In Search of the Fictional Kingdom

Lev Nikolayevich Gumilev 1912 – 1992 – an outstanding Russian historian, ethnologist, and geographer, poet, and translator from Persian, founder of the theory of passionarity, developer of the original concept of ethnogenesis, and proponent of the Eurasian idea. In the 12th century, during the Crusades, a legend arose and later spread widely about a strong and wealthy Christian kingdom created somewhere in distant Asia by Presbyter John, the successor of the Apostle Thomas. Is it true or a fabrication?