General Introduction

Prior to 1220, the eastern horizon of Latin (Catholic, Western) Christians extended no further in Europe than the principalities of Rus´ and the nomadic Qipchaq Turks of the Pontic steppes (called Cumans by the Hungarians and Byzantines and known as Polovtsy to the Rus´). 1 In the eastern Mediterranean, their horizons were largely confined to the Christian kingdoms of Lesser (or Cilician) Armenia and Georgia, the Muslim powers in Anatolia, Syria and Iraq, and the Latin states established on the Syro-Palestinian coast and in Greece by successive crusades. Of the world beyond, Western Europeans had only the haziest notions, derived from various sources: Judaeo-Christian scriptures, the lore of Classical Antiquity as distilled, for instance, through the Etymologiae of Isidore of Seville (511) or through the prophetic Revelationes (or Sermo ), which purported to be the work of Bishop Methodius of Patara in the fourth century, but which in reality dated from the seventh. These more distant regions were thus peopled with fabulous races, such as those with no mouth, who nourished themselves by inhaling the steam from cooking meat, those with only one leg, who progressed by cartwheeling, and so on. 2 More recently, in the early twelfth century, the West had learned of a Christian priest-cum-king known as Presbyter Johannes (‘Prester John’), who was allegedly ready to move westwards to the assistance of his coreligionists against the Muslims. 3 This figure, whose original identity is obscure, was destined for a lengthy career in Western myth.