The Anonymous Author's Introduction

English Translation: The Text

In the following report, you can read about the Holy Land and all the lands of Outremer [beyond the sea], and about the castles and cities that have been located there and are still standing there, then about the kings, dukes, lords, and patriarchs, bishops, abbots, canons, priests, monks, and all kinds of other people who lived there and still live there to this day, and about their faiths and religious sects, and about their culture, that is about Christians, Jews, and heathens [Muslims].

Outline

First of all, there is the kingdom of Jerusalem which is situated in the middle of the world, as has been observed in the past, which used to belong to the Jews, then to the Christians, and now to the Muslims. In that kingdom, most people are Christians. Turning from that kingdom to the east, there are all those kingdoms of India that are ruled by Prester John, and all the people who live there are Christians. Turning further east, there are the kingdoms of Nubia and Tharsin, and the people who live there are also Christians. Melchior and Balthazar had ruled there, two of the Three Holy Magi who brought offerings to Our Lord in Bethlehem. Northeast of those lands are the kingdoms of Georgia and Abkhazia, and the people who live there are pious, upright Christians. To the north of them are situated the kingdoms of Greece and Armenia, and the people populating them are also Christians. All those people who live in those kingdoms are Christians, but they are not equally good Christians. They differ from each other through all kinds of articles and points in their faith, as described below.

Each one of these kingdoms is just as powerful as the one ruled by the Sultan except that some are located next to water and deserts, apart from other natural barriers. About all these Christians who live in these lands, we must say that neither one believes in the same faith as the other. Some are called Latins, Syrians, Indians, Nubians, Armenians, Greeks, Georgians, Nestorians, Jacobites, Maronites, Copts, Ethiopians, Maronians, and Soldinians. All these groups of Christians who live there have all kinds of their own churches, but no one enters into the churches of the others.