THE ACADEMY FOR CHRISTIAN THOUGHT’S

CENTER FOR INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH

PRESENTS

SILK ROAD CHRISTIANITY

The economics, politics and spirituality of the religions along the greatest highways on Earth.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY1.The Persian Church became the Church of the East in 424 and ‘adopted’ Nestorianism. Along the Old Silk Road, this Nestorian Christianity encountered Roman Christianity and Byzantine Christianity as it launched missions to the East.

2. Alopen was sent to China and arrived at Changan in 635. Christianity spread to the steppes of Siberia. 3. Chinggis Khan ‘created’ Mongolia in 1207 and terrorized Europe. His descendants mastered Asia as China’s Yuan dynasty. Batu Khan & his Golden Horde of “Devil’s Horsemen” nearly obliterated Roman Christendom in 1241.

4. Kublai Khan wanted the 7 Arts of Europe and requested 100 missionaries from the Pope that never arrived. Marco Polo reported on widespread Nestorian Christianity at Cambaluc (Beijing) and all over Cathay (China) in the 1280s.

AROUND AD 29, A PALESTINIAN RABBI

… taught his disciples to

- be compassionate to the weak (Matt. 25:35-40, 45)

- preach the Good News of God’s love (Matt. 28:19)

- understand that his kingdom not of this world (John 18:36)

Within 400 years of his execution, Jesus’ followers had spread throughout the Roman Empire and beyond. Some of them went east of Jerusalem. They came to be known as the Church of the East and preached the Gospel to the “Ends of the Earth.” This is their story.

1. THE CHURCH OF THE EAST, 424

In 424, the Persian Church of Assyria became independent of Byzantium and called itself the Church of the East (COTE) with a Syriac liturgy.

The COTE increasingly ‘adopted’ Nestorianism and distanced itself from the 4th Council’s Chalcedonian formula of 451.

In 498, the bishop of Seleucia-Ctesiphon assumed the title “Patriarch of the East.”

The COTE was the Church of the Sassanid Empire of Persia (224-651), and from the 9th to the 14th centuries it was the world’s largest Church in geography, stretching from the Mediterranean Sea to India and China.

CHRISTIAN MISSIONS ALONGTHE OLD SILK ROAD

1.1 MISSIONS TO PERSIA & INDIA

In 489 the School of Edessa (Ur in Turkey) relocated to its original home of Nisibis (near Ur in Turkey), founded in 350 to study Theology, Philosophy, and Medicine. It is often called the world’s first university.

The COTE actively launched missions to the Persian Empire and India, competing with Rome and Byzantium for the soul of Christianity.

In 644, it became a dhimmi community when the Persian Empire fell to the Muslims and became the Caliphate of Rashidun.

1.2 MISSIONS TO CENTRAL ASIA, CHINA & SIBERIA

From Persia, the COTE launched missions to Central Asia, converting large numbers of Uighurs, who were long time Manicheans, to Christianity.

From Central Asia, missions into China and Siberia led to the conversions of many city dwellers and nomadic tribes.

By the 10th century, Nestorianism in China declined but Nestorian Christianity in the Steppes of Siberia thrived among the Naimans, the Keraits and later, the Onguts among many others.

1.3 MISSIONS TO TIBET, SRI LANKA, S.E. ASIA, KOREA &

JAPANHow far the Church of the East (Assyrian/East Syrian) missions reached we are never likely to know for certain.

As early as the 6th century, Cosmas Indicopleustes encountered East Syrian Christians on the remote island of Socotra off the coast of Yemen.

In the 8th century, Patriarch Timothy I of Baghdad sent missionaries to Tibet but Christianity arrived there sometime in the 6th century, some 800 years before the present Dalai Lama’s Geluk (Yellow Hat) Buddhist sect was established.

East Syrian Christians reached Sri Lanka, Java, Sumatra, Japan, Korea, Burma, Malaya, Vietnam, and Thailand.

CHURCH OF THE EAST DIOCESES

2. ALOPEN’S MISSION TO CHINA

635: Patriarch Yeshuyab II from the Church of the East in Baghdad sent Bishop Alopen to China. Emperor Taizong of the Tang dynasty welcomed him and Persian Christianity’s scriptures.

This “Nestorian” Christianity flourished in East Asia for several hundreds of years. Churches were built in every province of the country and copies of the Christian scriptures were copied for distribution.

