Era One Map: Author Origins, Text Origins, Author Travel
The map above plots these early beginnings of the legend. This first era is defined as the period that begins the legend through the events of the Fifth Crusade, an event which solidified the real historical repercussions engendered by the belief in the western arrival of Prester John.
Beyond the Legend
The rumors of a powerful Eastern Christian king found early support in the travels of the Spanish merchant Benjamin of Tudela. Benjamin,who traveled between 1159 and 1173, ventured as far as Basrah, Iraq (see map below). In his Travels, which were recorded in Hebrew, he mentions a powerful Eastern king called Kofar al-Turak whom some readers mistook for the Prester John of the Letter and Otto’s chronicle. Due perhaps to Benjamin’s narrative, some of the earliest copies of the Letter are in Hebrew, a feature of the legend that has also linked the figure of Prester John to the enigmatic tradition of the Sefer Eldad. Given the prophetic tone that informed the early mentions of Prester John, it is not surprising that early adherents to the legend looked backwards to earlier texts and projected Prester John forward in time to confirm the fantasies of an Eastern Christian splendor. Readers found precedent in in Eusebius of Caesarea’s figure “John the Presbyter of Syria” for instance.
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- Era One: 1122-1220 AD Christopher Taylor // christopher.eric.taylor@gmail.com