Prester John

One of my favorite bits of medieval history the myth of Prester John. Strange Maps has a great blog post (and, of course, map) about Prester John.

The particulars and the location of Prester John changed over the centuries as need and imagination required, but basically, he was a Christian King of great power and prosperous kingdom located somewhere on the fringes of known geography; usually just beyond the edge of the map. His existence was a tonic to Christians beleaguered by Islam. It’s easy for us to forget today, but back in the 12th century, Christianity was the religion of backward and poor Europe. The great cities of Islam made Europe’s biggest cities look ramshackle. Their educational outlook was, at the time, comparatively enlightened. They’d kept alive knowledge of Aristotle and other Greek thinkers when Europe had mostly forgotten them and produced their own scholars when Europeans were struggling to merely survive. Muslims still had kingdoms in the Iberian peninsula and put pressure on Eastern Europe.

It’s easy to see the appeal of the notion of a great Christian Prince whose kingdom was superior to that of the Muslims and who could potentially be a great ally. At first, Prester John, a descendant of one of the 3 Magi had his kingdom of plenty in the Far East. His kingdom later, and more permanently, took up residence in Africa. And, the legends seem to have played at least some role in the European Age of Exploration. My interest in Prester John is just an aspect of my interest in that period of European history which, in turn, is left over from a boyhood love of adventure stories. I always thought the idea of a totally knew, previously unknown, civilization somewhere over the horizon was pretty cool. Prester John taps into that.