European clerical envoys to the Mongols
Reports of Western merchants in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, 1231–1255
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9386129 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Gregory G Guzman (Bradley University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1996 |
| Volume | 22 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 53-67 |
| Publication date | 1996-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Medieval History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0304-4181 • E-ISSN: 1873-1279 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1016/0304-4181(96)00008-5 |
| OpenAlex | W2161436500 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 12 |
The first intercultural and diplomatic contact between Christian Europe and Mongol Asia occurred within a few decades of the Mongol invasion of Central Europe in the 1240s. The primary purpose of the study is to locate and identify all references to merchants in the Latin sources written by the seven earliest Western envoys (sent between the 1230s and 1250s) while the Mongols were still steppe nomads. These diplomatic accounts reveal that the envoys seldom referred to members of the mobile merchant community, as they received most of their information from Western captives and craftsmen living among the Mongols. When merchants are mentioned, they are listed primarily as witnesses who could attest to the travels and veracity of the envoys' reports. While the diplomatic sources occasionally refer to European merchants in contact with their Russian, Byzantine, and Turkish counterparts, they contain little information on direct trade between Christian Europe and Mongol Asia. The Western envoys provided little useful knowledge on commercial activity in the vast Mongol Empire, but they did bring back to Europe much interesting and valuable information on Mongol past history and future intentions
Ancient history · Archaeology · Buddhism · Byzantine architecture · Central asia · Empire · Geography · Turkish · Balkan and Eastern European Studies · Byzantine Studies and History · Eurasian Exchange Networks · History
The Medieval Expansion of Europe.
Russia and the Golden Horde
Simon of Saint-Quentin and the Dominican Mission to the Mongol Baiju
The Encyclopedist Vincent of Beauvais and His Mongol Extracts from John of Plano Carpini and Simon of Saint-Quentin
The History of the Mongol Conquests
The Vinland Map and the Tartar Relation
The Mongol Mission. Narratives and Letters of the Franciscan Missionaries in Mongolia and China in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries
Papal Envoys to the Great Khans
Eastern Missions of the Hungarian Dominicans in the First Half of the Thirteenth Century
Un voyaǵeur du treizième siècle
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,29 |
| Citation span | 2012 - 2025 (14) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |