The Muslim Letters of Prester John

We have examined how Prester John sent letters to the Papacy and the Christian kingdoms of the West.

Equating Prester John with the historical king of Zabag known as the Mihraj, we have also seen how the latter king reached out to the kingdoms of Tibet, India and China, by sending gifts and supporting building projects abroad. Prester John, likewise, had proposed building projects in his message to Pope Alexander III.

The Mihraj was also in the habit of sending letters to the emperor of China, and the Sung Dynasty annals state that his kingdom used Chinese characters when sending such official correspondence. Two such letters are mentioned explicitely in the annals -- one in 1017 to the emperor and cast in "golden characters," and the other in 1080 from the king's daughter, in Chinese characters, addressed to the superintendent of trade. The latter however would not receive the letter but instead forwarded it to the emperor.

As discussed previously, in this author's opinion these overtures were part of the king's attraction policy that took on a special emphasis when Zabag's trade routes were infringed upon by expanding Muslim influence.

However, there may have been a time when the Mihraj also attempted to reach out to the Sunni Muslim juggernaut at the very beginning of the Umayyad Caliphate. S. Q. Fatimi has analyzed two letters from the "Mihraj" to the first Umayyad caliph Mu'awiyah in in 661 CE, and to the caliph Umar ibn abd al-Aziz (717-20). Fatimi marshals evidence to show that this king of "al-Hind" is, in fact, the ruler of Zabag. The very title "Mihraj" or "Mahraj" was used specifically in Muslim texts for the monarch of Zabag.

The first letter is recorded by al-Jahiz (783-869) in Kitab al-Hayawan. According to Jahiz, Abd al-Malik b. Umayr (822-3) saw the letter from the diwan (secretary) of Mu'awiyah and it was passed from him to Abu Ya'qub al-Thaqafi who relayed it to al-Haytham b. Adi, the source of al-Jahiz.

Unfortunately, Jahiz only records the greeting of the letter from the king of al-Hind "in whose stables are a thousand elephants, (and) whose palace is built of bright gold and silver, who is served by a thousand daughters of the kings, and who possesses two rivers, which irrigate aloes plants, to Mu'awiyah..."

The second letter is found in Al-Iqd al-Farid by Abd Rabbih (860-940) who gives as his source Nu'aym b. Hammad.

Nu'aym b. Hammad wrote: "the king of al-Hind sent, a letter to Umar b. Abd al-Aziz, which ran as follows: From the King of kings [Malik al-Amlak], who is the descendant of a thousand kings, in whose stables are a thousand elephants, and in whose territories are two rivers which irrigate plants of aloes, odoriferous herbs, nutmeg, and camphor, whose fragrance spreads the distance of twelve miles -- to the king of the Arabs, who does not associate other gods with God. I have sent to you a gift, which is not much of a gift but a greetings and I wish that you may send to me someone who might teach me Islam and instruct me in its Laws."

Similarities with Prester John's letter

Now we can immediately note some resemblances of these two letters with those sent centuries later by Prester John to the Christian emperors and kings.

First, there is the mention of the gift, which is not unusual in communication between kings. There is also the flowery, somewhat pompous, self-introduction of the king. In particular, the Mihraj uses the title "King of Kings" or Malik al-Amlak just as Prester John refers to himself as Rex Regnum "King of Kings." Both monarchs claim to have many elephants at their command, and there is also the mention from both the Mihraj and Prester John of a palace constructed with precious metals.

In Prester John's communication with Alexander III, he asks for instruction in the Catholic religion, and we see the same request, but this time with reference to Islam, in the second letter of the Mihraj.

Ibn Tighribirdi (1410-1470) gives another version of the second letter, on the authority of Ibn Asakir, in which he adds a sentence near the end: "I have sent you a present of musk, amber, incense and camphor, Please accept it, for I am your brother in Islam." This would imply that the Mihraj had accepted Islam, and Fatimi suggests that the king may have converted, but that the religion was latter rejected by his descendants. Another possibility, of course, is that Ibn Tighribirdi's late account uses unreliable sources. In either case, there is no evidence that Islam was practiced widely in Zabag at any point in its history.

However, we do see that the Mihraj follows a similar pattern of open patronage of multiple religions that we have suggested earlier was part of a long-standing royal policy of Zabag.

With reference to the "two rivers" mentioned in the Mihraj's letter, we note again the suggestion that one title for the king of the isles dating from ancient times was "Lord of the River." Fatimi, who holds that Zabag should be equated with Srivijaya, thinks that rivers mentioned are the Batanghari in Jambi and the Musi in Palembang.

The two rivers, in my view, would represent the primary drainage courses for the two sacred mountains, Pinatubo and Arayat. The Pampanga River, although it has its source further north, passes very close to Arayat and right through the town called Arayat, and thus was associated with that mountain. The river of Pinatubo could have been the Guagua River, but also the Masantol river which joins the Pampanga River in Masantol, where I have suggested the Zabag emporium was located. Visitors and merchants would have entered into the emporium by sailing up the Pampanga River and registering at the royal palace at Malauli before preceding further upstream.

In the Mihraj's letters, he mentions the spices of his kingdom including nutmeg, which was found only in the islands around and including Maluku (the Moluccas) and Mindanao. Nutmeg along with clove buds, which was found only in Maluku region, were traded mainly along the "Clove Route," which lead to the northwest along what the Chinese called the "Eastern Ship Route." I have suggested that this trade route was controlled primarily by the Mihraj.

The letters of the Mihraj can be viewed as early examples of a tradition of correspondence used by the king of Zabag to accomplish geopolitical goals. The timing of the letter coincided with the accounts of the Sayabiga, the natives of Zabag that I have suggested acted as agents of the Mihraj in latter times. However, the course of history would suggest that a "friendly" outcome was not achieved, and the kingdom of Zabag would later have to pursue other courses of action.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Fatimi, SQ. "Two Letters from Maharaja to the Khalifah", Islamic Studies (Karachi), 2, 1 (1963), 121-40.

Rost, Reinhold. Miscellaneous Papers Relating to Indo-China. London: Trübner & Co, 1886, 188-91.

Location of Eden

When Columbus set out in search of the Indies, he had in mind the lands of Tarshish and Ophir, the great isle of Cipangu and also the Terrestrial Paradise -- the Garden of Eden.

The Earthly Paradise was generally set in the dominion of Prester John, and for this reason in medieval roll of arms, for example, Prester John of the Indies (Prester Johan de Ynde) was listed first in precedence followed by the King of Jerusalem, the Emperor of Rome and the Emperor of Constantinople in that order, followed by other Christian kings.

From the Herald's Roll (late 13th century)

1 Prester Johan de Ynde

Azure a cross or (attributed arms)

2 Roye de Jerusalem

Argent crusilly and a cross potent or

3 Emperor de Rome

Or a double headed eagle displayed sable

4 Emperor de Constantinoble

Gules a cross or

In the millenarian environment of Europe during Columbus' time, the honor of ruling over the Garden of Eden would certainly suit the prophesied king, the Encubierto, as many fancied Columbus' patron Ferdinand of Spain. Technically such an honor would rank even higher than reconquering Jerusalem.

On his way home from his first voyage, Columbus wrote in his Diario that the land he had discovered must be Paradise Terrestrial which 'sacred theologians and philosophers' had located in the 'end of the East' ("en el fin de oriente"). One of the admiral's favorite books, Imago Mundi, placed the Garden of Eden at the extremity of the East where the Sun rose for the first time on the morning of creation.

The idea that Cipangu and China could be reached by sailing West and that the distance was not that great appears to have originated with Nicolo di Conti and/or the mysterious ambassador from the East Indies -- from a Nestorian Christian nation 20 days beyond Cathay (China). These two are mentioned together by Poggio after the latter's interview of de Conti.

