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1 results

  • 6 - Western European Sources

  • from Volume II Part 1 - Literary Sources
  • Edited by Michal Biran, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Hodong Kim, Seoul National University
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of the Mongol Empire
    Published online:
    01 January 2024
    Print publication:
    17 August 2023, pp 1070-1113

  • Summary

    Although most of Catholic Christendom escaped conquest by the Mongols, the West yields a comparatively broad and varied range of sources concerning the invaders and their empire. These include not only contemporary accounts of the onslaught of 1241–1242 on Hungary, but also narratives composed by Westerners who visited the Mongol world; geographical surveys, like Marco Polo’s description of Yuan China, reflecting the West’s considerably extended horizons; mercantile handbooks; and documents relating to trade with the Mongols. Admittedly, the earliest material is often characterized by apocalyptic speculation and misleading preconceptions. But at the opposite extreme, despite retaining some detail of a fantastic nature, the reports of members of the newly founded mendicant orders – the Franciscans and Dominicans – who traveled in Mongol Asia as either envoys or missionaries are unmatched for keen observation and penetrating analysis; they form an indispensable accessory and backcloth to the narrative accounts produced within non-European societies.