.
Then he indicated while Sauma had indeed faithfully transmitted the Ilkhan’s desire for an alliance, he and he alone could call a Crusade. The secular rulers of Europe might be gung-ho but they had no authority to approve a Crusade. Only he, as the head of the Church, possessed that right. AND, knowing the mindset of the rest of Europe, besides the monarchs of England and France, a Crusade wasn’t in the cards at that time. So he adroitly side-stepped making a commitment, while at the same time, encouraging the Mongols to do their best against the common enemy.
Arghun had indicated a willingness in his letter to the Pope to convert and be baptized IF that baptism could be done in a reclaimed Jerusalem, one free of the Mamluk scourge. Nicholas said Arghun had it backward. He ought to convert and be baptized NOW. That would assure him of heaven’s favor in any campaign he undertook. His example would surely lead to mass conversions, furthering the promise of divine favor.
So the Pope didn’t out-right turn down an alliance not forbid a Crusade. He just shifted the emphasis of his letter onto the need for Arghun to trust God and surrender to him, which of course would be done by accepting the Roman Church’s hegemony over his realm.
Nicholas wasn’t done with his letter writing. He penned one to Mar Yaballaha as well. This one began by praising the Nestorian Catholicus for his wise leadership of a challenged Church. But then it went into a long lecture on “proper” Christian doctrine, something the Nestorian Patriarch wasn’t at all likely to look kindly on. The last paragraph was a blatant and tactless statement of the supremacy of the Roman church.
Since these letters were open, Sauma read them both. He was deeply disappointed at the tone they took with the two men he reported to. Their condescending tone was sure to dishearten and alienate their recipients. The Pope refusal to sanction a Crusade or give any support to the proposed alliance seemed to make his entire trip West pointless.
No doubt disappointed, Sauma managed to tamp down any expression of it in his concluding meeting with the Pope. He was probably just glad to be quitting the West & the prospect of going home.
We’ll wrap up Bar Sauma’s magnificent tale in our next episode.
by Lance Ralston | Jul 22, 2018 | English |
This is episode 10 in the on-going epic saga of the Chinese Marco Polo – Rabban Sauma.
Realizing he couldn’t get anything done in Rome since there was no Pope, and that the dozen cardinals charged with the task of selecting him were competing for the post, Sauma decided to take his request for a military alliance between Christian Europe and Mongol Persia against the Muslims Mamluks in the Middle East, directly to the Kings of France and England.
Leaving Rome, he stopped in Genoa on his way to North. Since Genoa had for some years maintained a thriving trade with the Ilkhanate, that is the Mongols in Persia, Sauma had every reason to expect a warm welcome. He wasn’t disappointed. It didn’t hurt that one of the interpreters who’d accompanied him from Persia was a native-born Genoese merchant.
Genoa was at the height of its prosperity when Sauma visited, boasting a population of 70,000, one of the largest in Europe. Its merchants were savvy negotiators who’d been able to arrange deals not only around the Mediterranean but reaching into the Far East. While other Italian City-States like Naples and Venice set up lucrative trade routes with select partners, Genoa was able to walk a tight-rope of diplomacy across dozens of partners who were otherwise in conflict with each other. Because of their wide-ranging connections, many realms of thought and practice combined to influence the intellectual life of Genoa. It was a truly cosmopolitan city whose routine wasn’t knocked off kilter by the arrival of an Embassy form the Far East.
While the commerce of Genoa was well established, its government was another matter. Genoa seemed unable to find a political system that satisfied the city’s need for longer than a decade. At the time of Sauma’s visit, the city’s ruler was called a Captain of the People, or Citizens. He rallied the population of Genoa to officially welcome Sauma’s party. Sauma was confused; not able to understand how such a large city wasn’t ruled by a king. Knowing how far-reaching Genoa’s trade was, Sauma wondered if it might even have been better ruled by an Emperor.
Once settled into the accommodations made available to him, Sauma plotted his next moves. If it occurred to him to ask the Genoese to join an alliance against the Mamluks, he quickly put it aside. The Genoese would not be drawn into a war with a force that dominated the entire Eastern Med. In fact, forging treaties was what they were known for. When they went to war, it was with their rival Italian City-States, all for the golden prize of increasing trade with everyone else. And Genoa was at that time gearing up for a campaign against their major rival Venice, which it would soon best.
So, after visiting the religious sites in an near Genoa, Sauma once again packed up and headed north toward France.
Sauma’s hope of help from the French was keen. After all King Louis IX, known to history as St. Louis, had played a major role in 2 Crusades to liberate the Middle East from the Muslim presence. But his son, Philip III, known as Philip the Bold, had been more concerned with securing his control of France and her neighbors. His son, Philip IV, known as Philip the Fair and later as The Iron King, had only been on the throne for 2 yrs when Sauma arrived in Paris. Barely 20 yrs of age, everyone wondered if he’d reprise the career of his famous grandfather or his more mundane father. It seemed a most propitious time for the Rabban’s embassy, as setting out on a new Crusade to liberate the Holy Land from the Mamluks would appeal to the energy and ambitions of a young ruler seeking to make his mark.
Arriving at the French border in August of 1287, Sauma’s party was greeted by a large force sent by the King to escort him to Paris. They entered the City at the end of September to much pomp & circumstance. Sauma was then ushered to palatial digs provided by King Philip. And it was time for a break for the Chinese Monk-ambassador.
The trip from Genoa to Paris took a month. While the journey was nowhere near as arduous as that which he’d undertaken a decade before from China to Persia, he was now in his 60’s and the entire adventure was taken a toll on his aging body. He’s been traveling for the past 6 months from Persia, to the Black Sea, Constantinople, Naples, Rome, Genoa, and now Paris. Keep in mind there were no Holiday, Ramada or Quality Inns along the way. The caravanserais they’d enjoyed earlier were far away in Asia. They overnighted either along the roadside or in small public houses where the bedding was rarely changed. The quality of the food was most often abysmal because it was the only thing to be had by travelers.
So by the time Sauma arrived in Paris, he was exhausted and needed to rest. Philip recognized that and set aside three days for him to recoup. Then he sent a formal invitation for the Nestorian monk to attend an official audience with his majesty. When Sauma arrived at court, Philip rose to greet him; an unusual gesture for a European monarch at that time. Guests at court were usually required to process a long path to the dais holding the throne, stopping at the foot of the stairs, they then bowed and remained thus in a posture of supplication until told to stand. The entire time the king remained seated. Rising to greet Sauma was a surprising move on Philip’s part because it signaled the court the French King viewed Sauma as an equal.
Then, it was down to business. Why, Philip asked, as Sauma there? What did he want? Why had he come and who’d sent him?
If Sauma was surprised by the bluntness of the king’s query, he recovered quickly and responded in kind. He told Philip that while originally set on a religious pilgrimage endorsed and sponsored by the Great Khubilai Khan in China, he’d been made the Mongol Ilkhanate in Persia’s official envoy back to Khubilai’s court. But before returning to China to fulfill that task, he’d been given a special assignment: Travel West to the Christian rulers of Western Europe, asking them for an alliance with the Ilkhanate against the Mamluks and recovery Jerusalem from Muslim control. Sauma then handed Philip the letter and gifts from Ilkhan Arghun. These gifts were most likely the kinds of things that would convey the seriousness of the embassy, but could be easily transported by individuals traveling light; jewels, small packages of luxurious silk cloth, so highly prized by the elite of Western Europe.
Sauma reports the French King was favorable toward the proposed alliance. Philip was moved by the Mongols desire to free Jerusalem from Muslim hegemony, even though those Mongols weren’t officially Christian. Philip remarked that Christian Europe ought to rise to the challenge presented by the Ilkhans. Rabban Sauma was equally impressed by the King’s devotion to the Faith and his interest in embarking on a new Crusade. For the first time, Sauma’s mission to the West seemed to be bearing fruit.
BUT: Sauma wasn’t hip to European politics which had shaped Philip’s exuberant response. Philip was less interested in a Crusade to recapture the Holy Land as he was in securing his control over the contested domains of his north. Ever since ascending the throne, he’d been in contention with England’s King Edward I who owed him fealty in Gascony. In the Spring of 1286, Edward went to Paris to pay Philip honor as his suzerain. But Philip never bought this show of fealty. He had reason to distrust Edward since England backed France’s enemies in the contentious affairs in Aragon. Tensions between the two rulers grew until war broke out in 1294.
Another trouble Philip dealt with was a degenerating relationship with the Roman Church. Needing funds in his campaigns to secure the North, the French monarch confiscated the tithes destined for Rome. His nobles already struggled with the burdensome taxes the crown had levied. The only place to secure the much-needed funds was the Church. So in an appeal to nationalism, Philip said French gold and silver ought to stay in France, not shipped off to Rome and the interests of the Pope, whose schemes were cast as contrary to French well-being. All of this would later lead to the major rift that occurred between the French crown and Papacy that we covered in Season One of CS.
While Philip’s enthusiastic response to Sauma’s appeal was no doubt sincere, on further reflection, Philip realized mounting a new Crusade wasn’t practical. At least not in the short term. Maybe after movement on his domestic fronts, a Crusade could be staged.
On Sauma’s part, having achieved seeming success on the official phase of his embassy, he turned to his personal adventure; visiting the religious sites of Paris and its environs. Philip assigned him an escort and off they went visiting churches and shrines; Sauma once again focusing on relics rather than the marvelous architecture and art.
The Rabban was stunned by the large number of students in Paris, which was one of the sites of the new centers of learning called universities. He reports there were 30,000 students in the City.
And that brings up a point of historical tension it might be wise for us to skim the surface of.
As many subscribers know, the value of numbers in reporting of history has been a contentious issue for a long time. The tension comes over the almost universal tendency of ancient historians to give big numbers while many modern historians are committed to reducing those numbers to a tenth of the original. We see that here. Sauma says Paris had 30,000 students. Modern historians say the City of that time had maybe 3,000. This assumed inflation of numbers by the ancients and chroniclers of yore is just about universal among modern historians. Some wonder if that skepticism is valid. The fact that nearly ALL pre-modern accounts give much larger figures than modern historians allow is provocative. Recent archaeology has caused historians to revise their estimates of population upwards in some cases, significantly.
It’ll be interesting for those of us who are historically interested, to watch what happens in the realm of statistics over the next few years as researchers review past assumptions in light of new evidence. Since I tend to give the ancients more credit for veracity, I suspect we’ll see a revising of the numbers upward, dramatically.
The University of Paris’s primary course of study was theology. But the school quickly branched out into other areas, including law, medicine, philosophy, rhetoric, and math. The pursuit of these subjects was boosted by a renewal of interest in the recently-published works of Aristotle.
As a self-taught scholar who’d studied everything he could get his hands on back in China, Sauma quite impressed with Paris’ schools.
Sauma’s chronicle relates his impression of the gorgeous Church of Saint-Denis where French monarchs were interred. He mentions the Chapel of Sainte-Chapelle, but he gives no mention of the nearby Notre Dame; the pride and joy of Paris whose spire could be seen from anywhere in the city. Indeed, Notre Dame and Paris become synonymous. So why does the Rabban omit it from his account? Several opinions are given, probably the best of which is the most obvious. Sauma was a Nestorian monk. He belonged to the Church of the East, a branch of the Faith severed from the West over the identity of Mary. Was she Theotokos, the Mother of God as the West said, or Christotokos, Mother of Christ, as the East said? The Cathedral of Notre Dame was all about the Virgin Mary. Sauma most likely left off mentioning his visit to Notre Dame because of his desire to not end up saying a bunch of critical things about his stay.
We’ll finish up his time in Paris and get into his trip north to meet the King of England in our next episode as we move to conclude the amazing tale of Rabban Sauma.
by Lance Ralston | Jul 15, 2018 | English |
This is Episode 9 in the on-going epic tale of Rabban Sauma.
Finally, Sauma has arrived in Europe. After two months aboard ship, his party arrives in Naples. Which is unusual because the trip from Constantinople ought to have taken less than a month. Here again, it’s Sauma’s account that seems to be lacking detail. Being a commercial vessel, most likely they’d used the route to further their business, so had put into port along the way for days at a time.
Sauma took some time in Naples to recover from the long voyage before setting out for Rome. While there, staying at a mansion provided by the ruling family of Anjou, Sauma witnessed from the roof, the Battle of the Counts on June 23rd in the Bay of Naples. This was part of the larger War of the Sicilian Vespers between the Houses of Aragon and Anjou. Sauma says the Anjou lost 12,000 men. What surprised him was the care given by both sides to avoid harming non-combatants. Familiar with the Mongol method of war, Sauma assumed no distinction between civilians and soldiers in battle. He was deeply impressed by the caution exercised in the fighting to avoid civilian casualties.
