One could call Rabban Bar Sauma a "reverse Marco Polo": whereas Polo traveled from West to East, Bar Sauma's trek took him from what is now Beijing to the Bourdeaux region in France; and whereas Polo went on business, the priest...

Rabban Bar Sauma Born c. 1220, Peking, China Died c. 1294, Baghdad, present-day Iraq Much is known about medieval travelers, such as Venetian Marco Polo (see entry), who journeyed from Europe to Asia, but there were also Asian travelers to Europe. For...

c.1220-1294 Chinese Nestorian Monk and Explorer In the late 1280s, a Nestorian Christian monk named Rabban Bar Sauma took the opposite route of many of his contemporary explorers by venturing from his homeland in China to western Europe. He and a...

Rabban Bar Sauma, also known as Rabban Çauma,[1] (Chinese:拉賓掃務瑪, around 1230-1294, fl. 1280 – 1288), was a Mongol traveler and diplomat from China, and a follower of the Nestorian faith (see: Nestorianism in China). He was born at...