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In Voyager from Xanadu, a distinguished historian tells the little-known story of the life and travels of the first person from China ever to reach Europe. Portraying one of the most remarkable early encounters between East and West, Morris Rossabi also brings to life the intriguing and turbulent era of the Mongol Empire and the last Crusades. Toward the end of the thirteenth century, at about the time Marco Polo arrived in China, a Christian monk, Rabban Sauma, left it, embarking on a journey that would prove more momentous than he could have dreamed. What began as a religious pilgrimage to the Middle East (supported by the Mongol Emperor, Khubilai Khan) ultimately became an extraordinary d...
Towards the end of the thirteenth century the Nestorian monk, Rabban Sawma, together with his disciple Mark, set out from Khanbaliq (Beijing), the capital city of Kublai Khan's Mongol Empire, on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Travelling through northern China and Central Asia they arrived at Maraghah, capital city of the Ilkhanate that was Mongol-ruled Persia. Military unrest prevented them from ever reaching Jerusalem but they did reah Baghdad, where Rabban Sawma spent many years. Summoned by Arghun Khan, the Ilkhan ruler and grand nephew of Kublai Khan, Sawma was made Ilkhanid ambassador and sent to Europe, first travelling to Constantinople to meet the Byzantine emperor and then to meet the k...
This book traces the history of encounter between Eastern and Western cultures by closely examining a body of medieval travel writings penned or related by Europeans and by inhabitants of East Asia. Whilst these texts are usually considered in the context of kindred European or Chinese literature, this study will make a case for considering them as a common literature of medieval encounters with foreign people. For the modern historian writing in a world that so consciously thinks of itself as ‘global’, these accounts offer a precious lens through which to enter into the world before globalization. In particular, the book shows that these narratives show the similarity in how Eastern and Western travellers thought and behaved in the face of difference, and will show that individuals often held somewhat different views, shaped by their particular experience or agendas, than those of their government or of local cultural convention.
As the title implies, New Approaches to Ilkhanid History explores new methodologies and avenues of research for the Mongol state in the Middle East. Although the majority of the Ilkhanate was situated in Iran, this volume considers other regions within the state and moves away from focusing on the center and the Ilkhanid court. New consideration is given to the source material, particularly how they have been composed, but also how the sources can inform on the provinces of the Ilkhanate. Several authors also examine lower-tier personages, groups, and institutions. Contributors include: A.C.S. Peacock; Kazuhiko Shiraiwa; Christopher P. Atwood; Stefan Kamola; Qiu Yihao; Koichi Matsuda; Judith Kolbas; Reuven Amitai; Na'ama O. Arom; Timothy May; Michael Hope; Pier Giorgio Borbone; Dashdondog Bayarsaikhan; Dmitri Korobeinikov.
Covering the rise and fall of the Mongol Empire, this essential reference presents the figures, places, and events that led this once-beleaguered region to rise up to become the largest contiguous empire in history. In the 13th century, Chinggis Khan rose to power, leading an empire of a million people and defeating surrounding regions with much larger populations. This compendium follows the achievements—and failures—of the Mongol Empire from the birth of Chinggis Khan in 1162 to the formation of the successor states that came from the dissolution of the world power in the 16th century: the Yuan Empire in East Asia; the Chaghatai Khanate in Central Asia; the Ilkhanate in the Middle East...
This book tells a story of serendipity. Two Christian monks left China about 1274, headed to Jerusalem. Travelling on an itinerary similar to that Marco Polo had taken, they reached Iran, ruled by a Mongol dynasty, the Ilkhans. There, what they never had expected happened: one of them, Mark by name, was elected Patriarch of the Church of the East (with the name Yahballaha), while the other, Rabban Sauma, was sent as ambassador to the pope and the courts of France and England by the Mongol Ilkhan Arghun. From Rabban Sauma's report of his embassy, and the two monk's memories of their journey from China to Mesopotamia, an anonymous author compiled a biography of Sauma and Mark. He interspersed their report and memories with a narrative about "the occurrences of their time - what happened to them, through them or because of them, relating everything just as it happened". The result was a chronicle entitled "History of Mar Yahballaha and Rabban Sauma", a rich and lively testimony of a time of unprecedented interconnectedness in the history of Eurasia at the epoch of the Mongol Empire.
Introduction -- Origin stories -- Poetry -- Doctrine and disputation -- Liturgy -- Asceticism -- Mysticism and prayer -- Biblical interpretation -- Hagiography -- Books, knowledge, and translation -- Judaism -- Islam -- Religions of the Silk Road -- Appendix 1 : translations and editions -- Appendix 2 : biographies of named authors -- Appendix 3 : glossary.
Advocating a global as opposed to a Eurocentric perspective in the college classroom, discusses why and how to teach about Chinas Silk Road. The romance of the Silk Road journey, with its exotic locales and luxury goods, still excites the popular imagination. But study of the trade routes between China and central Asia that flourished from about 200 BCE to the 1500s can also greatly enhance contemporary higher education curricula. Indeed, with people, plants, animals, ideas, and beliefs traversing it, the Silk Road is both a metaphor of globalization and an early example of it. Teaching the Silk Road highlights the reasons to incorporate this material into a variety of courses and shares r...
The Mongols had a huge impact on medieval Europe and the Islamic world. This book provides a comprehensive survey of contacts between the Catholic West and the Mongol world-empire from the first appearance of Chinggis Khan’s armies in 1221 down to the death of Tamerlane (1405) and the battle of Tannenberg (1410). This book considers the Mongols as allies as well as conquerors; the perception of them in the West; the papal response to the threat (and opportunity) they presented; the fate of the Frankish principalities in the Holy Land in the path of the Mongol onslaught; Western European embassies and missions to the East; and the impact of the Mongols on the expanding world view of the maturing Middle Ages. For courses in crusading history and medieval European history.