Rabban Bar Sauma
ܒܪ ܨܘܡܐ Bar Ṣawma ("Son of Fasting") | |
---|---|
Church | Church of the East |
See | Baghdad |
Personal details | |
Born | c. 1220 |
Died | January 1294 (aged c. 73–74) Baghdad, Ilkhanate |
Denomination | Church of the East |
Residence | Baghdad, Maragheh |
Occupation | Monk, ambassador, writer |
Rabban Bar Ṣawma (
The younger Markos was eventually elected Yahballaha III,
Bar Ṣawma's travels occurred before the return of Marco Polo to Europe, and his writings give a reverse viewpoint, of the East looking to the West.
Early life
Rabban ("Our Master"; c.f. "Rabbi" "my lord" in Judaism) Bar Ṣawma was born c. 1220 in or near modern-day Beijing, known then as Zhongdu,[4] later as Khanbaliq under Mongol rule. According to Bar Hebraeus he was of Uyghur origin.[5] Chinese accounts describe his heritage as Öngüd, a Turkic people classified as members of the "Mongol" caste under Yuan law.[6] The name bar Ṣawma is Aramaic for "Son of Fasting"[7] though he was born to a wealthy family. He was a "Church of the East Christian", and became an ascetic monk around the age of 20 and then a religious teacher for decades.
Pilgrimage to Jerusalem
In his middle age, Rabban Bar Sauma and one of his younger students, Rabban Markos, embarked on a journey from Yuan China to make pilgrimage to
It was Arghun's desire to form a strategic Franco-Mongol alliance with the Christian Europeans against their common enemy, the Muslim
Ambassador to Europe
In 1287, the elderly Bar Sauma embarked on his journey to Europe, bearing gifts and letters from Arghun to the Eastern Roman emperor, the Pope, and the European kings.[3] He followed the embassy of another "Nestorian", Isa Kelemechi, sent by Arghun to Pope Honorius IV, in 1285.[9][10]
Rabban Bar Sauma traveled with a large retinue of assistants, and 30 riding animals. Companions included the Church of the East Christian (archaon) Sabadinus; Thomas de Anfusis (or Tommaso d'Anfossi),[11] who helped as interpreter and was also a member of a famous Genoese banking company;[12] and an Italian interpreter named Uguetus or Ugeto (Ughetto).[13][14] Bar Sauma likely did not speak any European languages, though he was known to be fluent in Chinese, Turkic, and Persian, and he was able to read Syriac.[15] Europeans communicated to him in Persian.[16]
He traveled overland through Armenia to either the
He next traveled to Rome, but too late to meet Pope
Bar Sauma next made stops in Tuscany (Thuzkan) and the Republic of Genoa, on his way to Paris. He spent the winter of 1287–1288 in Genoa, a famous banking capital.[12] In France (Frangestan), he spent one month with King Philip the Fair, who seemingly responded positively to the arrival of the Mongol embassy, gave him numerous presents, and sent one of his noblemen, Gobert de Helleville, to accompany Bar Sauma back to Mongol lands. Gobert de Helleville departed on 2 February 1288, with clercs Robert de Senlis and Guillaume de Bruyères, as well as l'arbalétrier (crossbowman) Audin de Bourges. They joined Bar Sauma when he later returned through Rome, and accompanied him back to Persia.[18][19]
In Gascony in southern France, which at that time was in English hands, Bar Sauma met King Edward I of England, probably in the capital of Bordeaux. Edward responded enthusiastically to the embassy, but ultimately proved unable to join a military alliance due to conflict at home, especially with the Welsh and the Scots.
Upon returning to Rome, Bar Sauma was cordially received by the newly elected Pope Nicholas IV, who gave him communion on Palm Sunday, 1288, allowing him to celebrate his own Eucharist in the capital of Latin Christianity.[3] Nicholas commissioned Bar Sauma to visit the Christians of the East, and entrusted to him a precious tiara to be presented to Mar Yahballaha[3] (Rabban Bar Sauma's former student, Markos). Bar Sauma then returned to Baghdad in 1288, carrying messages and many other gifts from the various European leaders.[20]
The delivered letters were in turn answered by Arghun in 1289, forwarded by the Genoese merchant Buscarello de Ghizolfi, a diplomatic agent for the Il-khans. In the letter to Philip IV, Arghun mentions Bar Sauma:[21]
"Under the power of the eternal sky, the message of the great king, Arghun, to the king of France..., said: I have accepted the word that you forwarded by the messengers under Saymer Sagura (Rabban Bar Sauma), saying that if the warriors of Il Khaan invade Egypt you would support them. We would also lend our support by going there at the end of the Tiger year’s winter [1290], worshiping the sky, and settle in Damascus in the early spring [1291].
If you send your warriors as promised and conquer Egypt, worshiping the sky, then I shall give you Jerusalem. If any of our warriors arrive later than arranged, all will be futile and no one will benefit. If you care to please give me your impressions, and I would also be very willing to accept any samples of French opulence that you care to burden your messengers with.
