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The International Prester John Project: How A Global Legend Was Created Across Six Centuries

History of the Deeds of David, King of the Indies

Historia Gestorum David regis Indorum // Relatio de Davide (1220)

Brewer (p. 107) usefully describes the muddled story behind this text supposedly derived from an Arabic source, but popularized in the West by Jacques de Vitry:

This confused text is a Latin translation of what is thought to be a tract originally written in Arabic by a Christian in Baghdad in 1220-21, but some of the material here was certainly added by its Latin translators. It describes in essence the conquests of Chingis Khan, but instead he is presented as a Christian king named David, great grandson of Prester John, a figure who becomes from this point on a regular feature of the Prester John legend... [A]lthough the text does display some intimate knowledge of the initial movements of the Mongols, the details became so distorted by the time they reached the crusaders that those initial facts became grossly misunderstood.

The text itself attests to how this King David had attacked the King of Persia and conquered several cities along the Asian Steppe, including Bukhara, Samarkand, Khurasan, and Ghazna.

In the first version of the text, King David is identified as "the son of King Israel, the son of King Sarkis, the son of King John, the son of Bulgaboga" (qtd. in Brewer, p. 107). Importantly, King David is not linked to Prester John until the third and final version of the Relatio de Davide begins to circulate.

Silverberg (p. 71) summarizes:

This King David was a Christian, the bishop reported, and was either the son or the grandson of Prester John—although, Bishop Jacques pointed out, “King David was himself commonly called Prester John.” His kingdom was deep in Asia. His involvement in the affair of the Near East had come about because the Caliph of Baghdad had been threatened with war by a fellow Moslem prince, the Shah of Khwarizm; seeing no other ally at hand, the caliph had requested the Nestorian Catholicos—or Patriarch—of Baghdad to summon King David to his aid, and the king had agreed to defend the caliph against the Khwarizmians” (71).

In addition to fueling belief in the kingdom of Prester John, this text had a huge impact on the outcome of the Fifth Crusade. Jacques de Vitry, preacher and crusade propagandist, reaches shared the information contained within the text with crusaders in Damietta. The text promises the dissolution of Islam at a time when King David joins forces with a king in the west. Jacques has the report translated immediately. He then sends letters containing parts of this text to Pope Honorius, King Henry III of England, Duke Leopold of Austria, and to several academics at the University of Paris. Spirits lift within and without the crusader camp, essentially renewing the hope for a Christian recovery of Jerusalem. Buoyed by prophecy and heedless of local conditions, the crusaders at Damietta decide to invade Cairo immediately to fulfill the prophecy, rejecting an agreement with the Sultan Al-Kamil that would have given Jerusalem back to the crusaders in exchange for Damietta. The Nile rises, turning the invasion of Cairo into defeat. The armies of the Fifth Crusade surrender to the Sultan of Egypt, Al-Kamil, Saladin’s nephew, a few weeks later.

Brewer (101-125) collects three versions of this text, all of which tell of a King David prophecied to help the west defeat Islam.

For more on the historical reality animating the Relatio, see Richard.

For a close account of the entire Fifth Crusade, see Powell.

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Jacques de Vitry Born in central France, Jacques de Vitry (c. 1160-1240) served as bishop of Acre from 1214 and then cardinal from 1229 until his death. He was one of the foremost crusade historians and propagandists in Latin Europe during the thirteenth century and campaigned vigorously for the Albigensian Crusade and, later, the Fifth (or Egyptian) Crusade.

In addition to his histories of the Holy Land (Historia Orientalis / Historia Hierosolymitana) and the West (Historia Occidentalis), Jacques was well known for his sermons.

Jacques was interested in prophecy and apocalyptic history and produced/collected two texts in particular that were important to the early spread of the Prester John legend, a 1217 Letter sent from Acre to western ecclesiastics and a 1221 Letter relating the story of the History of the Deeds of David.
Jacques de Vitry's Letter from Acre (Letter Two) In March of 1217, Jacques de Vitry writes from Acre back west in order to garner more support for what would eventually become the Fifth Crusade.

In his letter, he writes of the "Prester John Christians" of the east as likely allies in the fight against Islam. Specifically Jacques refers to a figure called King David— either the son or grandson of Prester John— a figure who was himself "commonly called Prester John." This is perhaps the first moment of Prester John as a title observed within the legend's lore.

Brewer edits and translates the letter (pp. 98-100):
But now in the city of Acre, I... await the arrival of pilgrims with great longing. Indeed, I believe that if we had 4,000 men of arms, through God's favour we would not be able to find anyone strong enough to resist us. Indeed, there is a great discord amongst the Saracens, and many of them, knowing their error for certain, if they dared to and had the help of Christians, they would be converted to the Lord. I also believe that the Christians living amongst the Saracens are greater in number than the Saracens [themselves]. Also, many Christian kings living in the Easter regions up to the land of Prester John, hearing of the arrival of the crusaders, would come to their help and go to war with the Saracens.

Later in the letter, Jacques explains that these "Prester John Christians" are Jacobites, or monophysites, an interesting contrast to the general trend of identify Prester John's people as Nestorians, who practice a dyophysite belief about Christ.

A few years later, Jacques expands on this faith by integrating the figure of King David, borrowed from a report called the Relatio de Davide that Jacques assimilated into the framework of the Prester John legend, as demonstrated in this so-called "Letter VII."

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