Naples had proven to be unsafe due to the conflict, so Sauma decided it was best to leave, even before having a chance to visit the city’s religious sites. An unusual move for him since that was his personal primary motivation. His unease may have been due to the sketchy political situation he sensed taking place around him. Better to ‘git’ while the ‘gitting’ was good.
So they packed up and headed for Rome.
The trip across Italy was yet another surprise for the Chinese monk. There was simply little landscape without some kind of settlement. Whether that was a solitary farm, hamlet, village, town, or city, the road led across a land that was, to Sauma’s thinking, filled with people. This was in sharp contrast with the territory he’d spent the previous decade in. It was possible to travel for days in Central Asia and not see another soul nor evidence of settlement. The path he now took went up and down hills, but after the towering peaks he’d traversed earlier in his pilgrimage, they were but bumps in the road.
As he approached Rome, he rehearsed his speech to the Pope, asking for him to call a Crusade of Europe’s’ monarch against the Muslim Mamluks that would coincide with a Mongol attack from the East. But word was carried to Sauma that Pope Honorius IV had died in early April. Instead of being disheartened, Sauma increased his pace, hoping to be among the first to speak to the new Pope.
But it was not to be. The twelve cardinals charged with the task of selecting the pope couldn’t reach a decision, largely because several of them wanted to wear Peter’s ring.
Arriving in the City, he sent word to the Cardinals of his presence, requesting an audience. Surprisingly, they invited him into that sacred place where the pope is chosen, the papal palace next to the Church of Santa Sabina. No one else was allowed into their deliberations but their closest assistant. So this was an uncommon honor. Even so, Sauma was briefed on proper etiquette when meeting the Cardinals. He made a good impression and proved a welcome distraction from the grinding machinations of the would-be popes. Their task proved so stressful, half of the Cardinals died before the end of that Summer.
After initial introductions and realizing how far the Rabban had traveled, the Cardinals expressed their dismay and concern for his health. They assumed it would take weeks for him to recover his strength and urged him to rest. He assured them his stay in Naples had been sufficient and that he had pressing, indeed, supremely urgent matters to share with the Pope. In this way, he hoped to impress on them the need to be quick to find Honorius’s replacement.
But they would not be hurried. They insisted he get more rest and pondered what his arrival and embassy might mean for the future of Europe and the Church. How might Sauma’s mission effect WHO they selected as the next Pope? Should they pick someone who’d be amenable to his request for an alliance with the Ilkhans, or someone who’d refuse?
They decided it was best to avoid political discussions with the Rabban altogether. A safer subject, and one of genuine interest to them, was Sauma’s faith. How was the Church of the East now different from the Roman church? The rift that had separated East and West occurred all the way back in the 5th C. It was over 800 yrs later. How had the two expressions of the Christian Faith diverged, they wondered. And how had Christianity reached all the way to the Far East so that a monk would embark on such a seemingly impossible pilgrimage as Sauma had?
In his account Sauma admits some frustration with the Cardinals’ refusal to let him pursue his political assignment. But when it was clear they would not entertain his embassy along those lines, he warmed to the task of explaining his beliefs and the history of the Nestorian Church.
Sauma explained that the headquarters of his church was in Baghdad and that he was the Patriarch of the Church of the East’s official representative to the court of the famous Khubilai Khan. The Cardinals were eager to hear how Christianity had reached China. Of chief concern to them was who’d brought them the Gospel. Sauma spoke of the Apostle Thomas who carried the message of Christ to Mesopotamia, Persia, and all the way to India. Thaddaeus and Mari also played a role in planting churches in the East. These were all names the Cardinals were familiar with and settled any concerns they had that the Nestorian Church rested on an apostolic foundation.
Sauma told them of the extensive missionary activity of the Nestorian Church. They’d planted churches among the Mongols, Turks, and Chinese. Their outreach to the children of the Mongol elite had proven especially effective. Then he brought the conversation back round to his embassy. Christianity was favored in the Mongol realm of Persia. In fact, the Ilkhan leader Arghun was a good friend and supporter of the Nestorian Catholicus Mar Yaballaha. Like the Europeans, Arghun wanted to dislodge the Mamluks from the Middle East. “Hey, how about an alliance?”
The Cardinals retreated to safe ground. They couldn’t agree to anything without a pope, they said. Besides, the previous Pope, Honorius IV, had already tried to rally support for a campaign against the Mamluks, but Europeans leaders weren’t interested.
So the Cardinals once more shifted the conversation back to theological issues. They wanted to know how closely the Nestorian Church aligned with Catholic doctrine. Sauma said no envoy from the Pope nor representative from the Vatican had come East with those doctrines. What the Nestorians believed was drawn from the apostles and fathers he’d mentioned earlier. The Cardinals asked him for a run-down of Nestorian theology.
This was a critical moment for Sauma. He needed to keep the door open with them. But he was aware of some differences between Nestorian & Catholic doctrine, especially in regard to the nature of Christ.
Consider for a moment how monumental the task was for Sauma. He has to explain the complexities of theology, specifically the intricacies of the Trinity, in Persian, which is then translated into Latin. The Cardinals listen, formulate questions for clarification, speak them in Latin which is translated into Persian and passed along to Sauma. For goodness sake! It’s difficult enough explaining the Trinity to someone in your own tongue.
Sauma’s managed to describe the Nestorian belief in the nature of Christ in such a way that the Cardinals took no offense. Next, they queried his beliefs about the Holy Spirit. He engaged them in a back and forth Socratic dialog that not only satisfied their concerns about his doctrine but greatly impressed them with his erudition.
In fact, Rabban Sauma’s replies, included in his account of the meeting, did convey ideas the Cardinals would have found heretical. But it seems they wanted to avoid controversy as much as he did. Realizing further discussion with its parsing of details would only increase the chance of running afoul of their favor, Sauma indicated he thought his explanation of Nestorian theology was sufficient. He now realized the lack of a head for the Catholic church was a hindrance to his mission. He asked the Cardinals to appoint him someone who could take him round the religious sites to be seen in Rome. They assigned him several monks to escort him on a tour of the Eternal City’s churches and monasteries.
The first and most impressive site he was shown was the old Basilica of St. Peter in the Vatican. Of course, what he saw is not the St. Peter’s of today. That wasn’t built till the 16th & 17th Cs. Still, the church of his time was massively larger than anything he’d seen besides the Hagia Sophia. He wrote of it, “The extent of that temple and its splendors cannot be described.” He was shown the 180 columns erected by Constantine, the altar from which only the Pope served Mass, Peter’s Chair, and Peter’s tomb, in which a gold sarcophagus was placed inside a bronze coffin, topped by a solid gold cross weighing 150 pounds.
Sauma was especially impressed by a relic purported to bear the image of Christ. Another feature in the church he enthused over was a throne on which popes crowned emperors. He reports his guides told him the pope picked up the royal crown from the floor with their feet, transferred it to their hands then placed it on the ruler’s head. This showed the supremacy of the Church over State; that secular power was under religious authority.
Either Sauma’s misunderstood or was misinformed. That wasn’t the procedure. After being crowned, the Emperor knelt and kissed the Pope’s feet. But it was a ritual going out of practice by Sauma’s time. Hostility between popes and monarchs was already growing.
After seeing St. Peter’s Basilica, Sauma was shown several other sites, all of major significance to the faith in Rome. While the architecture and furnishings of these churches and shrines were remarkable, Sauma’s account gives little attention to that aspect of them. He was far more interested in the hundreds of relics he was shown. Body parts, clothing, instruments, items tied to the Biblical stories of the saints were his special fascination. It’s clear Sauma attached deep spiritual significance to these relics, giving them a special place as means of communicating grace to his soul.
Having had his fill of the religious dimensions of Rome, and realizing the absence of a pope was stalling his mission, he decided to carry out the next phase of his task, visiting the rulers of Western Europe. The subject of our next episode.
by Lance Ralston | Jul 8, 2018 | English |
This is episode 8 in the remarkable tale of a Chinese Marco Polo named Rabban Sauma.
Well, it’s taken us 7 episodes to get to the point of Sauma’s story that’s set him as a historical figure we even know about. If it weren’t for what follows, even though he’s already lived a genuinely epic life, he’d be little more than a footnote to his companion Marcos’ story. For it was Marcos, not Sauma who became the Catholicos, the reigning patriarch of the entire Nestorian Church, under the name of Mar Yaballaha III.
But it’s what happens next that moves Sauma into the ranks of history’s greatest tales.
Having been commissioned and provisioned by the Mongol Ilkhan Arghun in Persia to head west with an embassy to the Christian rulers of Europe to enter an alliance against the Muslim Mamluks holding the Middle East, Rabban Sauma set out in early 1287.
This section of his travels was nothing like his earlier trek from China to Persia, fraught as that had been with trackless deserts and precipitous peaks. The geography was far more easily traversed, and the population more dense, so there was little worry for provisions along the way. One thing that was similar to the earlier journey was the numerous bandits and petty warlords, then the pirates that sailed the Black and Mediterranean Seas.
Accompanying him were a couple European merchants who’d been conducting business in the East and could act as translators. Mostly like due to the editing of Sauma’s Syrian translator, described in the last episode, the route he took from Persia to the Black Sea is omitted from the account. He most likely took the main caravan route that passed through Mosul in Mesopotamia and ended at Trebizond.
Because this route was well travelled by an ever-burgeoning column of merchants, caravanserais were established every 20 miles. These were large camps were caravans could replenish and night. Each caravanserai had a large central court surrounded by a curtained area, open to the sky, for various functions, like, sleeping, bathing, and prayers. Larger, more established caravanserais had mosques, churches, or conversely, brothels. Caravanserais provided protection from local bandits as well as entertainment in the form of jugglers, dancers, and storytellers. A good number of Arabic folk tales center on the life of the caravanserais. Merchants, guides, and camel grooms passed along information about local conditions to one another, as well as news from the wider world.
At Trebizond, Sauma’s party entered a ship to sail over the Black Sea. The ship must have been a large one as it held 300 passengers. Sauma reports it was overcrowded, lacked adequate provisions and had no accommodations for sleeping. Sauma made the best of the time by giving lectures on the tenets of his faith which the other passengers and crew found interesting. Fortunately, the trip was both uneventful and short. No storms or pirates troubled them. A few days after launching from Trebizond, they landed at Constantinople.
Now in the capital of the Byzantine Empire, Sauma followed the pattern he’d keep for the rest of his adventure in the West. He immediately sought contact with the ruler. He sent two assistants to the palace notifying officials there of the arrival of an embassy from the Mongol Court of Persia. Of course, these assistants weren’t the first to bear news to Emperor Andronicus II of the arrival of someone of importance from the East. The Byzantine Empire was, after all, Byzantine; the Emperor had eyes and ears everywhere. That’s why Sauma was careful to make sure he reached out to Andronicus quickly. Lest the Emperor begin to wonder why he was there. Now notified of Sauma’s desire for an audience, officials were sent from court to issue a formal invitation.
Sauma was greeted with pomp and ceremony. He was received in the Great Palace, then undergoing repairs after the Venetian occupation of Constantinople the indignities they inflicted on the City. Following the welcoming ceremonies, Andronicus assigned Sauma’s party a place to stay on the palace grounds. After a few day’s rest, the formal audience was held.
And about that à There’s not much to say. Whether the Syrian translator edited the account, or Sauma omitted the real cause of his trip west, we don’t know. They began with some innocuous pleasantries.
“How was the trip?” // “Fine.”
“Are you rested now?” // “Yes. Thank you. The food here is marvelous. I especially love the candied dates.”
Then Sauma asked permission to visited local Christian sites and view relics. If Andronicus was wondering WHY the Ilkhan sent this embassy, now it seemed clear. It was a religious venture; a pilgrimage – all the rage at that time.
So – a little background on where the Byzantines stood in terms of the political situation in the Middle East.
Andronicus’ father, Emperor Michael Palaeologus, had married his daughter Maria to the Mongol Ilkhan Abakha. But that was just to cool any hostility the Ilkhans might have toward him. He sought at the same time to steer a middle course with the Ilkhan’s enemies the Golden Horde and the Mamluks. When Andronicus ascended the throne, he continued his father’s policy. He wasn’t about to break the tenuous but lucrative trade agreements with the Horde & Mamluks for a military alliance with the Ilkhans. But – being ultra pious, he understood the motivation of a man like Sauma who simply came to visit the religious sites of the West. Granting him permission to do so would upset no alliances.
It’s likely Sauma knew this and so didn’t even broach the subject with the Emperor. If he hadn’t been forewarned back in Persia of the political situation, he no doubt was given a heads up by a Byzantine official who’d been dispatched ahead of the royal audience to provide Sauma a briefing on the state of affairs as well as proper procedure for abiding by court etiquette. The Emperor ought not be put in the place of having to say “No” to an official envoy. That just wouldn’t be kosher. So it’s likely Sauma was briefed on what subjects could and couldn’t come up during their meeting.