Both had influenced Paolo Toscanelli and others, and Toscanelli is believed by many to have encouraged Columbus to undertake his fateful mission. Previously, under the Ptolemaic system it was believed that the Indian Ocean was landlocked and that the eastern coast of Asia could not be approached by sea from the West. Pierre d'Ailley, the author of Imago Mundi had these concepts in his book, but later gave up the idea of an open Indian Ocean after reading the Latin Ptolemy.

At this time, the view that the distance from the Canaries to Cipangu was relatively small became current. Toscanelli estimated it at only 85 degrees, while Martellus put it at 90 degrees and Behaim at 110 degrees. Some scholars believe the idea of such a short distance originates with Marinus of Tyre, but even the latter but the distance at 135 degrees. In reality, the measure was about 225 degrees.

Whatever the source of the idea, Columbus believed that he was sailing along the coasts of southeastern Asia when he discovered the Americas. After his third voyage, he wrote in a letter to Ferdinand and Isabella: "I am completely persuaded in my own mind that the Terrestrial Paradise is in the place I have said...just above the Equator, where the best authorities had always argued Paradise would be found."

The idea that Eden was near the equator was related to the idea of climate and the lack of extreme changes of hot and cold seasons. Eden was thought of as a lush place with a dazzling variety of living creatures. In 1554, an anonymous English author writes:

All who have gone there agree that the best and greenest fields and countrysides in the entire world are to be found there, the most pleasant mountains, covered with trees and fruits every kind, the most beautiful valleys, the most delicious rivers of fresh water, filled with an endless variety of fishes, the thickest forests, always green and laden with fruits. As for gold, silver, and other kinds of metal, spices of all kinds, and fruits desirable both tor their taste and touch and for the salutary effects they have: so abundant are they that until now it has not been possible even to imagine that they could be as many elsewhere as here. In conclusion, it is now thought that the earthly paradise can only be located on the equinoctial line or close to it, for the only perfect spot on earth has its place there.

In a letter that Columbus wrote to his son after his voyages, he said:

Certain it is that I have served Their Highnesses with as great diligence and love as I might have employed to win paradise and more; and if in somewhat I have been wanting, that was impossible, or much beyond my knowledge and strength.

Probably the paradise that Columbus mentions above is that of the eternal reward after life, but after his time, the idea of reaching the Garden of Eden began to fade. Explorers may have realized the futility of such an endeavor, but they continued to look for other fabled lands including Cipangu, Tarshish and Ophir, and Cattigara.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Delumeau, Jean. History of Paradise. The Garden of Eden in Myth and Tradition, Trans. Matthew O'Connell. New York: Continuum Publishing C., 1995, 111.

Morison, Samuel Eliot. Admiral of the Ocean Sea a Life of Christopher Columbus, Little Brown & Co., 1942.

Glossary: Letters of Prester John

When analyzing the letters of Prester John, we should distinguish between those said to have been received by the Popes or kings of Europe, and those circulated for general public consumption.

Obviously some of the latter were designed more for entertainment purposes than anything else.

However, when we learn that the Pope sent his personal physician, Magister Philippus, on a mission to Prester John, the completely fictional character of the king becomes a more difficult proposition.

Although many copies of the original letters exist, there are numerous variations in the manuscripts.

Actual specimens of letters addressed to the "Emperor of Rome" and the "King of France" are stated to be preserved at the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris (Beazely, p. 278).

Pope Alexander III in Indorum regi sacerdotum santissimo (1177) told of Philippus' encounters with the emissaries of Prester John in the East, and the eastern king's desire to learn about the Roman Catholic Church.

Interestingly, while traveler's reports claiming to have found Prester John's kingdom in Central Asia or Ethiopia are seen as authentic, the accounts of this kingdom in "further India" are viewed as completely fictional and/or fraudulent. This includes the original letter attributed to Prester John, the story of John Mandeville and even the account of Nicolo de Conti given centuries after the first letter.

