The Lost History of Christianity: The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia—and How It Died

by Philip Jenkins

In the twelfth century, tales of Christian tribes in central Asia—and of Christian kings in Ethiopia—inspired the enduring European legend of Prester John. John, the immensely powerful Christian priest-king who lived far beyond the boundaries of the known world, was reputedly descended from one of the three Magi. According to a bogus letter that surfaced in Europe in the 1140s, Prester John declared that he was “a zealous Christian and universally protected the Christians of our empire, supporting them by our alms…. Seventy-two provinces, of which only a few are Christian, serve us. Each has its own king, but all are tributary to us.” It was a dream, but the notion of a Christian kingdom beyond the caliphate was not wholly fanciful.53