And – truth be told, aside from his assignment as Arghun’s envoy, Sauma’s real goal—his personal ambition was religious. If he’d had his druthers, he’d have skipped the whole military-alliance-proposal deal and just gone sight-seeing. But, he’d given his word and would keep it. The problem was, keeping it with Andronicus might very well have ended his embassy if the Emperor felt his interests were best served by not allowing Sauma to continue his journey west. The LAST thing the Byzantines wanted was another Crusade by those pesky Europeans, coming over with their knights, getting all worked up into a lather about reclaiming the Holy Lands. They were still recovering from the previous debacles. So, Sauma played nice. Smiled a lot, and asked an easy give; something Andronicus was more than happy to oblige—permission to visit the religious sites of his realm.
The Rabban was enthralled by what he saw. The Hagia Sophia stunned him, as was to be expected and as it had every other visitor since the 6th Century. Another wonder was the sheer number of churches in the city, many of them being architectural marvels in their own right. While Christianity dated back to the 8th Century in the Far East, Christians were never found in large numbers. The Nestorian church was well rooted in the East, but was a minority. They never commanded the resources the Western Church had. Even in Mesopotamia, birthplace of the Church of the East, their buildings were simple and functional, given much less ornamentation.
While Sauma gave passing descriptions of some of the monasteries and churches he’d visited so far in his journeys, the Hagia Sophia was the first he described in detail. Besides the architecture, he elaborated on the contents; its ornaments, art, and relics. Many of these had been looted by the Venetians in the 4th Crusade earlier that Century and replaced with replicas. Sauma was either unaware of that, or didn’t care. His account lists them as legit.
In a bit of local truth-bending, Sauma was shown a portrait of the Virgin Mary supposedly painted by St. Luke, the hand of John the Baptist and body parts of Lazarus and Mary Magdalene. He saw the tombs of both Constantine and Justinian. Which is strange, because Constantine’s not buried in the Hagia Sophia.
This and many other wonders in and around the royal city dazzled him.
Maybe the most unusual site Sauma visited was the Monastery of St. Michael where the bodies of the 318 orthodox bishops who’d attended the 4th C Council of Nicaea were reputed to be buried; their bodies said to bear no mark of decomposition.
To the lament of historians, missing from Sauma’s account is any record of his observation on the great differences in the cultures of East and West. What a treasure it would be to read his account of daily life in what was for him, The West. Either Sauma didn’t care to record it, or more likely, his Syrian translator deleted it as it didn’t advance his goal of giving a religious travelogue.
Another option is that Sauma prepared two accounts of his journey; an official diplomatic account in which he recorded the details of his embassy, and another more personal one chronicling just his religious pilgrimage. The first he intended for the Mongol Ilkhans, the second was for his fellows Nestorians. The first has been lost to us while it’s the second personal account we possess. If this option holds, we still might expect a bit more detail on Sauma’s description of daily life and customs in the West. And the account we do have, does include a record, brief as it may be, of his diplomatic dealings.
Most likely, in addition to the Syrian translator’s editing of the account, Sauma depended on local guides to take him round the sites. Those guides were assigned by local officials, who most certainly had given strict instructions on what Sauma was to be shown and not shown. Both Byzantines and Europeans knew right well that deception was part and parcel of the Mongolian strategy. They’d already tasted the bitter side of that Mongolian tactic. Who knew but that the Mongols were using this seeming religious pilgrimage as a scouting foray in preparation for a new invasion? So Sauma may have been shielded from meeting commoners or learning about the daily life of the average citizen with their views on the politics of the era. Rulers aren’t keen for potential enemies to learn of unrest in their realm.
If we flip it, and consider Europeans like Marco Polo and John of Plano Carpini who went East, their time was spent almost exclusively with the elite. They were kept on a tight leash by their hosts.
Well, after getting his fill of the sites round Constantinople, and realizing he couldn’t even bring up the subject of an alliance between the Byzantines and Ilkhans, Sauma decided it was time to move on. He had a last audience with Andronicus, explaining that he needed to continue his journey West. The Emperor loaded him with a substantial gift of gold and silver to help with the costs of the journey and sent him off with his blessing. In the middle of April, 1287, Sauma’s embassy set sail for Naples.
Sauma’s account describes the voyage as fraught with peril. The path they took was often struck by storms. Shipwrecks were common along the route. And – there was a dangerous sea serpent that harassed travelers. è Uh – no! This was surely a fabrication on the part of the ship’s crew trying to make the trip more interesting for themselves at the passengers’ expense. What fun terrifying a bunch of people, making yourself look so brave for sailing these dangerous waters for a living. Telling harrowing tales of seas monsters and the many friends lost at sea.
One note of interest was Sauma’s report of a volcano they saw pouring smoke into the air. That was most likely Mt Etna in Italy, which exploded on June 18, 1287. After two months of travel, they landed in Naples, exhausted both physically and emotionally.
by Lance Ralston | Jul 1, 2018 | English |
This is the 7th episode in the on-going saga of Rabban Sauma.
Last episode ended with the Mongol Ilkhan Arghun in Persia surrounded by enemies. He had a powerful ally in the Great Khan Khubilai, but Persia and China were too far apart and Khubilai was already locked into his own troubles in his contest with his cousin Khaidu.
Arghun had risen to the Ilkhanate in Persia by supplanting his nemesis Ahmad, a pro-Muslim ruler who’d been removed & executed after a short reign. Arghun worried Ahmad’s allies, the Muslim Mamluks to the West would embark on a campaign to conquer Persia. But as he looked for allies, the offerings were slim. Khubilai was not help. Only one option remained; Christian Europe. The same realms the Mongol Machine had just a few decades before almost overwhelmed. Would Christian Europe set aside that recent horror to ally with the Ilkhanate in a new Crusade to purge the Middle East of the Muslim threat? Well, that’s the plan Arghun settled on. For Europeans, the Mongols were deemed as great a threat as the Mamluks. Maybe more so. So, in a nod to the old saw, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” Arghun hoped maybe an alliance could be forged between Persia and the crusading states of Europe.
But, who to send with the proposal? This is where we open chapter 2 on Rabban Sauma’s amazing epic.
We open that chapter with some background on the political situation in Persia & Europe.
Arghun wasn’t the first Ilkhan to propose a treaty with Christian Europe against the Mamluks. In 1265, Abakha sent an embassy to the Pope requesting an alliance. Since the Mamluks were pressing hard to wipe out the last of the Outremer; the Crusaders states in the Middle East, Abakha assumed they’d gladly want assistance in the fight. But Europe was weary of crusading. Much ado had been made over the previous 200 yrs with little lasting result. Indeed, the success of the First Crusade was followed on by tragedy after tragedy. In addition to that weariness, the European kingdoms weren’t exactly getting along. Just in Italy, the Pope was faced with hostility between the many city-states, with the conflict between Venice and Genoa dominating the Mediterranean.
A further intrigue inserted at this time was the relationship between Charles of Anjou and the Pope. Brother of the French King St. Louis IX, Charles was quite ambitious. He secured the Pope’s blessing to become the King of Naples and Sicily. His goal was to dominate the Byzantine Empire so as to control trade in the Eastern Med. He saw the Mongols in Persia as a threat to that ambition because the Ilkhan Abakha had married a Byzantine princess. Charles let the Pope know he wasn’t to entertain any overtures from the Mongols for an alliance. Both Kings Edward of England & Louis of France wanted to stage a Crusade. But the turmoil in Europe stalled their plans.
They managed to pull a Crusade together in 1270, but Charles once again deftly managed to take charge of the venture. He changed the goal of the Crusade from the Holy Land to Tunis in North Africa, a land he wanted to conquer in his bid for naval hegemony. When the Tunisians sued for peace and promised to pay tribute, Charles declared the campaign a success. Edward was stunned and sailed his forces to Acre on the coast of Palestine. He then sent an embassy to the Ilkhan Abakha, asking for an alliance against the Mamluks in Syria. But wouldn’t you know it? It just so happened that the Chagatai Mongols on Persia’s Eastern border had invaded and Abakha was now engaged there. He had no troops to send to Edward’s aide. Even though Edward was without allies and had a relatively small force, he carried on his campaign for a year that wore both sides out. The Mamluks agreed to a truce that safeguarded the Outremer for 10 yrs.
Edward went home, and things settled down for a while, only to spin up again a few yrs later when a new Pope, Gregory X, came to Peter’s chair. He’d lived for a time in Acre and was eager to see the Crusader States in the Middle East secure against the Muslim threat. He hoped to unite European monarchs in another Crusade and used an Ecumenical Council in an attempt to forge an alliance. It was not to be because he died before it could be organized.
It turns out Europe was a lot like the Mongol domains; fractured & divided among many interests. These attempts on the part of both Europeans and Persian Mongols to secure an alliance against the Mamluks just never gelled.
Then, in the first half of the decade of the 1280’s things began to change. Charles of Anjou, who’d been such a trouble-maker, lost power and died. His removal saw new alignments. One of the most significant was Venice’s giving up- it’s long-held aspiration to invade Constantinople and take over the Byzantine Empire. They’d been Charles’ ally in that scheme. But when he passed from the scene, they instead, made a treaty with the Byzantines. Trade began flowing from Venice to Constantinople once more. An uneasy peace was made among the Italian city-states.
Back in England, Edward was making plans. He was still amped to participate in REAL Crusade. He viewed his earlier foray in Syria as little more than a protracted raid. He wanted to see a major campaign of European nobility sweeping Islam from the Middle East. To that end, he began plans to make an alliance with the Mongol Ilkhans in Persia through marriage. He believed the Ilkhan was a Christian and that a suitable match could be made between their courts that would cement an alliance in preparation for a new crusade. The Grand Master of the Knights Hospitallers sent a message to Edward that the Battle of Homs between the Mongols & Mamluks had severely weakened the Muslims and the time was ripe for a new campaign. But in yet another example of timing, Edward had to divert the funds he’d set aside for the crusade to deal with an uprising in Wales.
Then, in 1285, Honorius IV became Pope, replacing the pro-Charles Martin IV. Honorius owned different political priorities than Martin. He was all for a Crusade and opened talks with Edward to stage one. When Edward asked for special treatment by the Pope, negotiations stalled and plans for the campaign were put on hold.
Back in Persia, the Mongols were encouraged in their hope for an alliance with the West when a group of Franciscans sent by Pope Nicholas III stopped there on their way East. They were the answer to Khubilai Khan’s request for Christian teachers who could instruct his court and people in the Faith. The Ilkhans assumed they were an embassy sent to them. They did stay for a while but then moved on. Then, in 1285 the Ilkhan Arghun sent a letter to Pope Honorius informing him of the careful treatment and favor Christians received in his domains. He then requested a joint campaign against the Mamluks in Syria. Since Honorius was having problems uniting the Europeans in a crusade, he was unable to commit or make any promise of an imminent alliance. But he did make clear Europe’s willingness to enter into one when the time was right.
In 1286, Arghun decided it was time to ramp things up by sending an official embassy to Europe. The Mamluks had forged ties with Turks and Kurds in harassing Nestorian communities in the Ilkhan’s realm. Because they were his subjects, he wanted to protect them. But he also viewed their harassment as a possible inducement for the Christian West to come to their aide. He promised that if a joint action against the Muslims was successful, the Europeans could take control of Jerusalem and their settlements in the Outremer would be safeguarded. The key to acceptance of the offer, Arghun believed, would be proportional to the importance of the embassy he sent. He needed an experienced traveler; someone who could take the long and difficult journey and arrive in Europe ready to go. He needed someone fluent in several languages. A scholar well-versed in the learning of the age. Someone with notable accomplishments that would commend him as worthy of listening to. Oh, and he needed to be a Christian since he’d be meeting with Christian leaders. Because Europeans were so hung up on status and class, the envoy needed to be of high rank; someone whose office required attention.
Rabban Sauma was the perfect fit for these requirements. Since he was unable to pursue his mission as ambassador to the court of the Great Khan in China due to the war with Khaidu, why not send him the opposite direction – West, to the capitals of Europe?
But how would he communicate with Europeans? Sauma knew many languages now. But Italian, German, French, and English were not among them. He had picked up Persian though. And the flourishing trade between Europe and Persia meant there were many merchants who could translate for him.
As for office, Sauma was officially an ambassador. And he was a close personal friend of the Nestorian Patriarch, Mar Yaballaha. Indeed, he’d been instrumental in his selection. While Sauma waited for the paths East to open so he could fulfill his role as ambassador to Khubilai Khan’s court, Yaballaha had made Sauma his chief of staff.
