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Yahballaha III (c. 1245–13 November 1317), known in earlier years as Rabban Marcos (or Markos) was Patriarch of the East from 1281 to 1317. As patriarch, Yahballaha headed the Church of the East during the severe persecutions under the reign of khans Ghazan and his successor Öljaitü.
Yahballaha III ( c. 1245 – 13 November 1317), known in earlier years as Rabban Marcos (or Markos) was Patriarch of the East from 1281 to 1317. As patriarch, Yahballaha headed the Church of the East during the severe persecutions under the reign of khans Ghazan and his successor Öljaitü.
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Markos was born near Beijing (Khanbaliq, or Taitu), but his ethnic ancestry is not entirely clear. According to the Ecclesiastical Chronicle of Bar-Hebraeus he was of Turkish Uyghur descent. He was also referred to as 'Yaballaha the Turk' in the colophon to an East Syrian manuscript of 1301. On the other hand, the History of Mar Yaballaha III names the place of his birth as Koshang, thus perhaps suggesting that he was an Ongud from the Christian tribe's homeland in Inner Mongolia near Shanxi.
He was consecrated as a monk, and became a student of Rabban Bar Sauma, another Uyghur or Ongud monk. In the mid-1200s, they decided to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Due to military conflict in Syria, they never arrived at their destination, but did meet with the church leaders in the Mongol Ilkhanate, in Baghdad. There, the Patriarch Mar Denha I sent the two monks on a mission to the court of the Mongol khan Abaqa, to obtain confirmation for Mar Denha's title. Along the way, Markos was appointed Metropolitan Bishop of China. The monks then intended to return to China, but their departure was again delayed by armed conflict. When the Patriarch died, the bishops elected Markos as the new Patriarch in 1281, and he took the name Mar Yaballaha III ("God Gave Him"). It was extremely rare for an outsider to become patriarch, and Bar Hebraeus claims that Markos was elected because of his supposed influence with the Mongols. In the event, hopes that Yaballaha III might be able to influence Mongol policy were disappointed.
Yaballaha held contacts with the Byzantine Empire and with Latin Christendom. In 1287, when Abaqa's son and successor Arghun Khan sought an ambassador for an important mission to Europe, Yaballaha recommended his former teacher Rabban Bar Sauma, who held the position of Visitor-General. Arghun agreed, and Bar Sauma made a historic journey through Europe, meeting with the Pope and many monarchs, and bringing gifts, letters, and European ambassadors on his return. Via Rabban Sauma, Mar Yaballaha received a ring from the Pope's finger, and a papal bull which recognized Yaballaha as the patriarch of all the eastern Christians.
In May 1304, Yaballaha made profession of the Catholic faith in a letter addressed to Pope Benedict XI. But the union was refuted by his Nestorian bishops.
1.Rossabi, p. xv
2.Moule, Christians in China before 1500, 94 & 103; also Paul Pelliot in T'oung-pao 15(1914), pp.630-36, where Koshang is suggested to be the Ongut town Tong-chen to the West of Beijing.
3.Phillips, p. 123
4.Bar Hebraeus, Chronicon Ecclesiasticum, iii. 451
•Barhebraeus, Gregory, Chronicon Ecclesiasticum, ed. J. B. Abbeloos and T. J. Lamy, (Paris: Maisonneuve, 1877), 3: II, cols.451ff.
•Bedjan, Paul, Histoire de Mar Jab-Alaha, Patriarche, (1888, 2nd ed 1995; reprint Gorgias, 2007). Syriac text on which the translations of Montgomery and Budge are based.
•Budge, E.A. Wallis, The Monks of Kublai Khan, (London: Religious Tract Society, 1928).
•Gillman, Ian & Klimkeith, Hans-Joachim, Christians in Asia before 1500, (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1999), 140, 252.
•Montgomery, James A., History of Yaballaha III, (New York: Columbia University Press, 1927).
•Moule, A. C., Christians in China before 1550 (London: SPCK, 1930).
Chaldeans, History and Cultural Relations
Aug 17, 2016 · 1 J. P. Amar, "Yahbalaha III." in Sebastian P. Brock et al. (eds.), The Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage ( Piscataway, NJ : Gorgias Press , 2011 ), pp: 429, 429. 2 Sergey Minov (ed.), A Comprehensive Bibliography on Syriac Christianity ( The Center for the Study of Christianity, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem , 2013 ...
[19] The hypothesis that the synod of 1318 had to cope with the corruption and illiteracy of the clergy ‘perhaps because Yahballaaha III, who knew little Syriac himself, had been unable to control his bishops and visitors effectively’ (p. 18) does not appear to be based on solid grounds.
May 13, 2021 · He headed back east and would die in Baghdad in 1294, a guest of the patriarch Mar Yahballaha III, his former novice who had left China with him 20 years earlier.
Yahbalaha III (ca. 1245–1317) [Ch. of E.] Mar Yahbalaha III, an ethnic Uighur and a monk of the Ch. of E., was born in the vicinity of Khān Bālīq (Beijing). As a young monk, he took the name Markos and became devoted to his spiritual master, Ṣawma .
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