However, as we have noted, two geographically vast trade empires existed in further India at the time that are certainly deserving of consideration. All the more so when we consider that evidence exists that at least one of these empires appears to have had a long-term strategic policy of courting new allies.

Requests for assistance from the Sung emperor by the king of Sanfotsi against his enemies to the south began in the late 10th century. During the same general period over several centuries, Suvarnadvipa engaged in what apparently was an effort to strengthen political ties with eastern and southern India and Tibet. The Srikalacakra Tantra, having links with Suvarnadvipa gurus, contains not only interesting hopeful prophecies of Buddhist victories against invading hordes, but even a manual of the "art of war" as part of its contents. The presence of Suvarnadvipa influence (Sanfotsi/Zabag) in South India and Sri Lanka is also confirmed by independent Chinese and Muslim sources during this period including Ma Tuan-lin and Chau Ju-Kua.

We know that prior to the initial Prester John letters there had been visits by an "archbishop of India" to Constantinople, and by a "Patriarch John" from the same country to Rome in 1122. These visits are confirmed by two apparently independent sources, one anonymous and the other from Odo of Reims who was in Rome during the event.

These accounts confirm that people at least claiming to be authorities from India were able to venture to the West some 50 years before the first Prester John letter. As we know that merchants and even kings from Suvarnadvipa were journeying to India during this period, the necessary linkage existed.

Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival, published only about 35 years after the first letter, was the first in a series of Grail epics that sought to give European roots to the eastern king and to link him with a sacred relic known as the Holy Grail. In this literature, the Grail almost invariably returns to a mountain in far India.

If the letters had some hints of being penned by a Nestorian, this would not automatically effect its authenticity. Cosmas Indicopleustes refers to Nestorians from Siam as early as the 6th century CE. The Persian writer Abu Saliah mentions during the 7th century, a Nestorian church at Fansur (Sumatra or Borneo).

John of Marignolli says that he encounters "Christians" at Sabah during the 14th century, when travelling from China to India.

Even the letters themselves tend to imply they were written by someone in Prester John's service, which according to the king included 'Frankish' knights. We might relate this to Nicolo de Conti's claim much later of having served in the the court of Prester John during his 15th century travels to Asia.

After the Mongol conquests, as Europeans began traveling again to India, and particularly to South India, two advocates of the establishment of a Christian navy in the Indian Ocean arise in Europe. They were Jordanus of Columbum and Marino Sanuto, both of whom located Regnum Joannis Prebyteri in the far Indies. Their world maps though were still Ptolemaic in fashion showing the easternmost islands as part of the Asian continent.

Sanuto wrote an appeal to the Pope for a new crusade known as Secreta fidelium crucis "The Secrets of the Faithful of the Cross."

In this work, Sanuto included many maps, apparently the work of Pietro Vesconte, that were the first to show significant advances over earlier Christian maps. They were known as portolanos, discussed previously in this blog in relation to Austronesian wind compasses, and were valuable new additions to the navigational repetoire of European seafarers.

A pattern of contact, of which I have endeavored to lay out in this blog, continues up to the arrival of Portuguese fleets in the 1500s. The flow of knowledge from the East may be coded in von Eschenbach's account of the visitors Feirfez, Cundrie and Malcreatiure from the kingdom of Tribalibot "near the Ganges." The author even credits the tale of Parzival to a mysterious "pagan" from Toledo. The Grail itself may also allude partly to this new knowledge from the Far East.

It is impossible to say whether Luções "helpfulness" to the Portuguese had strategic rather than purely mercantile or mercenary motivations. However, the situation in Lusung certainly paints a picture of a kingdom in flux.

The land granted to Chinese migrants on the Pasig River, the first major foreign Chinese settlement in history, may have been a conscious policy to curry protectorate sentiments with Ming emperors.

Lusung at the arrival of the Spanish was divided between Islam and the indigenous religions. While the king in Tondo, Lakandula, appeared indigenous by his name, his close neighbor Soliman of Manila was a "Moro."

In the end, one can say that according to the thesis of this blog the lords of the dragon and bird clan succeeded in halting the Muslim juggernaut and the threat from the South, but only at great costs. The letters of "Prester John" worked. However, the land ended up colonized anyway and at one point the Lusung lords could not even conduct trade from village to village with each other under Spanish rule.

However, from the standpoint of the old trading clan the situation could be seen as profound according to their own worldview that I have attempted to reconstruct. Two conflicting exclusive ideologies, from the same root, meeting full circle back at the place where it all started, after nearly a millenium of intense warfare.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Beazely, C. Raymond (Editor). The Texts and Versions of John de Plano Carpini and William de Rubruquis, London: The Hakluyt Society, 1903.

Coedes, G. The Indianized States of Southeast Asia, University of Hawaii Press, 1975-06.

Manansala, Paul. The Kingdom of Prester John, http://asiapacificuniverse.com/pkm/presterjohn.htm, 2003.

The Holy Grail

In medieval tradition, Prester John ruled over the Garden of Eden, which was not so much a mythical place as a mythologized one. Europeans linked aromatics such as aloeswood, cinnamon, cassia and ginger with Eden. It was also viewed as a type of El Dorado, a tradition going back to the Old Testament:

And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became four heads.

The name of the first is Pishon; that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;

And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.

-- Genesis 2

A few centuries after the introduction of the Kalacakra into Tibet possibly by the Shambhala king himself, Prester John sends messengers to the emperors and Pope. At this time, the situation of European Christendom was grave. The expanding Seljuk Turks had administered a crushing defeat to the Byzantime Empire and had even captured Emperor Diogenes in 1091 who was released in an act of magnaminity.

From 1144 to 1187, one Crusader state after the next fell and until Jerusalem, which had been recaptured by the Crusaders, fell in 1187.

Prester John's appearance at this time may have been designed to create hope since that king promised to bring relief to the Christian kings by invading from the East. He claimed to have been Christian, and maybe he was in a syncretic way of thinking. However, Sanfotsi/Zabag had its hands full taking care of things in its own region and was in no position to offer any real assistance.

However, sometimes hope is all that is needed to continue the struggle. In the end, help did come in the form of the great Mongol eruption from Central Asia.

Prester John appears to have created something else designed to psychologically spur the Christian warriors into action. In the romance literature that arose after the letters of the eastern king, we hear of the relic known as the Holy Grail.

Whatever the Holy Grail was, and the literature gives divergent views, it was located somewhere in the farthest Indies. If the Garden of Eden was not enough, surely the Holy Grail could lure the brave soul past Saracen armies to the mysterious East.

Wolfram von Eschenbach, in the early 13th century, first suggested that Titurel, the grandfather of Parzival, had brought the grail back from somewhere "near the Ganges" and founded an order of knights to guard the relic. These knights were known as Templars according to von Eschenbach. In order to make Prester John more palatable to European audiences, he makes that king none other than the nephew of Parzival.

In the same way, other romances sought to Europeanize Prester John. In Jungere Titurel, Parzival becomes the spiritual son of Prester John and assumes his name and throne. In the Dutch Lancelot, Prester John is the son of Parzival. In the Carolingian cycle, Ogier the Dane becomes the linear ancestor of Prester John through is marriage with the local fairy princess.

These traditions show that it in addition to being Christian, Prester John had to be genetically European, or at least partly so to gain acceptance into the literature.

However, von Eschenbach in particular gives us some of the first examples of medieval European forays into a "multicultural" society. Feirefiz, the half-brother of Parzival and father of Prester John in his version is multi-ethnic and said to be of 'polka dot' complexion.

Three "Indians" figure in the story -- the lovely Queen Secundille of Tribalibot and the dark-skinned siblings Cundrie la sorcière and her brother Malcreatiure. Both of the latter are spoken of usually in unflattering terms for their physical appearance.

In some cases, especially with reference to Malcreatiure the obsession with appearance is startling and von Eschenbach feels need to give an explanation for the two emissaries of Secundille. He states that in Tribalibot there are "a great many of these people with distorted faces, and they bore strange, wild marks."

Our father Adam received from God the art of giving names to all things, both the wild and the tame. He knew the nature of each, and the revolutions of the stars as well, and what forces the seven planets had; and he also knew the virtues of all herbs and what the nature of each one was. When his daughters had acquired the power of years and might bear human offspring, he counseled them against intemperance. Whenever one of his daughters bore a child, he warned her repeatedly and rarely spared the admonition, to avoid eating many herbs which would spoil the human fruit and bring shame on his race: "Other than God appointed when He sat at work over me," as he said, "my beloved daughters, be not blinded as to your salvation."

Despite her uncomeliness, Cundrie plays an important role in the work as prophetess, astrologer and healer. Even Malcreatiure is called "the kinsman of the herb and the stars." The two visitors from Tribalibot have valuable knowledge to give regarding the Grail. One fascinating point is that Richard Wagner, a confirmed Indophile, transforms Cundrie into a beautiful enchantress who even tempts the Fisher King centuries later in his opera Parsifal.

The early romances generally agree in placing the Holy Grail in India or the Indies. It is not until the early 14th century that it is first suggested Prester John might be located in Africa.

Von Eschenbach places the Grail in Tribalibot from which it comes for a time to Montsalvat, only to return again to the Indies with Feirefiz and his wife Repanse de Schoye, the sister of the Fisher King. In Titurel, Parzival together with his knights return the Grail and the other holy treasures back to the Indies.

King Arthur together with the whole Grail chivalry take the relic back to the Indies in the farthest "Orient" in Lohengrin, the "Knight of the Swan."

While the Kalacakra Tantra contained instructions on the "art of war," von Eschenbach states that the Templars resided with and guarded the Grail. Was this simply a device of the author or was there some reason for him to have made this statement?

Wolfram von Eschenbach states that his main source was a Provencal bard named Kyot rather than Chretien de Troyes who composed a similar romance, but with major differences, at around 1180. He was said to have been illiterate and to have dictated the story to a transcriber. It was from the mysterious Kyot, thought by some to a fictional device, that Wolfram claimed to have learned the Grail mysteries, which he states were acquired by Kyot in Toledo.

In Toledo, Jews, Christians and Muslims had lived peacefully for centuries. It was here at the great library that many ancient Greek and Roman works were protected from the Inquisition. The city was captured by Alfonso VI in the 11th century and according to Wolfram, Kyot obtained a manuscript in "heathen writing" there which was the source of his knowledge of the Grail.

The manuscript was said to be written by a "heathen" name Flegetanis. On his father's side, he was said to be descended from a heathen "who worshipped a calf." He was also said to have descent from King Solomon of Israel. Wolfram describes him as a skilled astrologer.

Kyot has been identified by many as Guiot de Provins, a troubadour, Cluniac monk and Templar advocate. Wolfram states that after obtaining the heathen manuscript, Kyot found in the chronicles of Anjou the complete story of the family of "Mazadan." It was from these two sources that he composed his song of Parzival.

Mazadan marries a fairy named Terdelaschoye in the land of Feimurgân and they have two sons, Lazaliez and Brickus. The latter becomes the father of Arthur and the elder, the grandfather of Gandin of Anjou, the grandfather of Parzival.

The name Mazadan is mysterious and suggestions of links from Ahura Mazda to Masada have been made. The land of Feimurgân also known as Fêmurgân diu rîche, Fâmorgân and Fata Morgana has the same name as Morgan La Fay of the Arthurian cycles and has been identified with Avalon.