I send this to you by Myckeril and say: All will be known by the power of the sky and the greatness of kings. This letter was scribed on the sixth of the early summer in the year of the Ox at Ho’ndlon."
— France royal archives[22]
The exchanges towards the formation of an alliance with the Europeans ultimately proved fruitless, and Arghun's attempts were eventually abandoned.
Later years
After his embassy to Europe, Bar Sauma lived out the rest of his years in Baghdad. It was probably during this time that he wrote the account of his travels, which was published in French in 1895 and in English in 1928 as The Monks of Kublai Khan, Emperor of China or The History of the Life and Travels of Rabban Sawma, Envoy and Plenipotentiary of the Mongol Khans to the Kings of Europe, and Markos Who as Mar Yahbh-Allaha III Became Patriarch of the Church of the East in Asia, translated and edited by Sir E. A. Wallis Budge. The narrative is unique for its observations of medieval Europe during the end of the Crusading period, through the eyes of an observant outsider from a culture thousands of miles away.
Rabban Bar Sauma died in 1294, in Baghdad.
See also
Notes
- ISBN 978-90-04-28529-3.
- ^ a b Mantran, p. 298
- ^ a b c d e f g Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 22 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 767.
- ^ Kathleen Kuiper & editors of Encyclopædia Britannica (31 August 2006). "Rabban bar Sauma: Mongol Envoy." Encyclopædia Britannica (online source). Retrieved 6 September 2016.
- ^ Carter, Thomas Francis (1955). The invention of printing in China and its spread westward. Ronald Press Co. p. 171.
- ^ Moule, A. C., Christians in China before 1550 (1930; 2011 reprint), 94 & 103; also Pelliot, Paul in T'oung-pao 15(1914), pp.630–36.
- ^ Phillips, p. 123
- ISBN 0-521-49781-7. Retrieved 28 October 2010.
- ^ The Mongols and the West, 1221–1410 Peter Jackson p.169
- ^ The Cambridge history of Iran William Bayne Fisher, John Andrew Boyle p.370
- ISBN 978-90-04-28529-3.
- ^ a b Phillips, p. 102
- ^ Grousset, p.845
- ^ Rossabi, pp. 103–104
- ISBN 978-90-04-28529-3.
- ISBN 978-90-04-28529-3.
- ^ Zehiroğlu, Ahmet M. (2014) Bar Sauma's Black Sea Journey
- ^ René Grousset, Histoire des croisades et du royaume franc de Jérusalem, vol. III, p. 718
- ISBN 978-2-88086-492-7), p. 224
- ^ Boyle, in Camb. Hist. Iran V, pp. 370–71; Budge, pp. 165–97. Source Archived 4 April 2008 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Encyclopedia Iranica Source Archived 4 April 2008 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Source Archived 2008-06-18 at the Wayback Machine
References
- Beazley, C. R., Dawn of Modern Geography, ii.15, 352; iii.12, 189–190, 539–541.
- Brock, Sebastian P. (1969). "Rabban Ṣauma à Constantinople (1287)". Mémorial Mgr Gabriel Khouri-Sarkis (1898-1968). Louvain: Imprimerie orientaliste. pp. 245–253.
- Chabot, J. B.'s translation and edition of the Histoire du Patriarche Mar Jabalaha III. et du moine Rabban Cauma (from the Syriac) in Revue de l'Orient Latin, 1893, pp. 566–610; 1894, pp. 73–143, 235–300
- Mantran, Robert (1986). "A Turkish or Mongolian Islam". In Fossier, Robert (ed.). The Cambridge Illustrated History of the Middle Ages: 1250–1520. volume 3. ISBN 978-0-521-26646-8.
- Odericus Raynaldus, Annales Ecclesiastici(continuation of Baronius), AD 1288, f xxxv-xxxvi; 1289, lxi
- Phillips, J. R. S. (1998). The Medieval Expansion of Europe (second ed.). ISBN 0-19-820740-9.
- Records of the Wardrobe and Household, 1286-89, ed. Byerly and Byerly (HMSO, 1986), nos. 543, 1082 (for the meeting with Edward I at St Sever).
- Rossabi, Morris (1992). Voyager from Xanadu: Rabban Sauma and the first journey from China to the West. ISBN 4-7700-1650-6.
- Wadding, Luke, Annales Minorum, v.169, 196, 170-173
- Zehiroglu, Ahmet M. (2014) ; "Bar Sauma's Black Sea Journey"
Translations
Rabban Bar Sauma's travel narrative has been translated into English twice:
- Montgomery, James A., History of Yaballaha III, (New York: Columbia University Press, 1927)
- Budge, E. A. Wallis, The Monks of Kublai Khan, (London: Religious Tract Society, 1928). Online
A critical edition of the Syriac text with an English translation was published in 2021:
- Borbone, Pier Giorgio, History of Mar Yahballaha and Rabban Sauma. Edited, translated, and annotated by -, (Hamburg, Verlag tredition, 2021)
External links
- The history and Life of Rabban Bar Sauma. (online)