He Reported That Not Long Before A Certain John,
Inhabiting The Extreme East, King And Nestorian Priest, And Claiming
Descent From The Three Wise Kings, Had Made War On The Samiard Kings Of
The Medes And Persians, And Had Taken Ecbatana Their Capital.
He was then
proceeding to the deliverance of Jerusalem, but was stopped by the Tigris,
which he could not cross, and compelled by disease in his host to retire.
M. d'Avezac first showed to whom this account must apply, and the subject
has more recently been set forth with great completeness and learning by
Dr. Gustavus Oppert. The conqueror in question was the founder of Kara
Khitai, which existed as a great Empire in Asia during the last two-thirds
of the 12th century. This chief was a prince of the Khitan dynasty of
Liao, who escaped with a body of followers from Northern China on the
overthrow of that dynasty by the Kin or Niuchen about 1125. He is called
by the Chinese historians Yeliu Tashi; by Abulghazi, Nuzi Taigri Ili; and
by Rashiduddin, Nushi (or Fushi) Taifu. Being well received by the Uighurs
and other tribes west of the Desert who had been subject to the Khitan
Empire, he gathered an army and commenced a course of conquest which
eventually extended over Eastern and Western Turkestan, including
Khwarizm, which became tributary to him. He took the title of Gurkhan,
said to mean Universal or Suzerain Khan, and fixed at Bala Sagun, north of
the Thian Shan, the capital of his Empire, which became known as Kara
(Black) Khitai.[1] [The dynasty being named by the Chinese Si-Liao
(Western Liao) lasted till it was destroyed in 1218. - H. C.] In 1141 he
came to the aid of the King of Khwarizm against Sanjar the Seljukian
sovereign of Persia (whence the Samiard of the Syrian Bishop), who had
just taken Samarkand, and defeated that prince with great slaughter.
Though the Gurkhan himself is not described to have extended his conquests
into Persia, the King of Khwarizm followed up the victory by an invasion
of that country, in which he plundered the treasury and cities of Sanjar.
Admitting this Karacathayan prince to be the first conqueror (in Asia, at
all events) to whom the name of Prester John was applied, it still remains
obscure how that name arose. Oppert supposes that Gurkhan or Kurkhan,
softened in West Turkish pronunciation into Yurkan, was confounded with
Yochanan or Johannes; but he finds no evidence of the conqueror's
profession of Christianity except the fact, notable certainly, that the
daughter of the last of his brief dynasty is recorded to have been a
Christian. Indeed, D'Ohsson says that the first Gurkhan was a Buddhist,
though on what authority is not clear. There seems a probability at least
that it was an error in the original ascription of Christianity to the
Karacathayan prince, which caused the confusions as to the identity of
Prester John which appear in the next century, of which we shall presently
speak.
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