Arghun couldn’t ask Sauma directly if he’d take on the embassy West. He had to go through proper channels and asked Yaballaha for his counsel on who to send. The Patriarch suggested his friend Sauma, then immediately regretted it. This would be the first time for many years they’d been separated. Yaballaha leaned on Sauma’s wisdom in leading the Nestorian Church. He’d be greatly missed. Though Sauma’s record doesn’t say so, he must have needed some persuading as well. But the travel and adventure bug his young protégé Markos, the now Patriarch Mar Yaballaha, had infected him with years before in their isolated cave in the Fang Mountains of China took over. Their main ambition to visit Jerusalem and the birthplace of Christianity was thwarted by the Mamluk presence there. The next best thing would be to visit the headquarters of both the Eastern Orthodox Church in Constantinople and the Roman Catholic Church in Rome. If he could pull it off, Sauma would have the singular privilege of having visited the HQ’s of the 3 main branches of the Church. And not just as a pilgrim, but as an official envoy. Someone granted access to see the most sacred places of the Faith after the Holy Land itself.
So, Sauma agreed. Yes—He’d be Arghun’s embassy to Europe.
Sauma thus becomes the Mongol’s first ambassador to meet a European monarch, He’s the first Chinese to write an account of his travels to the West.
Arghun gave him written communications and gifts to pass along to the Byzantine Emperor, the Pope, and the kings of France and England. He gave him gold for the journey, a caravan of attendants, and the all-important letters-patent, the forerunners of the modern passport, that ensured Sauma’s safe passage.
Sadly, we don’t have Sauma’s own account of his travels. What we have is an early translation of it into Syriac. The monk who did it appears to have edited Sauma’s account so that while it gives detailed descriptions of the holy sites Sauma visited it skims over the diplomatic aspects of his mission. So there’s no account of the contents of the letters Arghun sent West. Sauma’s impressions of Europe are all highly abbreviated. The translator was only interested in the religious aspects of Sauma’s account and only includes an outline for context in those religious moments.
We’ll pick it up here in the next episode, as Sauma embarks on his journey West.
by Lance Ralston | Jun 24, 2018 | English |
This is the 6th Episode in the amazing story of a Chinese monk named Rabban Sauma.
We ended the last episode with Sauma’s protégé and friend Markos, firmly ensconced in the seat of the Catholicus of the Church of The East.
Because we’ve already had 5 episodes in this series spread over 5 weeks, it’s easy for subscribers who listen to each episode when it goes up, to forget the arc of Markos’ story.
He showed up at the door of the monk Sauma’s cell in the Fang Mountains of China when he was only 15. He let Sauma know he wanted to become his disciple. Sauma knew the rigors of his solitary existence were beyond the pale of most people’s endurance. But Markos proved good to his word and sworn devotion. He was a quick learner and as willing to brave the ardor of the ascetic’s life as humbly and silently as his mentor. The two men became close friends. Years passed. Sauma’s lessons spoke of lands of wonder in the West. They fired Markos’ imagination. He wanted to go see the places he was learning of. He shared the travel and discovery itch with his elder friend. And over time Sauma’s curiosity was sparked as well. So the two decided to make the journey to the headquarters of their Faith, as well as the Holy Land, birthplace of that Faith. This was at a time in history when “the Silk Roads” were more an idea than a reality.
Securing resources from the local Nestorian community and permission from the Great Khan Khubilai, they set out. Months later with dozens of harrowing and death-defying moments behind them, they finally arrived in Maragha, Persia, headquarters of the Nestorian Church. The Nestorian Patriarch, bearing the title of Catholicus was a conniving schemer who sought to use the fame and favor of the two Chinese envoys to his own advantage. Their babes-in-the-woods demeanor was but a convenient mask over their more than savvy awareness of the Catholicus’ shenanigans. When the way to Jerusalem, their ultimate destination, proved closed due to the hostility of the Muslim Mamluks, they decided to wait things out in Persia to see if the path would eventually open. They reluctantly agreed to take the promotions the Catholics insisted. Which proved a wise move, since he then soon died. The church leaders responsible for selecting his replacement considered Markos the perfect candidate and against his protests, installed him as the new Catholicus. He was just 36 years old. His elevation was quickly and enthusiastically endorsed by the Mongol Ilkhan, Abakha.
Markos’ transformation from a 15-year-old wannabe Chinese monk into Mar Yaballaha, the Nestorian Catholicus, would be similar to a teenage Siberian farmhand becoming a deacon at his local church, then 20 years later walking to Rome and becoming Pope. It’s that strange a story.
And what of Sauma? What of the man who’d been Markos’ mentor, his tutor, his teacher and guide. There arguably would not have been a Markos without a Sauma. Most men would be envious of the advancement and promotion of their student. Not Sauma. He encouraged Markos and gave him wise counsel at the outset of his ascension into office as head of the Church of the East.
And that’s where Sauma’s story would have ended; a footnote to the story of his protégé and friend who rose from obscurity to fill the seat of one of the most important offices in church history. But all that’s occurred so far is the preface or maybe better, Chapter 1, to Sauma’s tale.
Because the turmoil in Central Asia between the forces of Khaidu and Khubilai kept the route East closed, Mar Yaballaha asked his friend to stay and manage his household, which he moved from Mar Denha’s capital at Maragha, to the older capital of Baghdad.
The Mongol Ilkhan Abakha was eager to shore up relations with his non-Muslim subjects after a severe trouncing by the Mamluks at the Battle of Homs in 1281. He worried the Muslim victory might raise insurrectionist leanings and hoped his Christian, Buddhist and Jewish subjects would prove a counterweight to any violence. So, making a visit to Baghdad, he granted Mar Yaballaha the power to levy taxes to support church works. But before the law could go into effect, Abakha died, most likely from complications due to alcoholism, a frequent problem with Mongol rulers. It was the Spring of 1282.
Abakha’s death set off the powder keg that was the reality of Mongol succession. To the victor go the spoils. The intrigues that followed are the stuff of legend, but wide of our scope here. Let me summarize by saying that the short reign of a pro-Muslim Ilkhan set the Nestorians adrift. Mar Yaballaha was accused by Muslim advisors of the Ilkhan of conspiring with his enemies and supporting his rival in the contest for succession. Their accusations were furthered when a couple envious and ambitious Nestorian bishops joined the whisper-conspiracy against the Catholicus.
The Ilkhan was duped and had Mar Yaballaha, Rabban Sauma and the governor of Mosul they were accused of being in cahoots with, arrested and hauled to trial in the Spring of 1283. As the trial commenced, a long laid conspiracy unfolded. Witness after witness was brought in who accused the three of conspiring to stage a coup. They’d supposedly sent letters to Khubilai defaming the Ilkhan as an apostate and turn-coat intending to side with the Great Khan’s enemies. So, Yaballaha, Sauma and the governor were brought in one by one and questioned. Because they were innocent of the charges, their answers all lined up, though they had no idea of what they were being charged with ahead of time. Then Yaballaha made an astute suggestion, evidencing the quickness that had commended him as Patriarch in the first place. An easy way to prove their innocence was to send a rider after the dispatches they’d sent East to Khubilai. Go get them and read them for yourself, Yaballaha told the Ilkhan. A rider was sent, the letters were read, and the conspiracy against the three was exposed. There was nothing in the letters to the Great Khan that were derogatory toward the Ilkhan.
Then it became clear the Ilkhan himself may have been in on the conspiracy from the outset. Though it had been exposed, he refused to release or exonerate them. He kept them in custody as his Muslim officials dug dirt, rooting round for some other way to condemn them. When nothing could be found, the Ilkhan toyed with the idea of just asserting his right as ruler to execute them. He was only barely persuaded not to by more fair-minded officials and his own mother, who was a Nestorian. She convinced him he had nothing to fear from the three; that they only desired to be good citizens and to encourage their congregation in the same vein. So he reluctantly released them and returned the gold letter-patent to Mar Yaballaha.
The Catholicus realized staying near the seat of power was unwise as it provoked the Muslims who now felt empowered and used their favor to advance their position at the expense of the Christians, Jews and Buddhists. He moved to a small Nestorian community near Lake Urmiya. While there, he had a vision in which he learned he’d never see Ilkhan Ahmad, again. He never did.
His rival Arghun, who Yaballaha and Sauma had been accused of being in league with, continued to stage raids in the hinterlands. Just after the turn of the year 1284, things fell apart for Ahmad. His departure from the celebrated Mongol religious tolerance to a certain favoritism toward Islam only served to alienate the majority of his officials and counselors who were NOT Muslims. They remained loyal, but that loyalty began to erode as they watched him being progressively moved into a posture hostile toward his non-Muslim subjects. Ahmad arrested and executed one of his brothers accused of being in league with Arghun. Then in July, Arghun’s forces were defeated and he was captured. But instead of executing him, Ahmad turned him over to his officers and went home to his new bride. This proved a fatal mistake. Arghun became the rallying point for all the turmoil Ahmad’s mismanagement provoked. One official after another began voicing discontent with his rule. The discord grew as they realized others felt the same way they did. It quickly became clear the unrest was widespread. Ahmad’s willingness to treat with their enemies the Mamluks, his arrogance, his ill-advised dismissal of widely regarded officials because some of his close favorites were envious, and his very public mistreatment of the popular Mar Yaballaha and Rabban Sauma for no reason but prejudice, combined to throw him into a disfavor provoking a coup. Sensing one was about to ensue, Ahmad attempted to flee to the Ilkhanate’s northern enemies, The Golden Horde. That was all the proof Arghun needed that Ahmad was indeed a traitor. His contest for succession to the Ilkhanate after Abakha was now proved valid. They ought to have selected him rather than the disastrous Ahmad. When it was clear to Ahmad’s supporters he was doomed, even they switched sides and laid hold of him so he couldn’t flee North.
Arghun reluctantly executed his uncle Ahmad on August 10, 1284.
Once Arghun took his seat in the Mongol capital at Tabriz, Mar Yaballaha gathered a group of church officials and headed there to congratulate the new Ilkhan. Arghun was informed of the trials Yaballaha and Sauma had endured at the hands of the previous regime and promised a new day of favor with the Mongol throne and court. He offered to have the Nestorian conspirators against Yaballaha arrested and executed. The Catholicus said the Church had its own way of handling them and asked that he be allowed to deal with them. Arghun agreed. The two Metropolitans were defrocked and excommunicated.
What would the new administration mean for Rabban Sauma, who, while officially designated as the Nestorian Visitor-General to China, couldn’t go there because of the on-going hostilities in Central Asia?
The new Ilkhan Arghun, was beset on all sides by enemies. The Muslim Mamluks to the West and South. Their allies The Golden Horde to the North. And Khaidu, the enemy of Arghun’s ally Khubilai to the East. The Ilkhanate had little to fear from the East because Khaidu was preoccupied on his Eastern front with the Great Khan. They also didn’t worry much about a massed attack from the Golden Horde in the North. As fellow Mongols, they held an uneasy peace neither wanted to break. The real threat came from the Mamluks, who the Golden Horde was more than willing to let act as surrogates for them in the contest with Ilkhanate Persia. The Ilkhans had tried to extend their conquests into the Holy Land but were rebuffed by the Mamluks. When the Mamluks pushed Eastward beyond their bases in Syria, the Mongols were able to pull off a draw that stung the pride of the heretofore victorious Mamluks. But the Mamluks hadn’t really staged a concerted effort. The clashes were more limited forays than major campaigns to take the East.
Arghun worried now that the pro-Muslim Ahmad had been removed & executed, the Mamluks would take offense and stage a major campaign to conquer Persia. But as he looked around for allies, the offerings were slim. Khubilai was too far away and already locked in a struggle with his cousin Khaidu. No help would come from that corner. Only one option remained – Christian Europe. The very realms the Mongol Machine had just a few decades before almost overwhelmed. Would Christian Europe set aside that terrifying and recent horror to ally with the Ilkhanate in a new Crusade to purge the Middle East of the Muslim threat? >> That’s the plan Arghun settled on. It was an ambitious, an audacious proposal. Far-fetched, to say the least. Certainly to the Europeans, the Mongols were as great a threat as the Mamluks. Maybe even more so. But Arghun’s back was to the proverbial wall. If the enemy of my enemy is my friend, maybe an alliance could be forged between Persia and the crusading states of Europe.
But, who to send with the proposal? What embassy would the West receive and treated the offer of an alliance with the seriousness it needed? How about a Chinese monk who’d been promoted to Ambassador and helped install a Patriarch?
by Lance Ralston | Jun 17, 2018 | English |
This is Episode 5 in the on-going saga of Rabban Sauma.
We left Markos and Bar Sauma headed to Tabriz, the Mongol Ilkhan’s capital in Persia.
By way of recap, “Ilkhan” means “under-khan.”
