William of Rubruck’s journey to Karakorum
The Flemish Franciscan William of Rubruck, who had accompanied Louis IX on crusade, travelled as a missionary from Constantinople across the steppes to the court of the great khan Möngke and spent the spring of 1254 in Karakorum; his report to the king is one of the most important medieval European accounts of the Mongols.
- Date
- 7 May 1253 – 15 August 1255exact date · duration: ≈ 2 yearsDate in the Julian calendar
- Place
- Karakorumtoday: Karakorum, Mongolia · Central and Northern Asia
- Route
- Constantinople → Soldaia (Sudak) → Batu’s camp on the lower Volga → Karakorum → Batu’s camp on the lower Volga → Nakhchivan → Nicosia → Tripoli
- Participants
- William of Rubruck, Möngke Khan, Mongol Empire
- Threads
- Mongol conquests
- Also known as
- Itinerarium fratris Willielmi de Rubruquis; Rubruck's Itinerarium; Путешествие в восточные страны; Путешествие Рубрука; Вильгельм де Рубрук в Каракоруме
Louis IX, rebuffed by the Mongols once before, would not send another formal embassy, so Rubruck set out on the king’s orders but as a missionary. With Bartholomew of Cremona and letters from the Latin emperor Baldwin II to Mongol chiefs, he left Constantinople on 7 May 1253. From Soldaia (Sudak) in the Crimea he travelled by ox-cart to Batu’s son Sartaq, who sent him on to his father on the Volga, and Batu sent him on to the great khan. Riding across the steppes, the friars reached Möngke’s camp at the end of December and were received on 4 January 1254; around Easter they came with the court to Karakorum.
Rubruck described the city — its wall with four gates, the Muslim quarter with its markets and the quarter of Chinese craftsmen, twelve pagan temples, two mosques and a Nestorian church — and the silver tree fountain at Möngke’s palace, the work of the Parisian craftsman Guillaume Boucher, who had been taken captive during the campaign of 1241–1242. On 30 May 1254, the eve of Pentecost, he took part in a debate the khan arranged between Christians, Muslims and Buddhists; the next day Möngke received him, told him he must return home and said that God had given men different ways, just as He had given the hand different fingers.
On the way back Rubruck spent two weeks with Batu in late September, celebrated Christmas at Nakhchivan and on 15 August 1255 reached the County of Tripoli; his report, the Itinerarium, was addressed to the king. Among other things, his passage north of the Caspian showed that it was an inland sea, and Roger Bacon quoted him at length in his Opus Majus. The route on the map is simplified.
Connections
Related events
- Battle of Qatwan9 September 1141 · Central and Northern AsiaRubruck recorded what Nestorians told him of their ‘King John’ — Prester John of the legend, which garbled news of Qatwan had helped to spread
- Karakorum becomes the Mongol capital1235 · Central and Northern AsiaRubruck left a detailed description of the Mongol capital
- Mission of Giovanni da Pian del Carpine to the Mongols16 April 1245 – 1247 · Central and Northern AsiaEight years after Carpine, Rubruck travelled by a similar route to the court of the next great khan
- Seventh Crusade1248–1254 · Middle East and EgyptRubruck had accompanied Louis IX on the Seventh Crusade and set out for the Mongols on the king’s orders
Same participants
- Death of Yaroslav II in Karakorum30 September 1246 · Central and Northern Asiavia Mongol Empire
- Siege of Baghdad29 January – 10 February 1258 · Middle East and Egyptvia Mongol Empire
Same place
- Bumin overthrows the Rouran: the Turkic Khaganate is foundedbetween February and March 552 · Central and Northern Asia
- Civil war and split of the Turkic Khaganate581–603 · Central and Northern Asia
- The Uyghurs overthrow the Turks: the Uyghur Khaganate744 · Central and Northern Asia
- Bögü Qaghan makes Manichaeism the religion of the Uyghursbetween 762 and 763 · Central and Northern Asia
- The Yenisei Kyrgyz destroy the Uyghur Khaganate840 · Central and Northern Asia
- Abaoji’s western campaign: the Khitans reach the Orkhon22 July 924 – 23 September 925 · Central and Northern Asia
Adjacent events in the thread
- Completion of the Secret History of the Mongolsbetween 1228 and 1264 · Central and Northern Asia
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within a year of this event
Western and Central Europe
- Rebuilding of Chartres Cathedral and the High Gothic10 June 1194 – 24 October 1260
- Rise of the Hanseatic League1241–1356
Eastern Europe
- Coronation of Daniel of Galicia1253
- Alexander Nevsky becomes Grand Prince of Vladimir1252
- First mention of Lvivbetween 1255 and 1257
- Reign of Mindaugasc. 1236 – between August and September 1263
Balkans and Anatolia
- John III Vatatzes and the revival of the Empire of Nicaeabetween December 1221 and December 1222 – 3 November 1254
Middle East and Egypt
- Seventh Crusade1248–1254
Africa
- Mapungubwe Hill, capital of the kingdom of Mapungubwec. 1220 – c. 1300
- Great Zimbabwe, the stone capital of a Shona kingdom1200–1299 – c. 1450
East Asia
North America
- The Thule migrate east across the Arctic to Greenlandc. 1200 – c. 1300
- Ancestral Puebloans build Cliff Palace at Mesa Verdec. 1190 – c. 1280
- Mississippian centres after Cahokia: Moundville, Etowah and the Southeastern Ceremonial Complexc. 1200 – c. 1450
Latin America
- The Mexica enter the Valley of Mexico and settle at Chapultepecbetween 1245 and 1280 – 1299
- The Kingdom of Cusco: the Inca state before the empirec. 1200 – c. 1438
- Chimor: the Chimú kingdom and its capital Chan Chanc. 900 – c. 1470
- Mayapan, capital of Postclassic Yucatán1220s – between 1441 and 1461
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): William of Rubruck
- Wikipedia (English): Karakorum
- Wikipedia (English): Möngke Khan
- Wikipedia (English): Guillaume Boucher
- Wikipedia (Russian): Гильом де Рубрук
- The Mission of Friar William of Rubruck: His Journey to the Court of the Great Khan Möngke, 1253–1255 / Transl. P. Jackson, introd., notes and appendices by P. Jackson with D. Morgan. — London: Hakluyt Society, 1990.