781: A stone stela was constructed to celebrate the arrival of Alopen, now known as the Nestorian Monument.

8th-9th C: Patriarch Timothy I (780-823), via his Metropolitan, ruled over Christians in all 10 provinces of China.

NESTORIAN MONUMENT@CHANGANARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE OF CHRISTIANITY

IN 7TH CENTURY CHINA

2.1 NESTORIANISM IN CHINA845: The emperor banned all religions other than Confucianism, and Nestorianism began to fade in China.

Nestorian Christianity did not develop strong Chinese roots and was reliant on the emperors for political support. Unlike Buddhism, Christianity remained a ‘foreign’ religion even though Jesus was continentally Asian. With the fall of the Tang dynasty in the 10th century, Nestorianism declined in China, but spread out to Mongolia and Siberia.

13th century: When the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty ruled China, the Church was revived but when that dynasty fell, Nestorianism again fell from prominence.

NESTORIAN PRIESTS IN PROCESSION ON PALM SUNDAY, IN A 7TH-CENTURY WALL PAINTING FROM

A NESTORIAN CHURCH

2.2 NESTORIANISM IN THE STEPPES

11th century

Nestorian Christianity spread by traders to many parts of the Steppes of modern Siberia & Mongolia.

Over the next few centuries, various nomadic tribes as well as settled peoples in this region turned to Christianity.

They include the Naimans, the Keraits, the Onguts and even the “Black Chinese” of the Western Liao dynasty. When they were eventually united as Mongolia, Christianity was already a well-known religion among its warriors.

2.3 MERV & BAGHDAD CHRISTIANITY

Christian witness in the Steppes came from Central Asia and central to their expansion was the support of Merv, once the greatest city on earth.

In 1009, the bishop of Merv (modern Turkmenistan) informed the patriarch of Baghdad (modern Iraq) that an entire tribe of Kerait Turks in the Steppes (modern Russia) had become Christian and petitioned to support them.

Among the Keraits would subsequently be the mother of Kublai Khan, first emperor of China’s Yuan dynasty and Great Khan of the Mongols.

Nomadic tribes (from modern Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan) also turned to “The Man on the Cross.” 

THE SILK ROAD CITY OF MERV

2.4 SELJUK THE TURK &THE SULTANATE OF RUM

During this same 11th century, Western Christianity was being torn apart by Latin and Greek speaking Churches into the Roman Catholic and Byzantine Orthodox Churches.

In Persia, Islam was the main religion, ruled as the Abbasid Empire. There, a Turk named Seljuk rose to power and defeated the Abbasids in Baghdad before taking control of this Islamic empire of Asia.

In 1064, the Seljuk Turks attacked Armenia.

In 1071, they defeated the Byzantine empire to form the Sultanate of Rum (modern central Turkey), the Arabic word for Rome.

2.5 ARMENIAN CHRISTIANITY12th century

In every Christian denomination, religion and politics shadowed each other closely.

The religious center of Armenian Christianity shifted from Greater Armenia (NE Turkey) to Lesser Armenia (SE Turkey) when the Catholicus (spiritual leader) moved his ‘throne’ away from Mount Ararat. The political center of Armenia was led by King Toros II who founded the Kingdom of Armenia in 1145.

In the tussle between Roman Catholic and Armenian Orthodox Churches, the Pope sent missionaries to convert Armenian Christians to Latin Christianity, forming the Latin-Armenian Church.

2.6 EDESSA (UR OF ABRAHAM)

Rome continued its Crusades and within Lesser Armenia Count Baldwin established the County of Edessa at Ur (Sanli-Urfa in modern SE Turkey) before becoming King of Jerusalem.

OT connection: Edessa was once called Ur, the hometown of Abram, before he left for Harran on his migration to Egypt.

NT connection: According to Eusebius, Edessa was once ruled by a Christian King Abgar V, who received a letter from Jesus. He was subsequently converted by one of Jesus’ 72 disciples.

UR/EDESSA/ANTIOCHToday, it is called Sanliurfa, Turkey

3. CHINGGIS KHAN& THE CREATION OF

MONGOLIA12th-13th centuries

Temujin becomes Chinggis Khan (Great or Universal) and ‘unified’ the warring tribes of the Steppes thereby creating the Mongol Empire in 1207.

Mongols worshipped Tengri, a shamanistic god of the sky. But Chinggis was mentored by the Christian Kerait king Toghrul Wang Khan (the legendary Prester John?). He intermarried Shamanistic Mongols with Christian Keraits, starting with himself.

