A Historical Letter from the Patriarch of the Church of East Mar Yahb Alahā III (1281-1317) to Pope Boniface VIII (1294-1303) in the Vatican Secret Archives

During my last trip to Rome and thanks to the kindness of Dr. Luca Carboni, I had the opportunity to examine a few historical documents found in the Vatican Secret Archives. Among these documents was a letter to Pope Boniface VIII (1294-1303) from Mar Yahb Alahā III (1281-1317), the Patriarch of the Church of the East.

The Church of the East, commonly known as the Nestorian Church, is the Christian church that flourished in the Persian territory during the early period of Christianity and quickly spread through Asia. The establishment of the Christian church in the Persian Empire occurred when Christian missionaries, who came directly from Palestine, took advantage of the already existing Jewish communities in Mesopotamia, and evangelized several places in and around Erbil. The Jewish community became the channel through which the first seed of the Christian faith was transplanted from Palestine to the Persian territory. However, the effective development of the Christian Church in the Persian Empire took place under the Sassanid dynasty who overthrew the Parthian dynasty in 224.

At the beginning of the fourth century the bishop of the capital city of the Persian Empire, Seleucia-Ctesiphon, organized the bishops and their local centers in the Persian empire according to the ecclesiastic model developed in the Roman empire. After the excommunication of Nestorius, the Patriarch of Constantinople in 431, many of his followers escaped to the nearby Persian territory. The teaching of Nestorius was welcomed by most of the Christian church hierarchy in Persia and as a result of that, the Church of the East came to be known as the Nestorian Church. The Church of the East is well known for its missionary efforts and Nestorian missionaries arrived in China and Central Asia during the 7^th and 8^th centuries. When the Mongols rose as an empire and invaded a large part of Asia and east Europe, some of the tribes who joined them were Christian Nestorians. Thus, the Mongols were kind to Christians and there were many influential Nestorian Christians in the Mongol court. The Nestorian church played an important part in the plan of the Mongol rulers in forming an alliance with Christian Europe against the Muslims Mamelukes to capture Jerusalem, however such efforts did not bear fruits.

The author of the letter, Patriarch Mar Yahb Alahā, an ethnic Uighur and a monk of the Church of the East, was born in the vicinity of Beijing. As a young monk, he took the name of Markus and became devoted to his spiritual master, Ṣawmā. Sometime around 1275 Mar Yahb Alahā (Markus) and Ṣawmā set out on a pilgrimage with the intention of visiting Jerusalem. In spite of travel permits from the Kublai Khan, the kings of the Mongols, who was ruling at that time most of the Near East, Markus and Ṣawmā encountered numerous difficulties before reaching Baghdad and meeting with the Catholicos of the Church of East, Mar Danka. When the Catholicos Mar Danka died (1281), Markus was chosen as his successor and took the name Mar Yahb Alahā III. His election as a patriarch was on the account of his Uighur origins and his familiarity with the language and customs of the Mongol leaders. Following his election as patriarch he sent Ṣawmā on a diplomatic mission to seek alliance between Christian Europe and Mongols.

The record of the journey of Ṣawmā provides a rich, eye-witness account of places, people, and events in the last half of the 13th century. Mar Yahb Alahā III is remembered for his efforts to establish diplomatic contacts with the Mongols and for his defense of the Church of East against harassment and massacres by local Muslim rulers. Events of his life were recorded by Ṣawmā who also kept a record of his diplomatic mission to Christian Europe. The story of Mar Yahb Alahā III first became known in the English-speaking world in 1928. In that year the British Orientalist E. A. Wallis Budge published his monks of Kuplai khan, Emperor of China.[1]

Returning back to the letter of Mar Yahb Alahā III to Pope Boniface VIII, we notice that apart from the short introduction and the final greetings which are in Syriac, the letter is written in Arabic. It is basically a letter of courtesy to the Pope, who is respectfully addressed as “keeper of the keys of the kingdom [of heaven], sun of the Christian nation, fifth evangelist.” The author presents himself as “Catholicos, patriarch of the East” and he does not discuss theological subjects or submit a profession of faith.^[2] The letter reflects the efforts of the Nestorians in the East to build good relations with the Christians of the West in the context of a hope of a Christian-Mongolian alliance against the Muslims Mamelukes and others. The following is an English translation of the Syriac and Arabic texts of the letter:

“In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The stranger Yahb Alahā, through the mercies of Christ, the Catholicos Patriarch of the East asks your prayers and glory to Christ. He regularly prays to the Holy Father, the knowledgeable and active man, chosen by divine wisdom, who is seated on the throne of Simon Peter, entrusted to the Divine Secrets, keeper of the keys of the kingdom [of heaven], sun of the Christian nation, fifth evangelist, father of the fathers, the head of the bishops Mar Papa, may God bestow upon all of creation the shadow of his sanctity and He includes all the baptized people by his graces (… …) the stranger Yahb Alahā the keeper of the Church of the Lord Christ in the East and the Seat of saint Thomas, Saint Adai and Saint Mari he presents to You his greetings through our Lord ( … …) we inform Your holiness that the man who arrived to Your holy presence named Saʽd al-Dīn will inform You all our news and condition. Our greetings to all the fathers, monks who are vowed to the service (of God) and all who are by You (… …) It was written in July 1613 for the Greeks (=1302 A.D). May our Lord be with all of Us, Amen.”

^[1]Joseph P. Ammar, “Mar Yahballaha,” “Rabban Sawma” in George Kiraz ed., Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of Syriac Heritage; Hackensack, New Jersey: Hugoye Press, 2011.

^[2]H. Teule, “Saint Lois and East Syrians: the dream of a terrestrial Empire”, in East and West in the crusader states: context – contacts – confrontations / 3 Acta of the congress held at Hernen Castle in September 2000, ed. K. Ciggaar and H. Teule, Leuven: Peeters, 2003, pp. 113-117.