The Mongol realms of the late 13th C were fractured and divided up into warring camps. The Ilkhans of Persia owed allegiance to the Great Khan, Khubilai, whose capital in China would eventually be known as Beijing. Lying between the Ilkhante in Persia and the realm of Khubilai was a Central Asian breakaway region ruled by Khubilai’s estranged Cousin, Khaidu. This was called the Chagatai Khanate.
To the north of the Ilkhans in Persia over a much-contested border, was the Mongol Golden Horde, AKA the Kipchak Khanate.
The Ilkhan had moved their capital from Maragha to Tabriz to keep a large force near that contentious border with the Horde. It was the plateau of Azerbaijan with it’s rich pastures that was contested. The Mongol mounts that had made their conquests possible needed those pastures, which became increasingly rare the further west they drove.
Though Tabriz would eventually grow into a major center of trade, when Sauma & Markos arrived it was already thriving, with European merchants well-established in the city. Its religious mix included both a Dominican and two Franciscan monasteries. The churches of Tabriz represented quite a mix. There were Byzantine, Armenian, Georgian, Nestorian and Jacobite congregations. During times of doctrinal de-emphasis, the Jacobite and Nestorian churches often lined up to share a Patriarch. Then, when doctrinal nuance regarding the person of Christ returned to the fore, the groups split apart once more.
But it wasn’t just the Christians that were represented by different groups in Tabriz. It was also a meeting place of various Muslim groups and sects. Because of the famed Mongol policy of religious tolerance, all these various groups lived side by side in a mostly amicable relationship. Combined with a rich East-West trade network, it all made Tabriz a genuinely cosmopolitan city and served as a fit setting for the two monks to meet the Mongol Ilkhan, Abakha. Presented with credentials from both The Great Khan, Khubilai and the Nestorian Patriarch, Abakha demonstrated his quick apprehension of the gravity of his visitors’ journey by immediately granting their request to endorse Mar Denha’s appointment as Catholicus. He then gave his officials strict orders to assist Bar Sauma and Markos on the last leg of their journey to Jerusalem.
With little delay, the two commenced their journey West to Ani on the Araxes River in Armenia. Ani was known as the city of “a thousand and one churches.” The Ani Cathedral was designed by the same 10th Century architect who redesigned Constantinople’s Hagia Sophia.
Leaving Ani and its gorgeously designed and decorated churches, they headed toward the Black Sea where they hoped to catch a ship headed to the Palestinian coast. But the report of robbers, the Golden Horde and their Mamluk allies who controlled Palestine combined to convince the monks that the way forward was closed.
By late 1280, they were back in Maragha, the previous capital of the Ilkhanate and home to the recently confirmed Nestorian Catholicus, Mar Denha, He was pleased with their return. Their presence afforded him more opportunity to work his schemes. He agreed with the assessment of their Armenian hosts that the way to Jerusalem was closed, insinuating that that is what he’d tried to tell them previously when he’d done no such thing. He suggested they instead defer their desire to visit the holy relics of the Holy Land to the several relics he oversaw. Thinking to accrue to himself some of the august spiritual mojo surrounding the two Eastern visitors, Mar Denha promoted Markos to a Rabban, a Master, and declared his intent to install him as the Metropolitan of all East Asia. Sauma was also promoted to the rank of a Rabban and made Visitor-General in China, a kind of Papal ambassador, except for the Nestorian Patriarch rather than the Pope. By these appointments, which due to Markos’ & Sauma’s popularity were sure to pass, Mar Denha hoped to secure his grip over Nestorian affairs far & wide. He’d be installing one of his own as Bishop over the vast area of East Asia in Marko’s See, and would have a voice and ear in the councils of the Great Khan Khubilai.
A little background on the power and scope of the Nestorian Catholicus’s authority would be helpful here. The Catholicus of the Nestorian Church, AKA, The Church of the East, was equivalent to the Byzantine Patriarch and Roman Pope in terms of authority as sole head over the Church. The Catholicus bore both spiritual & secular power. Besides steering the Nestorian ship, he was responsible for overseeing the purity of doctrine and appointing all other church officials. He weighed in on secular matters as well, giving guidance and counsel to the civil ruler as the overseer of a large number of the ruler’s subjects.
Mar Denha had risen to power as Catholicus more by political machination than spiritual devotion. He elevated Markos and Sauma because his previous movements in China had been disastrous and he hoped to re-secure his base. The previous Metropolitan he’d appointed had promptly denounced him as a fraud. So Denha revoked his appointment and had him sequestered in an out of the way monastery, from which he escaped. Recaptured and returned, he and four of his supporters were soon found dead in their cells. The ensuing scandal threatened to see the Nestorian church black-listed in the Far East. Denha hoped the elevation and appointment of the now famous Chinese monks would return his patriarchy to favor in the Court of the Great Khan.
Abraham Lincoln said, “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” The newly minted Rabbans Sauma and Markos were offered immense power and influence. They’d left home humble monks. They could return as genuine movers and shakers. Men without local peer.
They chose a different route.
If they’d had any doubts of Mar Denha’s motives before, they saw clearly now. His power had indeed outed him. So they treated him carefully. They flattered him by saying as the head of their church, his words were equivalent to Jesus’ own. Then they pointed back, reminding him of the long and arduous journey they’d recently completed. It was too soon to return home. They begged off the appointments he offered, listing their lack of training in leading the church. They were, after all, humble monks, devoted to a life of study and prayer. If it pleased the august Catholicus, they’d prefer to retire to a quiet monastery and spend their days there.
Mar Denha didn’t buy it. Not even close. His mind was made up. He made it clear he considered their objections unworthy of the faith HE’D entrusted in them. How dare they, humble monks as they claimed to be, doubt his perception of their ability! So, Rabbans Sauma & Markos were forced to yield and began preparations for their return to China.
Right then, tensions between Khubilai and Khaidu heated up. Word got back to Maragha from merchants making the trip from East to West that fresh hostilities had broken out and the routes through Central Asia were closed.
Anticipating their quick re-opening, Mar Denha pressed forward with the ceremonies attendant on the elevation of Markos and Sauma to their new posts. These ceremonies were elaborate. In Markos’ case, as a Metropolitan, he was given a new name, one reflecting the Syrian origin of the Nestorian faith. Several slips of paper with appropriate names were laid on the altar of the main church in Maragha. One was picked at random. It carried the moniker, Yaballaha = God-given. To that was added the revered title “Mar” meaning “Your.” Thus, Markos became Mar Yaballaha.
When the routes Eastward failed to open as quickly as Mar Denha had hoped and having them hang around his estate became awkward, he granted their request to head back to the monastery at Mar Michael, where they’d wanted to go all along.
February of 1281 proved an eventful month. Mar Denha died unexpectedly. It was later reported that in the few months prior to his death, several church officials had premonitions a major change was coming to their church. Markos was one of them. He made a trip to Baghdad to secure some items appropriate to his role as Metropolitan; a pastoral robe and crozier = the shepherd’s staff. ON his way back to the monastery at Mar Michael, a friend brought him news of the Catholicus’ death. Markos then went to Maragha where he wept profusely over the body.
The day after Denha’s entombment, church leaders met in Baghdad to select a new leader. The discussions didn’t take long. They asked Mar Yaballaha to become their new Catholicus. He seemed a perfect choice. His devotion to both God and church were exemplary. His motives had been proven pure. Knowing the Mongol tongue and customs, he’d be the perfect bridge between their church and rulers.
He was astonished at their selection and resisted. He didn’t know Syriac, the main language of the Nestorian Faith. He wasn’t a skilled public speaker. He wasn’t schooled in the nuances of Nestorian doctrine. He assumed surely these disqualified him. But all his resistance did was further affirm in the officials’ minds that his humility commended him as the perfect candidate. With Mar Denha’s megalomaniacal tenure fresh in their minds, Marko’s humility was a refreshing change that only served to secure his appointment.
Realizing they weren’t going to take “No” for an answer, Markos, or we must now call him, Mar Yaballaha finally consented. His first thought was, “I gotta’ tell my buddy.” So he high-tailed it back to the monastery and informed Rabban Sauma. Sauma was elated and urged the new Catholicus to immediately secure the Ilkhan Abakha’s affirmation.
The two returned to Maragha where they gathered a retinue of church officials and headed back to Tabriz. Abakha was ensconced in the nearby mountain retreat where he liked to spend the Summer. The Ilkhan was more than happy to replace the Islamophobic Mar Denha with a patriarch who held no special animosity toward Muslims. It helped to have someone connected to the Great Khan back East as well. In affirming Mar Yaballaha as the new Catholicus, he mused that Sauma and Markos’ journey to Jerusalem had been arrested, not by the Mamluks, but by God, to ensure His Church would be provided with solid leadership in the challenging times that lay ahead. Abakha wanted to make sure his approval ofMar Yaballaha was clear, so he gave him a robe fitting his office, a chair resembling a throne, a large sun-umbrella that functioned like a canopy used also by the royal family, a new, comprehensive letter-patent made of solid gold, and official conference of the great seal marking the authority of the Nestorian Catholicus. It was that seal Mar Denha had waited many years to secure from the Ilkhan, the very same seal Sauma & Markos had secured for him. Abakha now gave it confidently to Mar Yaballaha. From then on, Mar Yaballaha’s commands carried the weight of law for the Nestorian community. As a final signifier of his approval, Abakha had his administrators designate substantial funds to pay for the ceremonies that would install Markos into his new office.
The group then headed back to Baghdad and Mar Yaballaha was installed as the new Catholicus in November of 1281. Metropolitans, that is, Nestorian bishops, traveled from as far as Western Armenia, Samarkand, and Tripoli to attend the event.
So, at the age of only 36, Markos of China, a humble teenager who aspired to little more than the life of a monk in the Fang Mountains of his homeland, had risen to become THE leader of his entire denomination. And not just denomination, but one of the 3 major branches of the Christian Church and Faith – The Nestorian Church of the East!
It’s quite a story. But it’s just getting started. For his mentor’s tale has much farther to go. Everything till now has been but the preface to Rabban Sauma’s epic. Join us next time for Part 6.
by Lance Ralston | Jun 10, 2018 | English |
This is Episode 4 in the Saga of Rabban Sauma.
After their 6 month rest at the oases of Khotan, Bar Sauma & Markos renewed their journey West. Cautious of the fighting taking place between Khubilai Khan and his cousin Khaidu, their guides escorted them around the regions of greatest threat, lengthening the journey by several weeks. They stopped at a Talas, a town in what is today Kyrgyz.
500 yrs before, Talas was the scene of one of the most important battles in history. The forces of the Tang Dynasty smashed into those of the Arabian Umayyads. Talas was Khaidu’s HQ. And while the two monks had before been leery of encountering the treacherous would-be khan, they now decided to present themselves before him. They were careful to avoid any hint they were emissaries of his enemy Khubilai. They were just two monks on a spiritual quest, pilgrims to the birthplace of their Faith.
Though they already had the precious letters-patent form the Great Khan, they knew securing another passport from Khaidu might grease the wheels for any future local chieftains who aligned with him. So after placing a blessing on Khaidu, they requested the precious letters of passage.
Sauma & Markos’ passage across this region, embroiled as it was in war, proved typical for East-West trade and travelers at this time. While groups found all kinds of causes to fight over; ethnicity and religion being foremost, when it came to trade, such distinctions were often set aside in favor of an apolitical posture that was willing to overlook the reasons for war. This allowance for trade across such a wide spectrum of people and faiths was due to the realization trade was a major source of income to the various kingdoms. Harming or hindering it in one area meant diminishing it across the board. So with rare exception, trade was regarded as apolitical.
Leaving Talas, the next portion of Markos and Sauma’s journey was yet another challenge to endurance. They headed southwest into Khorasan in northeastern Persia, skirting present-day Afghanistan. Crossing rugged mountains and deserts little better than the Taklamakan which had just about ended them, they lost a good part of their baggage. The mountains soared so high travelers were beset by intense cold, thin ice, howling wind, and the ever-present threat of avalanches.
This was also an area fraught with local warlords who survived by robbing caravans. The problem of brigandage was so severe, the Mongols set rules for how caravans were to protect themselves. Disheartening to all who traveled here were the frequent skeletons of camels, pack animals, and humans found regularly along the path.
But this was the last leg of their journey from the Far to the Middle East. They finally arrived in the first of their destinations; Persia. But they were likely shocked at what they found. This eastern region in Persia had suffered terribly at the hands of the Mongols. If a city surrendered when first approached, it was spared. If it resisted, the entire population was wiped out. Many cities of this region had thought to resist the invaders and had suffered for it. But as the invaders moved southwest into the heart of the greater Persian plateau, word spread and cities capitulated. The Mongols then recruited skilled craftsmen and the educated into their burgeoning bureaucracy. They drew from Persian Muslims, Jews, and Christians.