He was succeeded by Ogetai as Great Khan.

CHINGGIS’ MONGOL EMPIRE IN 1207

CHINGGIS KHAN’S EXPANSION, 13TH C

3.1 SORKAKTHANI

Chinggis Khan arranged 3 marriages between his family with Christian Kerait princesses:

1) Ibaka-beki was wed to Chinggis himself. 2) Bektutmish was wed to Chinggis’ oldest son, Jochi. 3) Sorkakthani was wed his other son, Tolui. She became the mother of three imperial sons –

a) Mongke, Great Khan and emperor of the Mongols,

b) Hulagu, emperor of Persia, andc) Kublai, Great Khan and emperor of China.

3.2 BATU KHAN’S GOLDEN HORDE

1240s: Mongol forces invaded Cilicia (Lesser Armenia), Azerbaijan, Georgia & India. Batu Khan’s Golden Horde swept through Europe to Poland, Hungary and Austria, threatening Christendom.

Pope Innocent IV quickly sent a delegation of Franciscans to Karakoram hoping to make a deal with the Mongols against their common enemy – the Muslims.

EMPIRE OF BATU KHAN’S GOLDEN HORDEAT THE GATES OF WESTERN EUROPE

3.3 POPE’S ENVOY TO MONGOLIA

From 1242-1342, 8 Catholic missions were sent across to Asia:

The 1st Franciscan envoy to Karakorum was John of Plano Carpini who took the northern Silk Road and arrived in 1246 to witness the coronation of the 3rd Great Khan, Guyuk.

He found the Mongol Khan surrounded by Christian administrators and civil servants – all Nestorian Christians.

The 2nd Franciscan envoy to Karakorum was William of Rubruck in 1253. He began his mission from Acre, onto Constantinople, via the Black Sea and towards China by crossing the Tien Shan mountains.

MONGKE & GUYUK KHAN’S EMPIRE

3.4 GUYUK, THE 3RD GREAT KHAN’S REPLY TO POPE INNOCENT IV

Pope Innocent IV accused the Mongols of killing the Magyars (for murdering Mongolian envoys) and demanded their conversion to Christianity. He was given the chilling reply:

“..and when you say, ‘I am a Christian. I pray to God. I arraign and despise others.’ How do you know who is pleasing to God and to whom he allots his grace?...now, you…in person…must come and pay us homage.”

Every major political leader in human history claimed divine sanction for world domination. The Pope and the Khan were no different.

4. KUBLAI KHANIn 1251, Mongke was elected the 4th Great Khan of the Mongols. He sent one brother Hulagu to attack Persia and the Muslim Capital of Baghdad, where the Church of the East was ruled from. He sent his other brother Kublai to rule over northern China.

Reports that many in Mongol-controlled Central Asia (centered at Samarqand) converted to Nestorian Christianity. The transitions from shamanism to Buddhism, Islam, Nestorianism, then back to Islam, Russian Orthodoxy and Communism.

Today, a third round of Islam has made Samarqand an interesting study of factors that changed religious associations in concert with changing political climates which in turn generated economic uncertainties.

4.1 KUBLAI KHAN & THE POLO BROTHERS

1260: Kublai was elected the 5th Great Khan. He stayed on at Khanbaliq or Cambaluc (Beijing) rather than move to Karakoram in Siberia.

1266: Kublai met the Polo brothers. His interest in Jesus was evident when he requested 100 Christian teaching monks and oil from the lamp in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Although his primary interest was the legendary Seven (Liberal) Arts of Europe, he knew that European philosophies and learning were shaped by the teachings of Jesus. Already in China, the Jesus Sutras, Chinese texts describing the teachings of the Christ, were published.

4.2 KUBLAI KHAN & MARCO POLO

1274: Niccolo and Maffeo Polo returned with 17-year old Marco Polo and all three of them stayed for 17 years in the service of the Khan. According to Marco, he was made Governor of Hangzhou and served as a roving reporter for the emperor.

1291-1294: The three Polos escorted a Mongol princess to the Ilkhan of Persia, via the sea route, stopping in Sumatra, Sri Lanka and India, and returned to Venice rich and full of tales of Cathay.

