Rabban Bar Sauma

Rabban ("monk" in Syriac) Bar Ṣawma was born c. 1220 in or near modern-day Beijing, known then as Zhongdu, later as Khanbaliq under Mongol rule. According to Bar Hebraeus he was of Uyghur origin. Chinese accounts describe his heritage as Öngüd, a Turkic people classified as members of the "Mongol" caste under Yuan law. The name bar Ṣawma is Aramaic for "Son of Fasting" though he was born to a wealthy family. He was a "Church of the East Christian", and became an ascetic monk around the age of 20 and then a religious teacher for decades. ==Pilgrimage to Jerusalem==

In his middle age, Rabban Bar Sauma and one of his younger students, Rabban Markos, embarked on a journey from Yuan China to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. They traveled by way of the former Tangut country, Khotan, Kashgar, Taraz in the Syr Darya valley, Khorasan (now Afghanistan), Maragha (now Azerbaijan), and Mosul, arriving at Ani in the Kingdom of Georgia. Warnings of danger on the routes to southern Syria turned them from their purpose, and they traveled to Mongol-controlled Persia, the Ilkhanate, where they were welcomed by Patriarch Denha I of the Church of the East. The Patriarch requested the two monks to visit the court of the Mongol Ilkhanate ruler Abaqa Khan, to obtain confirmation letters for Mar Denha's ordination as Patriarch in 1266. During the journey, Rabban Markos was declared a "Nestorian" bishop. The Patriarch then attempted to send the monks as messengers back to China, but military conflict along the route delayed their departure, and they remained in Baghdad. When the Patriarch died, Rabban Markos was elected as his replacement, Yahballaha III, in 1281. The two monks traveled to Maragheh to have the selection confirmed by Abaqa, but the Ilkhanate khan died before their arrival and was succeeded by his son, Arghun. It was Arghun's desire to form a strategic Franco-Mongol alliance with the Christian Europeans against their common enemy, the Muslim Mamluk Sultanate at Cairo. A few years later, the new patriarch Yahballaha III suggested his former teacher Rabban Bar Sauma for the embassy, to meet with the Pope and the European monarchs. ==Ambassador to Europe==

In 1287, the elderly Bar Sauma embarked on his journey to Europe, bearing gifts and letters from Arghun to the Eastern Roman emperor, the Pope, and the European kings. Rabban Bar Sauma traveled with a large retinue of assistants, and 30 riding animals. Companions included the Church of the East Christian (archaon) Sabadinus; Thomas de Anfusis (or Tommaso d'Anfossi), who helped as interpreter and was also a member of a famous Genoese banking company; and an Italian interpreter named Uguetus or Ugeto (Ughetto). Bar Sauma likely did not speak any European languages, though he was known to be fluent in Chinese, Turkic, and Persian, and he was able to read Syriac. Europeans communicated to him in Persian. He traveled overland through Armenia to either the Empire of Trebizond or through the Sultanate of Rum to the Simisso on the Black Sea, then by boat to Constantinople, where he had an audience with Andronicus II Palaeologus. Bar Sauma's writings give a particularly enthusiastic description of the beautiful Hagia Sophia. In Gascony in southern France, which at that time was in English hands, Bar Sauma met King Edward I of England, probably in the capital of Bordeaux. Edward responded enthusiastically to the embassy, but ultimately proved unable to join a military alliance due to conflict at home, especially with the Welsh and the Scots. Upon returning to Rome, Bar Sauma was cordially received by the newly elected Pope Nicholas IV, who gave him communion on Palm Sunday, 1288, allowing him to celebrate his own Eucharist in the capital of Latin Christianity. The delivered letters were in turn answered by Arghun in 1289, forwarded by the Genoese merchant Buscarello de Ghizolfi, a diplomatic agent for the Il-khans. In the letter to Philip IV, Arghun mentions Bar Sauma: , dated 1289, in which Rabban Bar Sauma is mentioned. The seal is that of the Great Khan, with Chinese Script: 「輔國安民之寶」, which means "Seal of the upholder of the State and the purveyor of peace to the People". French National Archives. The exchanges towards the formation of an alliance with the Europeans ultimately proved fruitless, and Arghun's attempts were eventually abandoned. However, Rabban Bar Sauma did succeed in making some important contacts which encouraged communication and trade between the East and West. Aside from King Philip's embassy to the Mongols, the Papacy also sent missionaries such as Giovanni da Montecorvino to the Mongol court. ==Later years==

After his embassy to Europe, Bar Sauma lived out the rest of his years in Baghdad. It was probably during this time that he wrote the account of his travels, which was published in French in 1895 and in English in 1928 as The Monks of Kublai Khan, Emperor of China or The History of the Life and Travels of Rabban Sawma, Envoy and Plenipotentiary of the Mongol Khans to the Kings of Europe, and Markos Who as Mar Yahbh-Allaha III Became Patriarch of the Church of the East in Asia, translated and edited by Sir E. A. Wallis Budge. The narrative is unique for its observations of medieval Europe during the end of the Crusading period, through the eyes of an observant outsider from a culture thousands of miles away. Rabban Bar Sauma died in 1294, in Baghdad. ==See also==

Rabban Bar Sauma's travel narrative has been translated into English three times: • . • . • . • , adapted from Borbone/Parodi translation. ==External links==