The year was 1280 when Bar Sauma & Markos settled into a monastery on the outskirts of Tus [Toos], Mongol capital of Khorasan in the northeast frontier region of Persia. Tus was the birthplace of several historical notables as well as the burial place of the great Caliph Harun al-Rashid, whose reign and court provided the literary base for the Arabians Nights.
Tus was often the scene of conflict between Shi’a and Sunni pilgrims because not only did it hold the tomb of the Sunni al-Rashid, it was the burial place for the 8th Shi’a Imam Ali al-Rida.
While Islam was the predominant religion in Persia at that time, there was a sizeable population of Jews, Buddhists, and Christians as well. Prior to the arrival of the Mongols, the majority Muslims ruled these minority faiths with a begrudged tolerance. After the Mongol Conquest, the Muslims protested that they were treated no better than the others. They believed their vastly superior numbers ought to gain them advantages. But the Mongols enforced their standard policy of religious tolerance. Muslims worried when they saw large numbers of Nestorians promoted into high office in the Mongol system. But the Mongols weren’t showing a religious bias; they were merely filling the ranks of their civil government with the most educated, who happened to come from the highly literate Nestorian clergy.
Having recouped their strength in Tus after their arduous passage across Central Asia, Bar Sauma and Markos renewed their journey West. Resupplied by the local Christian community, they set out across Azerbaijan, skirted the Caspian Sea and Dashti Kavir Desert and headed toward Baghdad. Baghdad was HQ’s of the Nestorian Church, home of their Great Patriarch, Mar Denha.
But if they hoped to meet the grand leader of their church, they didn’t need to travel to Baghdad to do so. Mar Denha was visiting Azerbaijan at the same time Sauma & Markos were passing through. He granted them an audience in the Mongol Capital of Maragha. The Ilkhan Hulegu had made Maragha a gem, building a large observatory there for the famed astronomer Nasir al-Din Tusi. This observatory was a mecca that attracted Muslim scholars from all over. It housed several ingenious astronomical devices and it’s growing body of discovery and work became the envy of Chinese and Europeans scholars alike. The attached library held 400,000 volumes. So impressive was this center of learning, wealthy Muslim leaders and merchants established grants to fund it.
The City provided a fitting stage for the meeting of the two Chinese monks and their church’s leader. Markos and Bar Sauma bowed before him and amidst many tears expressed their gratitude they’d made the difficult journey to see him and carry the collective greetings of his people and churches in the Far East. Mar Denha was deeply moved by the expression of the faith their journey had demonstrated. He was surprised to hear the two monks had met with and been sent on their way with official endorsement by the Great Khan Khubilai. When they said their ultimate goal was to visit the birthplace of the Faith, the Patriarch assured them God would see they made it. After a few more days of meetings with the Mar Denha, they asked for permission and blessing to visit sites of interest to their Faith. There were tombs, churches, and shrines to visit in and around Baghdad, current HQs for the Church of the East. It’s oldest and most revered site was in nearby Ctesphon which they also wanted to visit.
In Baghdad, they were given a tour of the Great Church of Koke and the ancient monastery of Mar Mari, named for the early 4th C missionary who planted the church in Ctesiphon.
Bar Sauma’s account lists the sites they visited in the many towns between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Besides cataloging these shrines, he gives little description of what life was like for the locals.
Other records tell us Baghdad of 1280- was a seething cauldron of tension between Muslims and Christians, who were universal of the Nestorian brand. The previously mentioned Catholicos Mar Denha had stirred the pot by inciting his flock into hostility toward Islam. When an apostate Christian became a Muslim, Mar Denha ordered his execution by drowning in the Tigris. The Muslims responded by trying to assassinate Mar Denha and burning down his house. Three years later, when an attempt was made on the civil governor’s life, Christians and Muslims blamed each other. So local Nestorian congregations were greatly encouraged by the arrival of the two monks as it seemed to signal support from the Great Khan. After, all they did bear his august approval in tangible form in that letters-patent they carried. They may have been in the minority, but Khubilai and sent them succor in Sauma & Markos.
The two ended their tour of Nestorian sites at the Mar Michael monastery in Arbil. Having been so long away from the monk’s life, they decided to renew it by staying in the monastery as participants for a season before setting off for Jerusalem.
While Mar Denha had originally applauded and affirmed their plan to travel to Jerusalem, he changed his mind. He’d seen how the two monks had generated hope and much-needed vitality to the increasingly moribund church he presided over. He wrote them a letter, berating them for thinking only of themselves in entering the monastery at Arbil. How dare they seek personal peace, he said, when their brothers and sisters were beset by dangers at the hands of their Muslim neighbors, left & right?
Mar Denha was the Catholicos, the Patriarch of the Nestorian Church by selection of church officials. But the Mongol ruler reserved the right to affirm such elections. It had been 15 years and the Mongol Ilkhan, Abakha, still had not officially endorsed him. Abakha was Buddhist but married to a Christian. Because Mar Denha was a well-known antagonist and rabble-rouser in matters involving the majority Muslims, Abakha balked at granting Denha the official title. He knew to do so would risk riots form his Muslim subjects.
Mar Denha saw in the two Chinese monks the lever to move the Ilkhan. After all, they enjoyed the favor of The GREAT Khan, did they not? Serving as Khubilai’s unofficial envoys, their counsel could easily be passed off as a directive from the Far Eastern court.
So, guilted into it, Sauma & Markos left the monastery, trekked back to Baghdad and met with Mar Denha. They agreed to approach the Ilkhan >> IF >> Denha would provide them an escort who could return him the credentials verifying his title and office, as they continued on their way to Jerusalem. Though the monks had previously treated Mar Denha as a near god-like figure, these shenanigans unmasked him as grasping, power-hungry, & self-serving. Because of the way they’d been treated by other Nestorian leaders back in China, they didn’t trust the Catholicos to keep his word. They knew if they secured the treasure credentials, they’d make themselves too valuable a resource to let go. So their intention was to high tail it out of town as soon as they got Mar Denha what he wanted. So eager was he for the Ilkhan’s recognition, Denha agreed.
Eager to be on their way and out of Denha’s grasp, Sauma & Markos traveled to Tabriz, Abakha’s capital on the fringes of Azerbaijan.
What would the Ilkhan say to their request for recognition of the scheming Mar Denha as Catholicos? We’ll find out next time in Part 5.
by Lance Ralston | Jun 3, 2018 | English |
This episode continues our series on the remarkable Rabban Sauma with Part 3.
In Part 1, we looked at the opening chapter in Sauma’s life. By way of a quick recap . . .
He was the treasured son of an Onggud noble family who from an early age showed a remarkable passion for pursuing the spiritual. Adept in his studies and excelling in piety, by the age 25 he was a member of the Nestorian clergy, a monk-priest. It was the year 1248.
Choosing a life of isolation rather than a monastery, he retreated from the Mongol capital at Tai-tu [later – Beijing] to the Fang Mountains where he devoted himself to study. The isolation he yearned for was often interrupted by people who made pilgrimage to his humble hamlet, seeking a glimpse, maybe a word, from the holy man whose fame was spreading. Though he preferred a life of quiet contemplation, he met with all those who sought him out.
That would have been his entire life and one we’d never have known of, were it not for one of those pilgrims, a fifteen-year-old young man named Markos. Markos didn’t just want to spend a couple days with the holy man. He wanted a mentor, someone who’d teach him everything he had to share. Sauma tried to dissuade the young man, just as his parents and others had tried to dissuade him when he was young. It didn’t take long before Sauma recognized in Markos the same zeal and dedication that burned in his soul. Three years later Marcos had proven himself devotionally sincere, academically capable and of equal spiritual mettle with his master, so he was ordained as a monk in the Nestorian church.
After a decade together in their mountain fastness, Marcos’ intellectual curiosity prompted a spiritual itch that saw the two men descend from the heights and embark on a journey of literally epic consequence. Marcos wanted to visit the scenes and sites where the Bible story had played out, as well as the birthplace and headquarters of the Nestorian church. In his studies, he read of Christians of other flavors and stripes and wanted to meet them. Nothing less than a journey to the far-reaches of the West could scratch that itch. Markos shared this dream with Bar Sauma, who was now more friend than master. It took a while, but eventually, the younger man’s hunger to discover, breathed new life on the embers of Sauma’s soul and the two decided to pursue their vision. It was 1275 when they began plans to set out, the same year Marco Polo arrived in China. They gave away what few possessions they had and headed to Tai-tu to hire guides and gather provisions. Because they’d taken vows of poverty, they had to ask the local Nestorian churches to support them. The Nestorian leaders scoffed at the undertaking. Such a venture was deemed both physically impossible and spiritually wasteful. There simply wasn’t a safe, navigable route West. And what use was it visiting the Holy Land, they wondered, when the Bible said The Kingdom of God is within us?
But by this time, both Bar Sauma & Markos were deft at waving aside objections about the arduousness of the journey. Since they already counted themselves dead and had mortified the flesh, death along the route was of little consequence. Their only ambition was to faithfully follow the path they were convinced God had set before them. Their steely-eyed focus won the Nestorian community over and they went from resistance to a hearty support for their venture of faith.
The journey they proposed would be expensive since they’d need an entire caravan. They needed guides, camels, and since camels require considerable attention to stay healthy, camel-attendants, a highly specialized trade.
Camels are able to carry between 4 and 500 lbs. Mules, their closest rival as a beast of burden can carry 250 lbs. But camels require far less water and feed. Their hooves are better suited to the sandy soil covering large swaths of the territory in Central Asia. Camels are also reputed to be able to predict sandstorms and can locate underground water. Their dung makes decent fuel for fires. But camels aren’t prolific in the progeny department, so they’re expensive. Their care & upkeep requires special training, so handlers fetch a tidy sum.
Markos and Sauma also needed baggage-handlers, cooks, & several other assistants. To give you an idea of how large a group we’re talking about, a 14th Century European handbook for merchants recommended a China-bound caravan have no less than 60 people. But Bar Sauma & Markos weren’t transporting commercial goods, just themselves and some small items to give as gifts to Western Nestorian leaders.
They might have joined a merchant caravan, but the two monks intended to spend considerably more time at places along the route than a commercial interest would be willing to.
Adding to the cost was the sheer length of time the trip would take. Six months wasn’t an unreasonable estimate. That meant buying provisions for their entire caravan, as well as paying the inevitable levies and passage fees from petty lords who fancied themselves strong enough to extort coin. Then there was the obvious need for a reserve fund, because who knew what might befall them on the way.
So, once the Nestorian community got on board with the venture, they generously supplied the needed funds. When the Mongol Court saw the seriousness with which Markos & Sauma proceeded with their plans, they decided to hop on. This was during the reign of the famous Khubilai Khan. A pragmatic ruler, Khubilai wanted to cover all his religious bases and hoped to gain the Nestorian God’s favor by supporting the monks’ trip. He gave them financial support, provided them with the all-important letters-patents that allowed them to pass unmolested across all Asia. These letter-patents were called pai-tzu in Chinese and were the forerunner of our modern passports. They not only served as evidence of official sanction from Khubilai’s throne, they were certain to provide a warm welcome among Khubilai’s allies. Even those less than friendly to the Khan would be careful to treat his emissaries with respect. For mistreating a Mongol envoy was a sure way to a lot of pain.
After Khubilai’s successful contest with his brother for the khanate, he saw it as imperative to gain the favor of as many of his subjects as possible. Supporting Sauma’s & Markos’ trip seemed a good way to gain favor with the Nestorian leaders and to recruit their scholars into his burgeoning bureaucracy. According to one account, Khubilai gave a set of royal clothes to Sauma with instructions to baptize them in the Jordan River then place them over Jesus’ burial place in Jerusalem.
So, with both Church & State backing, Sauma & Markos set off on their great adventure. We’re not sure of the exact date of their departure. It was sometime around 1276.
The guides they hired in Tai-tu took them on the first leg of the journey, then were replaced with new guides familiar with the territory they were entering.
Leaving Tai-tu, their first stop was in Marko’s hometown where the locals assumed he’d returned for good. They were delighted at the prospect the two holy men would assume the mantle of leadership in their church. They were stunned by the news Bar Sauma & Markos were headed to Jerusalem.
Their next stop was at the headquarters of two Onggud chieftains allied by marriage to the Mongol court. They also assumed their exalted position and promises of major favors would entice the monks to stay and become a part of their royal retinue. They likewise were surprised at their insistence to continue their journey. Why brave the hardships that most certainly lay ahead when a life of ease and comfort was being handed them on a gilded platter. Such appeals only offended the monks, who were affronted by the idea their devotion to God could be sold for an offer of worldly influence. At one point the Onggud chiefs were so set on retaining them, they plotted their capture. But the presence of Khubilai’s passport worried them. They realized it would be unwise to interfere in the affairs of the Mongol ruler. It seems word reached Sauma and Markos of the rulers’ earlier plans to hang on to them. So in an appeal to their mercy, they sought to load them up with exorbitant gifts of gold, silver, and precious rarities. When the monks refused, they prevailed on them to see it as a loan, and to pay it back by making a generous donation to the Nestorian Churches of the West.