MARCO POLO’S TRAVELS

4.3 CHRISTIANS ALONGTHE OLD SILK ROAD TO

CATHAYThe West had known about Christians in Asia but were uncertain about their numbers. However, from 1236-1241, Batu Khan’s onslaught across Asia and into Europe terrified the highly politicized Papacy. From 1245-1345, Rome sent 8 long-range expeditions to establish political relations with Mongol China.

The 5th expedition, led by John of Montecorvino, arrived at Cambaluc in 1294, just after the death of Kublai Khan. Both Marco Polo & John de Montecorvino reported large numbers of Syriac Christians from Baghdad and Damascus in China, and many along the towns of the Old Silk Road.

What does this tell us about the nature and state of Christianity following the Christian diaspora from Palestine?

4.4 HOW CATHAY GOT ITS NAME

Cathay refers to China. It derived from the word Catai, which originated from the nomadic Khitan people of northern China who founded the Western Liao dynasty (907-1125). They migrated to modern Kyrgyzstan and called themselves Hala Qidan. Local Turkish Arabs mispronounced it as Kara Khitan.

“Kara” means black in Turkic. History records them as the Karakhitais or Qara Khitai (Black Khitans) of Turkestan (Central Asia). So the name Black Chinese was born.

How did the homeland of the 'Black' Chinese become Cathay?Back in Europe, Marco Polo described the southern Chinese as Manzi and the northern Chinese as Catai, adulterated into Cathay. Thus, Europeans came to call all of China, Cathay.

CHINA: CATHAY & MANZI

4.5 SILK ROAD CHRISTIANITY

Silk Road Christianity became the largest region of Christianity in the world, and it was entirely non-Western.

Persian “Nestorian” Christianity dominated Christendom outside the ‘Christendom’ of Europe.

Roman “Catholic” Christianity attempted to politicize the faith of Jesus and created an obstacle to the conversion of Asia that persists to this day.

Byzantine “Orthodox” Christianity continued to do battle with the increasingly successful Seljuk Turks until Constantinople fell in 1453.

MAP OF SILK ROAD CHRISTIANITY

4.6 SAMARQAND, MARAKANDA & AFROSIAB

Samarqand in modern Uzbekistan was once the capital of Silk Road trading between Europe and Asia. It was known as Marakanda by the Greeks and Afrosiab by the Sogdians, some 2550 years ago.

In 329 BC, Alexander the Great destroyed the city despite being charmed by its stunning beauty. When it recovered under the Romans, Sogdian became the lingua franca of the Silk Road merchants and Zoroastrianism was the most popular religion. Every Christian mission would have had to engage Zoroastrianism and Manichaeism on its way eastward.

In 1907, archaeological discoveries at Dunhuang, China, confirmed the dominance of this language of trade.

4.7 KHIVA, BUKHARA & SAMARQAND

These ancient cities along the Silk Road were the fabled caravan towns which hosted tired camel trains of traders and religious scholars as they traversed the greatest terrestrial highways of human creation.

Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Manichaeism, Gnosticism, Christianity and Islam would all be changed by each other as their truth-claims were put to the test in direct encounters with other faith beliefs.

By the time official Nestorian Christianity made its way eastward from Damascus and Baghdad, unofficial conversions led to many communities of faith that now had to deal with the politics of belief.

CENTRAL ASIA TODAY: RUINS OF ANTIQUITY & TREASURES OF

BEAUTY

THE CHURCH OF THE EAST TODAY

ST THOMAS CHRISTIAN TRADITIONS

HISTORICAL SECTS OF CHRISTIANITY

SUMMARYSpirituality has always been part of the human experience, from shamanism of Ice-Age Cave art to the animisms of many cultural myths to institutionalized philosophies.

Religions became the expression of spirituality during the Axial Age, 900-200 BC, when philosophies and rituals merged.

The Mongols created the largest empire in history, but Christianity influenced the world’s economics and politics, and shaped the direction of human history.

Of the many Christian traditions, the Church of the East along the Old Silk Road crossed three continents in its diverse missions activities, and made its stamp on the worldviews of nations that emerged in its wake.

CONCLUSION

But let us return to what Jesus really stood for:

1. A kingdom not of this world – John 18:36. Do not ‘grow’ the Church at the expense of the people’s spiritual growth.

2. A love for humanity, to make disciples of every nation – Matthew 28:19. Let us humanize the language of faith.

3. A compassionate grace for the suffering of the weak and underprivileged – Matthew 25:35-40, 45. Let us be concerned for the voiceless.