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 the most part, however, either no record was made of their trips or their accounts have remained undiscovered. One important exception was the journey of Rabban Bar Sauma, a Nestorian priest from Peking (now known as Beijing), China, who traveled to western France in the thirteenth century.
Bar Sauma was born around 1220 into a well-to-do Uighur family in Khanbalik, the capital of the Mongols, which later regained its Chinese name, Peking. At the age of 20 Bar Sauma became a monk and went to live in a cave, where he gained renown as a preacher. One of the people attracted by his preaching was a young monk named Mark. Sometime between 1275 and 1280 Bar Sauma and Mark set off to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. They were furnished with a letter of recommendation from the Nestorian bishop of Khanbalik and a travel permit from Kublai Khan.
Bar Sauma wrote an account of their journey, which provides valuable information about the religious and political situation in the countries they visited. They made their way through the Sinkiang Uighur region to central Asia, though with great difficulty, since at the time there was an armed rebellion against Kublai Khan’s rule. Bar Sauma and Mark arrived at Khorasan, a region in eastern Persia (in present-day Iran), and made their way to Maragheh, a town in what is now Iranian Azerbaijan. There they were welcomed by the catholicos, the head of the Nestorian church and the patriarch of the East. After visiting Baghdad, they were sent by the catholicos on a mission to the court of the Il-Khan, the Mongol ruler of Persia. The Il-Khan dynasty was the branch of the Mongol ruling family that descended from Genghis Khan’s grandson Hulegu.
On their return they traveled by way of Christian Armenia. The catholicos then sent Bar Sauma and Mark back to China as his emissaries. In 1280 the catholicos named Mark a bishop and appointed him metropolitan, or head bishop, of part of northern China. When the catholicos died, the bishops chose Mark as his successor. Since most Nestorians were under Mongol rule, Mark’s knowledge of the Mongol language and customs made him the prefect choice. Following the election, Bar Sauma traveled with Mark to Azerbaijan for Mark’s confirmation by the Il-Khan Abaga.
In 1284 Abaga’s son Arghun took over the throne. Arghun was friendly toward the Nestorians, and he was also ambitious. He wanted to drive the Muslims out of Syria and Palestine, so he tried to gain the help of the Christian Europeans. Arghun sought the advice of the new catholicos, who recommended sending Bar Sauma to Europe to seek Christian support. According to Bar Sauma’s writings, he left Iraq in 1287, heading north through Armenia to the Black Sea. He sailed from the Greek trading city Trebizond, located on the northern coast of Asia Minor, to Constantinople. There he met the Byzantine emperor Andronicus II and visited Hagia Sophia, an enormous cathedral.
Bar Sauma then set out for Naples across the Mediterranean Sea, a trip that took two months. While passing through Sicily he saw an eruption of Mount Etna. Since he arrived in Rome at a time when there was no reigning pope, he became involved in theological disputes with the cardinals at the Holy See. From Rome Bar Sauma went north to Thuzkan (modern-day Tuscany) and then to Ginuha (now called Genoa). Leaving northern Italy, he journeyed to Paris, where he had a meeting with King Philip IV. His next stop was Kasonia (now Gascony), a region in southwestern France, which was then ruled by the kings of England and known to Bar Sauma as Alanguitar. He met King Edward I of England in Bordeaux.
Bar Sauma had completed his mission for the Il-Khan by meeting the Christian kings and religious leaders in Europe. He set out on his return trip along the route he had taken from Persia. Stopping briefly in Rome in 1288, he received Communion on Palm Sunday from the newly elected Pope Nicholas IV. Upon his arrival in Persia, Bar Sauma reported to the Il-Khan that the Western powers were willing to unite with him against the Muslims. Although this alliance never took place, Bar Sauma’s trip set the stage for diplomatic missions to the East from the West, including those of John of Monte Corvino and Galfridus of Langele.
Nestorians
The Nestorians—followers of Nestorius, an early patriarch, or bishop, of Constantinople—split off from the main branch of Christianity at the Council of Ephesus in 431. They became the most important Christian sect in what is now Iraq and Iran before this region was conquered by the Muslims in the seventh century. Starting in 635 missionaries were sent to sites throughout Asia, including an important Nestorian colony in China. This colony was later suppressed, but the religion continued to flourish among the Turkic-speaking Uighur tribes, who lived in the province of Sinkiang in western China. Following the conquest of Peking by the Mongols under Genghis Khan in 1215, the Nestorians returned to China and resumed their missionary work. Among the Mongols themselves were a number of influential Nestorians, including the mother of Kublai Khan, founder of the Mongol dynasty in China.
By the late twentieth century the Nestorian church—also called the Assyrian or East Syrian church—had approximately 175,000 members, some of whom lived in the United States. Nestorian churches are simple, with minimal ornamentation. An important part of the liturgy, conducted in the Syriac language, is “holy leaven,” an altar bread believed to come directly from the dough used at the Last Supper. According to the Nestorians, Christ had two separate persons, one divine and the other human. They regard Nestorius as a saint but do not consider the Virgin Mary to be the mother of God. A large order of modern Nestorians, the Malabar Chaldean Catholics, has been recognized by the Roman Catholic church. The Nestorians and Chaldeans have a long history of persecution; during the twentieth century many were massacred by the Kurds and Turks in the Middle East.
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