They followed the Yellow River southwest along the Alashan Mountains to Ning-hsia just South of the Gobi Desert.
The route out of China was a fairly straight-forward affair since the Chinese had long before set up a system of postal stations spaced roughly every 20 miles apart along their frontier. These postal stations served a multitude of purposes. Officials stayed there in making inspection rounds. Merchants and traders were able to resupply at them. Troops stationed there kept a careful lookout on the frontier. Though there wasn’t a highway from station to station, the trail between them was clear.
That changed as the monks’ caravan left China and entered Central Asia. Here the stations ended and the trail petered out. An occasional pole or rock cairn might be seen on the horizon, but as often as not, such landmarks were washed away by floods, avalanches, & storms.
Leaving Ning-hsia, they followed the route of the Southern Silk Road just south of the dreaded Taklimakan Desert. Bar Sauma’s account includes the terse comment that this was a “toilsome & fatiguing” part of their journey. Which, knowing how austere and arduous their prior lives had been, we might use terms like “brutal & soul-crushingly exhausting.” The Taklimakan Desert has 60-foot tall dunes frequently savaged by dust storms. Marco Polo reported that travelers in this region are often separated from their mates by the opaque winds. Once alone, the bleakness and heat cause hallucinations in which people think they are being called from over the top of this or that mountain of sand. But each peak they traverse only takes them further away from the proper course.
Entering the Tarin Basin, they skirted the northern foothills of the Kun-lun Mts. To their South was India. Though Bar Sauma’s account doesn’t say so, they likely stopped for a time in the caravan center at Miran, a trade mecca that saw about as diverse a mix of cultures as to be found anywhere on the planet. Then following the Cherchen River, they embarked on a 500-mile long journey to their next major stop, the city of Khotan, one of the most renowned oases of Central Asia. It took two months for them to travel from Ning-hsia to Khotan and all during this time they only had 8 watering holes.
Khotan was a center of the white & black jade prized by the Chinese. As a result, it had become a major center of trade and a meeting place for the Far East & Middle East. Lying north of India, it became a center for the dispersal of Buddhism. A 6th Century Chinese record attributed Khotan with a plethora of Buddhist temples, stupas, monks and nuns. Khotan was so important to Chinese interests, they established military garrisons there from the 7th thru 10th Cs.
The residents of Khotan had long before used the nearby river to produce an elaborate irrigation system that produced an abundance of crops. This agricultural bonanza supported a healthy community of merchants and craftsmen who produced a plethora of goods highly prized far & wide. The bazaar boasted fine carpets, silk, and glass. Traders brought goods from Europe, China, & the Middle East, all headed in the opposite direction of their origin to be sold at steep rates due to their rarity in the market of their ultimate destination.
Khotan hosted a mixed population, with Uyghurs, Mongols, Chinese, Persians, and locals all adding to the cosmopolitan feel. Finding a community of Nestorians with which they were able to share both their faith and language, Bar Sauma & Markos spent 6 months there. The extra time they spent in Khotan is likely due both to their need for recovery from the difficulty behind them AND to turmoil in the Mongol world that made the path West uncertain.
Conflict between Khubilai and his cousin Khaidu had shattered the Pax Mongolica in the region. Khubilai’s general charged with securing the area had been captured by Khaidu’s forces, handing the Great Khan a major setback. While their letters-patent ought to have secured them safe passage, Khaidu’s treachery was a cause for concern. So the two monks decided to cool their heels in Khotan to see if things would steel down. A side trip to the Nestorian See at Kashgar sounded like a good idea. After all, visiting the center of their Faith was the whole point of their expedition and Kashgar was the home of a beloved Metropolitan. But when they arrived, they were shocked to discover the recent inter-Mongolian conflicts had left the city ransacked and depopulated. Marco Polo had visited Kashgar just a few years earlier and described the city as flourishing and prosperous.
We’ll end this episode with Bar Sauma and Markos back in Khotan, readying to set out on their westward course once more. The route was no more secure, but they determined to trust themselves into God’s hands and press ahead.
by Lance Ralston | May 27, 2018 | English |
This is Part 2 of our series on Rabban Sauma.
We begin with a brief review of the political scene into which Rabban Sauma’s story fits.
Trade between the Roman Empire and the Far East was established as early as the First Century. But this trade was conducted by intermediaries. No single Western merchant made the entire trek to China, nor vice-versa. Goods traveled a ways from East to West or West to East by local caravans, which deposited them at a market, to be picked up by another caravan local to that region to continue the journey. After the Fall of the Han dynasty in the 3rd Century, and the ensuing chaos of the 4th thru 6th Centuries in China, trade stopped. With the emergence of the Tang Dynasty in the 7th Century, trade resumed. Goods flowed from the Middle East to China and back. But still, no Westerner met with his Chinese counterpart. The West prized Chinese silk and porcelain, while the East wanted frankincense, myrrh, jasmine, horses, and camels. Trade increased as Chinese dynasties and Islamic caliphates grew stronger. When they were in decline, trade did as well because of increased raids by brigands and the various protection schemes of money hungry local warlords.
In these early centuries, trade flowed between Western and Eastern Asia. Europe wasn’t involved because Medieval Feudalism simply had no market for Eastern goods. That changed with Europe’s emergence from the Middle Ages and the new appetite for Eastern goods stimulated by the Crusades. The foothold Europeans established in the Outremer during that time opened routes between the Middle East and Europe that brought goods to the marketplace the newly emerging Middle Class were able to afford. It wasn’t long before silk began to adorn the wardrobe of the rich, and in a trend that’s existed since time immemorial, what the rich wear, the poor aspire to.
The Mongol conquests of the 13th Century saw an increase in trade between East & West and the first contact between Europeans and Chinese. By the end of the 1270’s the Mongols controlled more territory than any other empire in history, from Korea and South China, large parts of what would later be Russia, all Central Asia, a large portion of the Middle East and all Persia.
In the 12th Century, mythical stories of a Christian Ruler in the East named Prester John motivated a handful of Europeans to initiate contact in the hope of an alliance to back down the threat from Islam. The legend of Prester John was stoked by Christian communities in the Middle East who knew vaguely of the Nestorian Church of the East and had heard tales of a Central Asian ruler named Yelu Tashih, King of Khara Khitay who’d’ defeated the Muslims of his realm. They just assumed he must be a Christian. He wasn’t. But why let a little detail like that mess up a perfectly good story that might illicit assistance from Europeans in launching a Crusade that would lift the Muslim heel form the necks of Middle Eastern Christians?
As the Mongols moved steadily westward in the early 13th Century, King Bela of Hungary sent a Dominican emissary named Julian to learn more about what was obviously a very real threat. Julian never reached the Mongol base. He was met instead by Mongol envoys dispatched by the Mongol ruler Batu with an ultimatum of unconditional surrender and the release to the envoys of several enemies of the Mongols who’d fled to Bela for refuge.
Julian returned to Hungary with the ultimatum and an account of the Mongol army, which he said, was formidable due to its mobility. He reported it was the Mongol ambition to conquer all the way to Rome and add to their already ridiculous wealth by sacking the richest parts of Europe.
The Mongol conquest of the cream of Hungary and Poland’s elite warriors and armies in 1240 by what was just the Mongol front screen put all Western Europe on notice about the new threat from the East. But Europe as fractured and disunited. The Pope and Holy Roman Emperor were at odds over who had supremacy. The call for yet another Crusade to liberate the Holy Land from the infidel floundered due to this disunity while the Christian cities in the Outremer pleaded for assistance.
Three embassies were sent over the course of 1245 & 6 to the Mongols in an attempt to gather information about their intentions. Only one of them, lead by John of Plano Carpini was successful. He traveled all the way to the Mongol capital of Khara Khorum where he delivered a letter from the Pope, urging the Mongols to convert to Christianity and to leave off any further conquests in the West. While there, John witnessed the ascension of Genghis’ grandson Guyug to the position of Great Khan.
Why the Mongols forsook their long history as a loose collection of nomadic tribes ruled by local chieftains to a massed nation under a supreme leader is a matter for a different study and podcast. Of our interest is the liberal policy the Mongols took toward religion in the years of their early expansion. The native religion of Mongolia was shamanism. Most of the tribes were originally ruled by a chieftain in conjunction with a shaman n a power-sharing mode. But shamanism wasn’t well suited to the ruling of the settled populations the Mongols began conquering in China and the Middle East. These peoples tended to be more literate and sophisticated and needed a Faith that reflected deeper interests than shamanism could address. As a result, the Khans either adopted the predominant religion of the region they conquered, or they maintained a policy of toleration that allowed several faiths to prosper. As a result, Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity were all accepted forms of Faith in Mongol realms. What wasn’t appreciated by Mongol rulers were demands they embrace a particular faith. So the Pope’s demand he convert and forsake an invasion enraged the Great Khan Guyug. John of Plano was sent home with a letter to Pope Innocent and al Europe’s leaders to submit to the Mongols. If they balked, Guyug boasted, it would be a war the likes of which Europe had never seen.
John’s embassy to the East was a disaster. Not only had he failed to convert the Mongols, he’d managed to alienate the very people the West had hoped to ally with in a campaign against the resurgent Muslims of the Middle East. And while his mission was unfruitful, John’s written account of what he experienced in the East proved to be a major boon as it lifted the veil of ignorance the West had to the East. If the Mongols had been shrouded in mystery up to that point, the mystery was dispelled with John’s comprehensive, though at times inaccurate, description of their way of life. After John of Plano Carpini’s mission, there were several attempts by Western rulers like France’s Monarch Louis to forge an alliance with the Mongols against the Muslims. Some emissaries were official, while other missions were undertaken in a more covert fashion. Western insistence on the conversion of Mongol rulers to Christianity and Mongol intransigence on European submission were perennial sticking points. At one point Nestorian emissaries sent by The Great Khan Guyug to King Louis fabricated the lie that Guyug HAD converted and that he was married to the daughter of the fabled Prester John. Impressed, Louis sent two embassies to the Mongol court. Since Guyug was now dead, the Great Khanate became a prize rivals wrangled over; creating an impossible situation for the Western envoys when they became part of the prize being fought for.
Relations between the Mongols and Europe remained unproductive until 1256 when The Great Khan Mongke’s brother Hulegu was sent on a mission to enlarge their territory at the expense of hostile Muslim dynasties in the Middle East. It was well-known that Hulegu’s wife was an ardent Nestorian who figured prominently in her husband’s counsels. With Nestorian support, the Mongols under Hulegu captured a portion of Armenia, known then as Cilicia, and two years later overthrew the Abbasid Dynasty and entered Baghdad, executing the last Caliph. The Mongols thus became the rulers of Persia and surrounding territories of the Middle East. In 1261, Hulegu took the title of Ilkhan, meaning under-khan. The Mongol rule of wider Persia became forever after known as the Ilkhanate. It was technically subservient to the domains of the Great Khans but for all practical purposes ended up becoming just another region of Mongol dominance until a resurgent Islam was able to push out the weakening Mongols.
After the conquest of Baghdad, Hulegu’s forces continued Westward toward the Mediterranean. After taking territory in Syria, as so often happened in Mongol history, Hulegu was obliged to head home to Mongolia for the selection f the next Great Khan. His brother Mongke had died and as the tradition was among the Mongols, the next Khan would be selected by vote or the subordinate Mongol leaders, who themselves had all risen to position by merit, an innovation devised by the legendary Genghis. Before he departed for home, Hulegu appointed one of his commanders too continue the struggle against the Muslims by taking the key city of Damascus. Once Damascus fell, the rest of Syria would quickly follow. Up to this point, the Mongolian forces had seemed irresistible. But a change in Egypt meant a new state of affairs. In 1249, Turkish mercenaries of the Ayyubid dynasty revolted against their masters and established the Mamluk Dynasty. Fielding a far more powerful army, they set out to face the Mongols in Syria.
Both armies were large and the Mongols had early success. They captured Damascus but were handed a serious defeat at the famous Battle of Ayn Jalut on Sept 3, 1260. This was the Mongols first defeat in the West. The Mongol commander was killed and the Mamluks retook Damascus. They then swept the Mongols from the rest of Syria.
