BATILILARIN DOĞU HAKKINDAKİ TAHAYYÜLERİNE ÖZGÜN BİR ÖRNEK OLARAK PRESBYTER JOHANNES (PRESTER JOHN) EFSANESİNİN ORTAYA ÇIKIŞI: 1165 ÖNCESİ

Batı’da Doğu’ya ilişkin yerleşik imgelerin siyasi ve dini açıdan yeni bir biçimde kullanılmasında Avrupalıların Haçlı Seferleri’yle birlikte İslam dünyasıyla doğrudan karşılaşmaları etkili olmuştur. Mutlak öteki olarak Ortaçağ Avrupalısı’nın zihniyetinde yer edinen Müslümanların Avrupa Hristiyanlığının global yayılmacılığına boyun eğmeleri için Presbyter Johannes (Prester John) efsanesi ümit verici bir araç olarak bu koşullarda 12. yüzyılda doğmuştur. Presbyter Johannes anlatısı Avrupalılar için bilinmezliklerle dolu olan Doğu’da yaşadığına inanılan Presbyter Johannes adlı rahip-kralın, Haçlılar Müslümanlarla savaşırken Doğu’dan gelip onlara yardım edeceği ve iki taraftan çevrelenen Müslümanlara karşı Hristiyan dünyasının zafere ulaşacağı düşüncesine dayanır. 1165 yılında Johannes’in Bizans İmparatoru I. Manuel Komnenos’a gönderdiği sahte mektupla birlikte Avrupa’da popülerleşmeye başlayan efsanenin, mektubun gönderilme tarihinden önceki ortaya çıkış süreci bu makalenin konusunu oluşturmaktadır. Presbyter Johannes’ten ilk defa Freisingli Otto’nun Chronica’sında 1145 yılına ait bir kayıtta bahsedilmiştir. Bu bağlamda, Freisingli Otto’nun anlatısı temelinde ve konuya ilişkin 12. yüzyıla ait diğer bazı kaynaklar da kullanılarak efsanenin ortaya çıkışının siyasi ve dini nedenleri Otto’nun ve Ortaçağ tarihçiliğinin kendine has özellikleri etrafında değerlendirilecektir. Böylece, Presbyter Johannes efsanesinin siyasi ve dini koşullara uygun bir eklektik kurgu olduğu ortaya konacaktır.

Anahtar Kelimeler:

Presbyter Johannes, Freisingli Otto, II. Haçlı Seferi, Efsane, Ortaçağ Avrupası

THE EMERGENCE OF PRESTER JOHN LEGEND AS A UNIQUE EXAMPLE OF WESTERN IMAGINATION ABOUT THE EAST: BEFORE 1165

The direct encounter of the Europeans with the Islamic World during the Crusades exerted great influence on the use of the settled western images about the East in a new political and religious way. In the 12th century, Prester John legend emerged as a promising instrument of the submission of the Muslims, who were regarded as absolute other in western imagination, to the global expansionism of European Christianity. Prester John narrative depended on a fancy that a Christian priest-king called Prester John living in the East would come to the aid of the Christians fighting against the Muslims. Thus, the Muslims would be surrounded from both sides. This would also lead to the final victory of the Christians over the Muslims. The legend started to become popular in Europe by the forged letter of Prester John to the Byzantine emperor Manuel I. Komnenos in 1165. In this paper, the emergence process of Prester John legend before 1165 is discussed. Prester John was first mentioned in Otto of Freising’s Chronica in a record dated 1145. In this sense, the purpose of this article is to evaluate the political and religious reasons for the emergence of the legend on the basis of Otto’s narrative with references to the primary sources related to the subject considering unique characteristics of Otto’s historical approach and Medieval historiography. Finally, this study presents that Prester John legend was an eclectic construct appropriate to the political and religious conditions.

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