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

Old Man of the Mountain

The Old Man of the Mountain, a product of Crusader discourse and about whom Marco Polo later wrote, was rumored to consider converting
to Christianity himself. A mysterious Muslim leader, he built a luxurious paradise on earth by stacking one beautiful garden on top of another in an immense and highly geometrical manner. At the top, the Old Man and his followers reveled in the finest in food, drink, and women. There, the Old Man trained his devotees, known to the West as “Assassins,” to kill his enemies and, in return, he promised reentrance into his palace once their missions were accomplished.

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Prester John's Mirror "Before the doors of our palace, near the place where the fighters struggle in battle, is a mirror of very great size to which one climbs by one hundred twenty five steps. Indeed the steps of the lower one-third are of porphyry, and partly of serpentine and alabaster. From this point to the upper one-third the steps are of crystal stone and sardonyx, Indeed the upper one-third are of amethyst, amber, jasper, and sapphire. Indeed the mirror is supported by a single column. Above this column is set a base. upon the base are two columns, above which is another base, upon which are four columns, above which is another base and upon which are eight columns, above which is another base and upon which are sixteen columns, above which is another base, upon which arc thirty-two columns, above which is another base and upon which are sixty-four columns, above which is another base, upon which are also sixty-four columns, above which is another base and upon which are thirty-two columns. And so in descending the columns diminish in number, just as ascending they increase in number, to one. Moreover, the columns and the bases are of the same kinds of stones as the steps by which one ascends to them. Indeed at the top of the uppermost column there is a mirror, consecrated by such art that all machinations and all things which happen for and against us in the adjacent provinces subject to us are most clearly seen and known by the onlookers. Moreover it is guarded by twelve thousand soldiers in the daytime just as at night so that it may not be by some chance or accident broken or thrown down." (Uebel translation)

The Letter repurposes a magical mirror hailing from Persian literature (see Slessarev) into the primary bastion of defense in Prester John’s kingdom: a Christian panopticon. This “mirror of very great size” located “before the doors of our palace” rests atop a structure built on a series of geometrically stacked columns, a design recalling the famed gardens of the legendary Old Man of the Mountain. The mirror protects John's realm from invasion by allowing him to see any distance in any direction. In what seems more than a coincidence, this magical mirror is guarded by 12,000 soldiers both day and night – the same number of angels guard the top of the ladder leading into the Afterworld in stories of Muhammad’s Ascension. Thus, the Letter provides both a parallel and a complement to one of the stories of an Islamic Paradise.

By way of this panoptical mirror, Prester John oversees the doings of the entire world, and, moreover, the mirror shows what will occur in the future, allowing John to track the machinations of presumed enemies of Christianity everywhere.