This is the last of a dozen episodes on Rabban Sauma. Having met with all the dignitaries his embassy on Arghun’s behalf required, Sauma was anxious to return home. The delay caused by the Roman Cardinals failure to appoint a new Pope had lengthened his stay beyond what he’d anticipated. Although no record of it is given, Arghun may have urged Sauma to return by a specific date. So he packed up and started the journey back to Persia. It was April 1288. And remember, accompanying him was the...

This is the 11th episode in the story of Rabban Sauma, and we’re closing in on the conclusion. After a month-long tour of the holy sites in and around Paris, Sauma had a final audience with King Philip. He meant it to be the crowning achievement in the royal treatment he’d lavished on the Chinese ambassador. It was held in the upper chapel of Saint-Chapelle where the just completed stained glass windows filled the room with light, giving the room its nick-name – The Jewel Box. Being newly...

This is episode 10 in the on-going epic saga of the Chinese Marco Polo – Rabban Sauma. Realizing he couldn’t get anything done in Rome since there was no Pope, and that the dozen cardinals charged with the task of selecting him were competing for the post, Sauma decided to take his request for a military alliance between Christian Europe and Mongol Persia against the Muslims Mamluks in the Middle East, directly to the Kings of France and England. Leaving Rome, he stopped in Genoa on his way...

This is Episode 9 in the on-going epic tale of Rabban Sauma. Finally, Sauma has arrived in Europe. After two months aboard ship, his party arrives in Naples. Which is unusual because the trip from Constantinople ought to have taken less than a month. Here again, it’s Sauma’s account that seems to be lacking detail. Being a commercial vessel, most likely they’d used the route to further their business, so had put into port along the way for days at a time. Sauma took some time in Naples to...

This is episode 8 in the remarkable tale of a Chinese Marco Polo named Rabban Sauma. Well, it’s taken us 7 episodes to get to the point of Sauma’s story that’s set him as a historical figure we even know about. If it weren’t for what follows, even though he’s already lived a genuinely epic life, he’d be little more than a footnote to his companion Marcos’ story. For it was Marcos, not Sauma who became the Catholicos, the reigning patriarch of the entire Nestorian Church, under the name of...

This is the 7th episode in the on-going saga of Rabban Sauma. Last episode ended with the Mongol Ilkhan Arghun in Persia surrounded by enemies. He had a powerful ally in the Great Khan Khubilai, but Persia and China were too far apart and Khubilai was already locked into his own troubles in his contest with his cousin Khaidu. Arghun had risen to the Ilkhanate in Persia by supplanting his nemesis Ahmad, a pro-Muslim ruler who’d been removed & executed after a short reign. Arghun worried...

This is the 6th Episode in the amazing story of a Chinese monk named Rabban Sauma. We ended the last episode with Sauma’s protégé and friend Markos, firmly ensconced in the seat of the Catholicus of the Church of The East. Because we’ve already had 5 episodes in this series spread over 5 weeks, it’s easy for subscribers who listen to each episode when it goes up, to forget the arc of Markos’ story. He showed up at the door of the monk Sauma’s cell in the Fang Mountains of China when he was...

This is Episode 5 in the on-going saga of Rabban Sauma. We left Markos and Bar Sauma headed to Tabriz, the Mongol Ilkhan’s capital in Persia. By way of recap, “Ilkhan” means “under-khan.” The Mongol realms of the late 13th C were fractured and divided up into warring camps. The Ilkhans of Persia owed allegiance to the Great Khan, Khubilai, whose capital in China would eventually be known as Beijing. Lying between the Ilkhante in Persia and the realm of Khubilai was a Central Asian...

This is Episode 4 in the Saga of Rabban Sauma. After their 6 month rest at the oases of Khotan, Bar Sauma & Markos renewed their journey West. Cautious of the fighting taking place between Khubilai Khan and his cousin Khaidu, their guides escorted them around the regions of greatest threat, lengthening the journey by several weeks. They stopped at a Talas, a town in what is today Kyrgyz. 500 yrs before, Talas was the scene of one of the most important battles in history. The forces of...

This episode continues our series on the remarkable Rabban Sauma with Part 3. In Part 1, we looked at the opening chapter in Sauma’s life. By way of a quick recap . . . He was the treasured son of an Onggud noble family who from an early age showed a remarkable passion for pursuing the spiritual. Adept in his studies and excelling in piety, by the age 25 he was a member of the Nestorian clergy, a monk-priest. It was the year 1248. Choosing a life of isolation rather than a monastery, he...

This is Part 2 of our series on Rabban Sauma. We begin with a brief review of the political scene into which Rabban Sauma’s story fits. Trade between the Roman Empire and the Far East was established as early as the First Century. But this trade was conducted by intermediaries. No single Western merchant made the entire trek to China, nor vice-versa. Goods traveled a ways from East to West or West to East by local caravans, which deposited them at a market, to be picked up by another...