How is Prester John, a legendary Christian patriarch, related to Genghis Khan
Answer:
Prester John is a Christian mythical figure who came to prominence in the 12th and 13th centuries during the height of the Crusades. Many Christians believed there to be a Christian kingdom somewhere in the East that would come to the aid of the Crusaders and help them secure the Holy Land from the Muslim Turks, but in reality there was no such kingdom.
Some theorists believe that Christian theologians mistook Genghis Khan, who at the time was conquering vast areas of Central Asia and the Middle East, with the Christian Prester John due to misconstrued reports and often fantastical embellishments.
Others believe that the idea of Prester John was linked to Genghis Khan in his defeat of the Christian leader Toghrul, who at the time ruled a large area of Central Asia as king of the Keraites. Toghrul had supposedly been Genghis Khan’s foster father for a time but the two had fallen out for an unknown reason.
Genghis then waged war against Toghul’s forces and defeated him. This became the center of another of the Christian ideas of Prester John’s kingdom in the west.
