The International Prester John Project: How A Global Legend Was Created Across Six CenturiesMain MenuOrientation to ProjectPath One: 1122-1235Path Two: 1236-1310 ADPath Three : 1311-1460 ADPath Four : 1461-1520 ADPath Five: 1521-1699 ADPath Six: 1700-1800 ADChristopher Taylor // christopher.eric.taylor@gmail.com946e2cf6115688379f338b70e5b6f6c039f8ba6f Global Middle Ages
Prester John as Ong Khan
12015-05-15T09:57:45-07:00Ece Turnator29e4049201e5a129c2f4f38633d734d2df4b7e0752812Depiction of the Kerait ruler Ong Khan as "Prester John" in "Le Livre des Merveilles", 15th centuryplain2015-05-17T16:29:31-07:00Christopher Taylor // christopher.eric.taylor@gmail.com946e2cf6115688379f338b70e5b6f6c039f8ba6f
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12016-07-11T20:31:03-07:00Ong Khan11plain2023-12-31T14:17:54-08:00 Ong Khan, alternately known as Unc Khan, Toghril, Tooril Khan, Unach, King David, and King John was the Khereid ruler in the late 12th/early 13th centuries. The title ong is the Mongol form of the Chinese honorific wang meaning 'universal' (Hamilton, p. 248).
Reportedly a Nestorian Christian– although according to Bar Hebraeus' Chronicon Syriacum, a lapsed one– "Unach" Khan was killed by his blood brother and subordinate, the soon-to-be Genghis Khan, who was acting on rumors that a jealous Unc was planning to kill him.
This is the same figure known in other mid-thirteenth century texts as King David, son of Prester John.
Ong Khan figures in a number of Prester John narratives, including the Historia Tartarum (c. 1246), William of Rubruck's Itinerarium(c. 1253), the Chronicon Syriacum, Marco Polo's Travels,
