Geoffrey de Langley with Bar Sauma before Arghun Khan, 1288 (litho)

Geoffrey de Langley with Bar Sauma before Arghun Khan, 1288. In 1287 Arghun Khan (1284-1291), the son of Abagha, sent the well-known traveller, the Nestorian monk Rabban Bar Sauma, on an embassy to the Western States. Bar Sauma met Edward I at Bordeaux, and afterwards the Pope Nicholas IV, who sent him back to Arghun with a mission to get up a crusade against the Egyptian Mamelukes, whom Arghun detested. With Bar Sauma travelled in 1288 the English knight Geoffrey de Langley with a gerfalcon from Edward I. Illustration for Hutchinson's History of the Nations (Hutchinson, c.1920). Note: Image has been digitally enhanced to facilitate repro.