When word reached Hulegu of the defeat, he turned around without ever reaching Khara Khorum, rallied his defeated forces, determining to avenge his dead. Hulegu feared the Mamluk victory would embolden the Muslims under his rule in Persia to revolt. Since they were in the majority, a rebellion would prove devastating. But disunity in the Mongol world kept Hulegu from dealing with the Mamluks. To his north was his cousin Berke, ruler of the Mongol Golden Horde in what is today Russia. Berke and Hulegu were at odds with each other over the adjoining region of Azerbaijan, a rich plateau needed for the raising of their mounts, crucial for their style of warfare. Azerbaijan was also the region through which the increasingly rich East-West trade flowed, bring vast wealth. Exacerbating the tension between the cousins was Berke’s conversion to Islam. He wasn’t at all happy Hulegu had ended the Abbasid Caliphate and was now embroiled in hostilities with the Muslim Mamluks. So these two regions of Mongol dominance were at odds rather than united. With the defeat of the Ilkhanate at the Battle of Ayn Jalut, Berke allied with the Mamluk’s against Hulegu.
Joining the fray against the Ilkhanate in Persia was the Mongol realm lying to the East in Central Asia, the Chaghadai Khanate. The tensions here were the same as those between Hulegu & Berke – over territory and religion.
Surrounded by hostile realms, Hulegu sought allies to bolster his hold on Persia. Persia and the Middle East simply didn’t provide the pasturage the Mongol army required to wage effective warfare. Defeating the Mamluks and Golden Horde meant bolstering his forces with capable allies. His alliance with the ruler of Armenia provided some assistance, but Hulegu realized their addition could only forestall defeat, not attain the victory that would end the incessant conflicts.
Hulegu’s alliance with his brother, the Great Khan Khubilai was more a thing of theory than practice. In Khubilai’s contest with their other brother, Arigh Boke, for the Khanate, Hulegu backed Khubilai, but due to the distance, wasn’t able to offer anything more than verbal support. The same as now true in reverse. While Khubilai supported Hulegu and the Ilkhanate of Persia, he wasn’t able to provide any forces to the contest. The result was Hulegu’s turn to the West for allies. To defeat the Mamluks and regain Syria, he’d need Christian Europe’s help. He figured they’d be open to such an alliance since they still possessed few holdings in the Outremer after the disasters of the Crusades and a resurgent Islam. Hulegu realized the haughty demands of his predecessors would not endear Western rulers to ally with him against the Mamluks. He’d have to appeal to them as equals.
What Hulegu didn’t know about was the disunity among Europe’s rulers at the same time as such disorder in the Mongol realms. Also, the year 1260, when Hulegu began casting his net for allies to the West was only 20 years after the harrowing defeat of Hungary and Poland’s military elite at the hands of the Mongols. Europe was terrified of them. Since treachery was a standard part of Mongolian warfare, offers of an alliance would be regarded as ploys for conquest rather than sincere overtures of alliance. From Europe’s perspective, neither the Mamluks nor Mongols were a safe bet for alliance against the other. The best course was deemed as neutrality, and the hope the Mongols and Mamluks would duke it out in a war that would effectively cripple both. The Crusaders could then sweep in and take over.
But Hulegu was ignorant of these Western impulses and dreamed of an alliance with the Christian West in a campaign against the Mamluks. Once the threat to his south and west was contained, the Ilkhans would be free to deal with the Golden Horde to their Northeast. While Hulegu’s dream of a Mongol-European alliance was never realized, after his death in 1265, his successor carried on the same hope, putting feet to it in the career of the remarkable Rabban Sauma, whose tale we’ll return to in our next episode.
by Lance Ralston | May 20, 2018 | English |
Rabban Sauma is the title of this Episode, Part 1.
So — there I was, walking through the Genghis Khan exhibit at the Reagan Library, reading the various offerings on the Great Khan and Mongols – a subject that as a student of history I find fascinating when I came upon an offering that launched an investigation. It spoke of a Nestorian priest who was a Chinese version of the famous Marco Polo. As I read the exhibit’s terse account of Rabban Sauma, I knew I had a new investigation to make. Why had I never heard of this fascinating character before? Why haven’t YOU?
The story of Marco Polo is part & parcel of the teaching of World History. His life and career are central to the prompts of what’s called the Age of Discovery. Mini-series have been made of his amazing tale. Virtually unknown to westerners is the story of an equally fascinating character of the same period. A Chinese Christian priest who ended up acting as an ambassador of the Mongols to the Pope and the kings of both France and England. Before that, Rabban Sauma was instrumental in establishing the new Patriarch of the venerable Church of the East. This man lived a truly epic life containing three separate sagas.
The Ongguds were a Turkic people living just North of the Great Wall. They’d allied with their Chinese neighbors in the past, and had proven a fertile field for Nestorian missionaries. They were one of the first groups to throw in with Genghis, benefiting from the Great Khan’s liberal toleration policy. The Mongols were largely illiterate while the Onggud’s, having converted to Christianity centuries before, possessed an academic class of priests and scholars. These provided the administrative core of the emerging Mongolian Empire. To prove his loyalty, the Onggud ruler gave one of his sons in marriage to the Khan’s daughter.
Shiban was an Onggud noble who married a woman of his class. Longing for a child but unable to conceive, they prayed and fasted. Their prayers were answered and a son was born, whom they named Bar Sauma – Son of the Fast. This was right around 1225. The piety of the parents was passed on to the son, who showed an extraordinary interest in spiritual things from a young age.
He was given a religious education and proved so adept at his studies was entrusted with special duties at the church of his hometown. While his parents were proud of their son’s piety, they were disappointed when at the age of 20, he made a vow to abstain from meat and alcohol. They’d hoped Bar Sauma would eventually use his mental acuity as a scholar or official. His vow made it clear he planned on pursuing the life of a monk. While Nestorian monks were required to be celibate, deacons and priests were encouraged to be married. In some eras, they were even required to have a wife as the thought was it would better equip them to offer counsel and guidance. So Bar Sauma’s parents arranged a marriage for their son, hoping to steer his aspirations into a more amenable course. They requested he delay his commitment to becoming a monk, as he prayerfully pondered continuing the Chinese tradition of continuing the family line. They asked him, “How can it possibly be pleasing to you for our seed and name to be blotted out?” Who would inherit their property and wealth, a not insubstantial consideration since they were figured amount the Onggud nobility? This query reflects the assimilation of the Ongguds into the larger and far more dominant Chinese culture. Bar Sauma deferred to his parents wished and delayed his commitment for three years.
He continued his education with the teachers his parents had arranged but stayed true to his earlier commitments. Rather than softening to his parents’ requests, they softened toward his and agreed that their son was destined for a religious life. The arranged marriage, part of which had already been formally conducted, was suspended and then annulled.
Bar Sauma’s diligence in the study of the Bible came to the attention of the bishop of the Mongol capital at Tai-tu, the city that would eventually be known as Beijing. Mar Giwargis inducted Bar Sauma into the Nestorian clergy at the age of 25.
That closes ch. 1 of Rabban Sauma’s amazing story. Before we open ch. 2, it would be wise to set the scene on two important dimensions of his story. The unique aspects of his Nestorianism, and the world scene his story is a part of.
We spent some time on the tale of Nestorius and his theological and political contest with Cyril of Alexandria back in Season 1. While Nestorius was declared a Heretic by the Council of Chalcedon in the 5th Century, we saw that the man himself did NOT espouse heresy. The council’s decision was based more on the politics of the day than a careful analysis of his theology. BUT: it is certainly true those who came after Nestorius by a few generations did indeed deviate from orthodoxy. When Nestorius was banished from Constantinople, he went West to the monastery where he began in Antioch. After Chalcedon, his followers moved to Persia and gave rise to a rich religious tradition that came to be known as The Church of the East, synonymous with The Nestorian Church.
Eventually, the very thing the Western Church accused Nestorius of, but he’d vehemently denied, became the doctrinal position of his followers; that Christ possessed not just two natures as God and Man, but that He was two PERSONS. In contradistinction with the West, Mary’s role was downgraded. She wasn’t Theotokos, that is, the bearer of God; she was Christotokos, the bearer of Jesus’ humanity. If the Nestorians had stopped here, they might eventually have been understood to merely use different terminology to describe Jesus as the Son of God and Man. But they went further than Nestorius himself had by editing their view of the Trinity. Jesus wasn’t just subordinate to the Father in the teaching of the Church of the East, He was understood as produced by The Father, with the Holy Spirit then subsequently proceeding from both Father and Son. In other words, ontologically, The Father existed first, then the Son, then the Spirit. This has the Son and Spirit coming into being after the Father -an idea utterly anathema to Western Orthodoxy as it makes the Son and Spirit creations. But, it’s important to make this clear, in classic Nestorianism, the Son and Spirit are understood, not as creations, but as deity co-equal with the Father.
The Church of the East retained the sacraments of the West, although as the two branches of the Faith evolved, they’d take on somewhat different expressions.
Banished from Roman & Byzantine provinces int eh 5th Century, Nestorians settled in the Middle East and Central Asia. Beng highly missionary in outreach, they extended their reach all the way t the Far East and China. Their new headquarters was set up in Persia where they established a rich tradition with an emphasis on education and scholarship.
From the 6th through 9th Centuries missionaries converted many of the Turkic peoples of Central Asia. In the 7th Century, Nestorians reached China and established themselves amongst the Tang Dynasty, lasting into the 10th Century. In the late 11th and 12 Centuries, Nestorianism had taken root among the Mongols, with several of their elite women as adherents of the Faith. There was a Nestorian church in the Mongol capital at Khara Khorum.
Almost counter-intuitively, The Church of the East was a settled feature of the religious scene in the 13th Century across Central Asia and the Middle East. That’s counter-intuitive because Islam had swept this area centuries before. Christianity would not decline in this region until the late 14th Century when Mongol influence also declined. It was then that a resurgent Islam saw both a voluntary and coerced conversion of other Faiths.
It may be fairly said that Nestorianism spread much further than it’s Western Cousin over the same period because of its missionary zeal and scholarly ardor. Nestorian leaders were highly motivated to plant churches and extend the borders of the faith into new realms.
Facilitating the spread of the faith eastward was the development of new trade routes that connected West & East. Today, we know these routes as the Silk Road, better understood as Roads – plural, as there wasn’t just one route. And they weren’t roads as we think of them. Don’t picture some kind of ancient highway, a wagon trail with clearly defined ruts across hundreds of miles of territory. That’s not what the Silk Roads of this time were. No map charted their course. Few guides could lead others on them. The path Marco Polo & Rabban Sauma took was little more than an idea when they traversed it. Later, their routes would indeed become those trails countless others would travel. But Polo & Sauma were trail-blazers, pioneers of commerce and Faith. It was Nestorian merchants who helped make the old Silk Roads. And everywhere they went, their churches followed.
Another factor enhancing the spread of The Church of the East was the Nestorian policy of cultural adaptation. Missionaries didn’t require converts to adopt a Persian or Middle Eastern culture. The Gospel was understood as transcending culture. Even to the point where missionaries accommodated some decidedly unbiblical practices, such as polygamy, a common practice among the nobility of Central Asia. It isn’t that Nestorianism endorsed or approved of polygamy; they just would not see the reach of the Faith stalled until people accepted monogamy. Nestorian missionaries reasoned, Do we require monogamy before we preach The gospel and accept converts, or preach the Gospel, make converts, then disciple them toward a Biblical view of marriage? They decided for the second option.
Because of this, not a few of the Mongol nobles were converted, especially among the women. And that insured the protection of Nestorianism as a viable faith under the Mongol policy of religious toleration in their rise to hegemony over all Central Asia, the Far East, and eventually into the Middle East.
Nestorianism’s spread over such a vast area, combined with its assimilation of various cultures, resulted in the Faith’s diversification. While keeping its central doctrines intact and uniform, the WAY it was expressed and practiced, in terms of its rituals, took on different forms. So across the whole body of the Church of the East, while some churches looked very different from their Western counterparts, others look quite similar. Rabban Sauma will be asked to conduct a Mass in Italy before Western Church leaders and while his words were translated into Latin, what he said was readily understood and approved of, a remarkable thing when we realize the split between East & West was at that point 700 years old.
Another factor that contributed to the success of Nestorianism’s spread across such a vast region is the looseness of its organization. The Church of the East was headquartered in Seleucia-Ctesiphon, modern day Baghdad, led by a Patriarch known as the Catholicus. He appointed archbishops called Metropolitans over the major dioceses. Because travel and communication between these dioceses were difficult and slow, the Metropolitans had considerable flexibility to lead their regions as they saw fit without much interference or guidance from the Catholicus. Each metropolitan, being highly educated and a willing adherent of the Faith, held firm to the doctrinal core of Nestorianism while adapting it to the cultural sensibilities of the locals.
Eastern Christianity accommodated itself to local festivals and holidays. Nestorian priests blessed objects brought to them by commoners. Holy sites were designated and made the goal of pilgrimages. Relics took on special significance. What really enhanced the religion’s reach was the Nestorian clergy’s tendency to make medical treatment a part of their practice. This gained the Faith many converts.
In part 2, we’ll take a look at the political scene into which Rabban Sauma stepped and lived his amazing life.
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