Comparing this to the "orthodox" royal genealogy of the House of Anjou, we have to go to Fulk IV Rechin who admitted he knew nothing of his ancestors. The 12th century is known to have been a time when many noble or newly-noble families concocted hoary lineages for themselves. If we consider Fulk IV as the first count of Anjou, his son Fulk V who became King of Jerusalem through marriage would be the father of Gahmuret i.e., Geoffrey the founder of the Plantagenet dynasty.

This makes sense since Gahmuret, the father of Parzival, is said to have married the childless widow of the emperor, and indeed Geoffrey's wife was Matilda (Maud Augustus) the childless widow of Holy Roman Emperor Henry V.

However, Titurel, the founder of the Knights Templar, would have to be Baldwin II, the father of Geoffrey's stepmother rather than a relative of Matilda (Herzoloyde). Baldwin II accepted the services of the newly-formed Templars in 1118.

So there was a strong connection between the House of Anjou and the Templars. Three generations ruled Jerusalem until the house went extinct and the city passed by marriage to the House of Lusignan. Von Eschenbach's tale is easily related to the historical events and the few inconsistencies may have been inserted to protect him from any accusations.

The lands of Zabag, and the rest of the Indies for that matter, had been cut off from the Christian world within a century of the rise of Islam. However, as the Muslim literature readily attests, the Islamic kingdoms had frequent intercourse with these eastern realms. When the Crusaders managed to capture regions of Palestine and Syria, lines of communication reopened that had been lost for centuries.

We first hear of formal contacts from the east when a certain Patriarch John of India in 1122 visited Rome. Magister Philippus, the papal doctor, encountered emissaries of Prester John while on a trip to the "East." When the Pope sent him back with a letter for the King of the Indies, Philippus was last seen in Palestine in 1177.

One interesting account that comes out in the 14th century is that of the so-called Sir John of Mandeville. The text is thought to be a collection of stories from travelers to the East after the opening of the trade routes by the Mongols.

Mandeville mentions priests of "Ind" (India) in the city of Jerusalem along the Via Dolorosa:

And on these grees went our Lord when he bare the cross on his shoulder. And under these grees is a chapel, and in that chapel sing priests, Indians, that is to say, priests of Ind, not after our law, but after theirs; and alway they make their sacrament of the altar, saying, PATER NOSTER and other prayers therewith; with the which prayers they say the words that the sacrament is made of, for they ne know not the additions that many popes have made; but they sing with good devotion.

He mentions merchants from India that came by sea to Damascus, but most interesting is what he has to say about Prester John "Emperor of Ind" regarding the origin of his name:

It was sometime an emperor there, that was a worthy and a full noble prince, that had Christian knights in his company, as he hath that is now. So it befell, that he had great list for to see the service in the church among Christian men. And then dured Christendom beyond the sea, all Turkey, Syria, Tartary, Jerusalem, Palestine, Arabia, Aleppo and all the land of Egypt. And so it befell that this emperor came with a Christian knight with him into a church in Egypt. And it was the Saturday in Whitsun-week. And the bishop made orders. And he beheld, and listened the service full tentively. And he asked the Christian knight what men of degree they should be that the prelate had before him. And the knight answered and said that they should be priests. And then the emperor said that he would no longer be clept king ne emperor, but priest, and that he would have the name of the first priest that went out of the church, and his name was John. And so ever-more sithens, he is clept Prester John.

So like the Shambhala king Sripala, Prester John is also said to have ventured abroad personally, and I would say for the cause of the clan! Mandeville states this happened before the Muslim invasion of Egypt, so maybe it is not particularly relevant to the Templars. But notice that according to this work, Prester John also had apparently Western Christian knights in Mandeville's time. This would agree with the letters of Prester John that state the king had Templars in his service.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento