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{{Infobox Patriarch
|honorific-prefix = Mar
|name = Yahballaha III
|birth_name = Marcos
|church = [[Church of the East]]
|see = [[Baghdad]]
|patriarch_of = [[List of Patriarchs of the Church of the East|Patriarch of the Church of the East]]
|title = Patriarch of All the [[Church of the East|Eastern Christians]]
|residence = [[Baghdad]], [[Maragheh]]
|enthroned = 1281
|ended = 1317
|predecessor = [[Denha I]] 
|successor = [[Timothy II (Nestorian patriarch)|Timothy II]]
|birth_date = 1245
|death_date = 1317
}}
{{Other people|Yahballaha|named=called}}

'''Yahballaha III''' (1245–November 13, 1317),<ref>Grousset, p. 383</ref><ref>Rossabi, p. xv</ref> known in earlier years as '''Rabban Marcos''' or '''Markos''', was [[List of Patriarchs of the Church of the East|Patriarch of the Church of the East]] from 1281 to 1317. As a young man, he engaged in a remarkable journey, which began as an ascetic monk's pilgrimage from [[Mongol Empire|Mongol]]-controlled [[China]] to [[Jerusalem]], led him to the Patriarch position in Baghdad, and brought him to recommend his former teacher and traveling companion, the monk [[Rabban Bar Sauma]], to become the first Asian ambassador to [[Europe]].

==Biography==
[[File:Young man, Khocho, Nestorian Temple, 602-654 AD, wall painting - Ethnological Museum, Berlin - DSC01740.JPG|thumb|A young man, possibly Uyghur or Chinese, from a [[Nestorian Church]] in [[Gaochang]], China, [[Tang dynasty|Tang period]], 602-654 AD]]
[[File:Palm Sunday (probably), Khocho, Nestorian Temple, 683-770 AD, wall painting - Ethnological Museum, Berlin - DSC01741.JPG|thumb|Wall painting from a [[Nestorian Christian]] church showing a scene of preaching on [[palm sunday]], [[Kingdom of Qocho|Qocho]] ([[Gaochang]]), China, 683–770 AD]]
Markos was born near [[Beijing]]<ref name="Thomas Francis Carter 1955 171">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/?id=NZRFAAAAMAAJ&dq=One+such+Uigur+Christian%2C+Rabban+Marcos%2C+born+near+Peking%2C+was+appointed+in+1281+patriarch-general+of+the+Nestorian+Church+with+Baghdad+as+his+place+of+residence+.+His+close+friend%2C+Rabban+Sauma%2C+another+Christian+of+Uigur+race+from&q=christian+rabban+marcos+1281+patriarch+general+church|title=The invention of printing in China and its spread westward|author=Thomas Francis Carter|editor=|year=1955|publisher=Ronald Press Co.|edition=2|location=|page=171|isbn=|pages=|accessdate=2010-06-28}}</ref> ([[Khanbaliq]], or Taitu), then a part of the Mongol Empire. His ethnic ancestry is not entirely clear, but according to the ''Ecclesiastical Chronicle'' of [[Bar-Hebraeus]], he was of Turkic [[Kingdom of Qocho|Uyghur]] descent. He was also referred to as 'Yahballaha the Turk' in the colophon to an East Syrian manuscript of 1301. On the other hand, the ''History of Mar Yahballaha 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]].<ref>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.</ref>

He was consecrated as a monk, and became a student of [[Rabban Bar Sauma]], another Uyghur or Ongud monk.<ref name="Thomas Francis Carter 1955 171"/> In the mid-13th century, they decided to make a pilgrimage to [[Jerusalem]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/?id=jqb7L-pKCV8C&pg=PA377&dq=mongols+chinese+general+baghdad#v=onepage&q=rabban%20bar%20sauma%20peking%20mark%20disciple&f=false|title=A history of Chinese civilization|author=Jacques Gernet|year=1996|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=|isbn=0-521-49781-7|page=376|pages=|accessdate=2010-10-28}}</ref>

The Mongol Khan Arghun wanted Yahballaha to incite the Pope into another Crusade. 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 Yahballaha III ("God Gave Him").<ref name=phillips-123>Phillips, p. 123</ref>  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 Yahballaha III might be able to influence Mongol policy were disappointed.<ref>Bar Hebraeus, ''Ecclesiastical Chronicle'', ii. 451</ref>

Yahballaha 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, Yahballaha received a ring from the Pope's finger, and a [[papal bull]] which recognized Yahballaha as the patriarch of all the eastern Christians.<ref name=phillips-123/>

In May 1304, Yahballaha made profession of the Catholic faith in a letter addressed to Pope [[Benedict XI]]. But the union was rejected by the synod of bishops of the [[Church of the East]] in spite of the leadership of Yahballaha.

In 1310 Yahballaha tried unsuccessfully to prevent the massacre of Christians in [[Erbil]] by a Muslim mob.  This failure discouraged him, and he retired to [[Maragheh]], the capital of the Mongol [[Ilkhanate]].

Eventually he died, tortured and killed by a Muslim mob during a persecution.<ref>In Browne, Eclipse of Christianity in Asia, 163–66.</ref><ref>In Jenkins, The Lost History of Christianity, 129.</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Christianity in China}}
*[[List of Patriarchs of the Church of the East]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
* [[Rene Grousset|Grousset, Rene]], ''The Empire of the Steppes'', (Translated from the French by Naomi Walford), New Brunswick: [[Rutgers University Press]] (1970)
* [[Barhebraeus]], Gregory, ''Chronicon Ecclesiasticum'', ed. [[J. B. Abbeloos]] and [[T. J. Lamy]], (Paris:  Maisonneuve, 1877), 3: II, cols.451ff.
* [[Paul Bedjan|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.
* [[E. A. Wallis Budge|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).
* {{cite book|author=Phillips, J. R. S.|title=The Medieval Expansion of Europe|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|year=1998|edition=second |isbn=0-19-820740-9 }}
* {{cite book|author=Rossabi, Morris|title=Voyager from Xanadu: Rabban Sauma and the first journey from China to the West|year=1992|isbn=4-7700-1650-6|publisher=[[Kodansha International Ltd.]]}}

==External links==
* [http://www.everyculture.com/Africa-Middle-East/Chaldeans-History-and-Cultural-Relations.html Chaldeans, History and Cultural Relations]

{{S-start}}
{{s-rel}}
{{Succession box
 |before=[[Denha I]]
 |title=[[List of Patriarchs of the Church of the East|Patriarch of the East]]
 |years=1281–1317
 |after=[[Timothy II (Nestorian Patriarch)|Timothy II]]
}}
{{S-end}}

{{Patriarchs of the Church of the East}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yaballaha 3}}
[[Category:1245 births]]
[[Category:1317 deaths]]
[[Category:Christianity in China]]
[[Category:Christianity in Mongolia]]
[[Category:Church of the East in China]]
[[Category:Mongol Empire Christians]]
[[Category:Patriarchs of the Church of the East]]
[[Category:People from Beijing]]
[[Category:Uyghur Christian clergy]]
[[Category:Uyghurs]]
[[Category:Ambassadors to the Mongol Empire]]