Storm from the east, p.14
Storm from the East, page 14
The eastern Christians trace their history back to Thaddeus, one of the seventy evangelists sent forth by Thomas at Jesus’ bidding shortly before his crucifixion. Thaddeus journeyed to the city of Edessa, now called Urfa, in modern Turkey, and from there the gospel spread to the East. From the outset the eastern Christians had an independent nature; their language was neither Greek nor Latin but Aramaic, said to be the language spoken by Jesus, and their script Syriac – or biblical Aramaic. The Church spread into Persia where it flourished for the next four centuries, growing stronger and ever more independent. Following a series of wars between the Byzantine Roman empire and Persia, the eastern Christians sought to distance themselves from the Western Churches. The separation became permanent in 431, after most eastern Christians supported a Greek prelate named Nestorius who had been condemned as a heretic for teaching theology divergent from that of Rome; ever since then the eastern Christians had been regarded as followers of Nestorius – hence Nestorians. Eastern Christianity continued to develop in its own way, such as rejecting the doctrine of celibacy of the clergy. Over the centuries they became renowned as physicians, having gathered a great deal of knowledge from the Arabs, and churches were built in Merv, Nishapur, Samarqand, Bukhara and Herat. Eventually their faith spread to the nomadic horsemen of the steppe and the Onghuts, Kereyids and Uighurs were converted.
AUDIENCE WITH BATU KHAN
During the spring of 1246, as Carpini was still making his way through the Ukraine towards Batu’s camp, in faraway Qaraqorum the question of the succession was finally resolved. The regent, Toregene, with the support of the Chaghadai clan, had finally succeeded in winning sufficient support to ensure the election of her son Guyuk. This was apparently an unpopular decision; Guyuk had few devotees among the other Mongol princes, being even more addicted to drink and debauchery than his late father. Although the Mongke candidacy had been defeated, the opposition were far from satisfied and Qaraqorum continued to seethe with discontent.
Into this political maelstrom rode the portly John of Plano Carpini. He arrived at Batu’s capital, Sarai, on the banks of the Volga, on 4 April 1246. As was the custom, John and his party were required to pass through various purification rites, such as walking between two fires to purge themselves of any evil intentions, and then bowing before a stuffed felt image of Genghis Khan. Batu made a deep impression on Carpini and his party, as did his magnificent tent city. They had numerous audiences in a particularly beautiful white linen tent that had once belonged to the Hungarian King, Bela IV. Inside the tent, lined in gold brocade, Batu Khan sat with his wives and officials offering his guests the best of their food and wine, to be eaten and drunk from gold vessels. Unfortunately, as it was the middle of Lent the good monks were obliged to refuse everything but gruel and water.
Batu had established himself as the supreme power throughout Russia and had received the submission of most of the Russian princes, starting with Yaroslav of Novgorod and followed by the princes of Chernigov and Galicia. Batu became adept at working the Russian princes’ mutual animosities to his own advantage and succeeded in extending his rule from Bulgaria to Novgorod, even though his armies were rarely deployed further west than Kiev. Within a few years his power and prestige were unmatched anywhere outside of Qaraqorum. Seated on silk carpets, surrounded by beautifully adorned women, the simple Franciscans awaited Batu Khan’s wishes. Having had the papal letters translated and read out to him, Batu decided the monks should carry them personally all the way to Qaraqorum, where they could be delivered to the Great Khan himself. Batu saw no reason for interfering in the relations between Europe and the empire, even though he had opposed the rise of the new Khan. Guyuk was due to be enthroned within a few months, and Batu was keen that the Europeans should have the opportunity to witness the full splendour of Mongol wealth and ceremony.
So, the envoys set off, under escort, towards the most important capital in the world. Qaraqorum was no longer the oasis of civilisation that Ogedei and his Chinese architects had envisaged; the court had changed during the reign of the regent. For a start the great and wise chief minister, Yeh-lu Ch’u-ts’ai, had been replaced by a Muslim merchant by the name of Abd al-Rahman, who had immediately doubled the taxes in northern China. The royal house itself had become a den of intrigue. Toregene had become infatuated with a Persian slave named Fatima, whose influence upon the regent had caused great resentment – especially as a great many old favourites were purged from government. Virtually all the Chinese or Uighur officials were hounded out of the administration and some of them actually executed. Yeh-lu Ch’u-ts’ai himself left Qaraqorum a broken man and died in 1243, while even the military governor of Transoxiana found himself being pursued by a unit of imperial guards and had to seek refuge in Batu’s domain.
Although the significance of these developments was probably not appreciated by Carpini and his party, he was nevertheless aware of some form of division within the empire. To get to Qaraqorum they were led along the pathways of the now well-established Yam system; changing horses at each station, they sometimes arrived so late that they had no time to eat before collapsing into bed with exhaustion. The envoys followed a route that took them north of the Aral Sea through Khwarazmia, passing a number of towns including Utrar, the scene of the beginning of Genghis Khan’s great westward expansion. They reached the Altai Mountains in July, entered former Naiman country, then proceeded eastward across the Khanagi range and arrived at Guyuk’s ordu on 22 July. They had covered 5,000 km (3,000 miles) at a blistering 50 km (30 miles) a day, having arrived at their destination a little more than three months after leaving Batu’s capital. The man from Plano Carpini had ventured further eastward than any European before him, and in the process had seen lands and people no European had ever dreamt of. His account of his travels includes a great deal of detail, filling countless blank pages in European knowledge. Yet there were still vast areas of Asia that the party did not explore, and in trying to fill in the blank areas on their maps, Carpini fell back on traditional European geographical folklore. Hence there were still creatures ‘who are said to have faces like dogs and live in the wilderness along the shores of the oceans’. His colleague Benedict also produced an account of their journey in which he claimed that northern Asia was populated by ‘the dog-headed Cynocephali’ and creatures called the Parossies, who, he claimed, ate no solid food on account of their having such narrow mouths.
A NEW GREAT KHAN IN QARAQORUM
On 24 August, Carpini and his party were very much part of the real world, standing among a vast host gathered at a tent city at Sira-ordu, a few miles from Qaraqorum near Lake Koku-nor, for the enthronement of Guyuk Khan. Envoys, princes and other vassal lords had gathered from the four corners of the empire to be present at the enthronement. Grand Duke Yaroslav had travelled from Christian Russia; Sultan Kilij-Arslan IV from Seljuk Rum (Asia Minor); Constable Sempad from Armenia, the Egyptian Sultan’s brother; an envoy from the Caliph of Baghdad; royal princes from Korea; and Prince David IV, son of Queen Rusudan of Georgia. There were representatives from northern China, from the Sung empire in the south, holy men from Tibet, shamans from the mountains and armies of retainers. All the Mongol aristocracy was present – except, that is, for Batu Khan, who preferred to remain in Sarai. This was a tremendous insult to the ruling family, and only served to widen the rift among the Mongol princes.
The ceremonies continued for four days, and on each successive day the colours worn by the court were changed. Carpini made particular note of the harnesses and breastplates that adorned the Mongol officers’ horses, which he claimed had been made of ‘about twenty marks’ worth of gold’. He and his party were also greatly impressed by the vast quantities of silk, brocade, furs and jewels that had been brought as tribute for the new Great Khan. At the actual enthronement, Guyuk was carried on a litter by four princes, so that he could be seen above the heads of the gathered host, to a large solid gold and ivory throne, encrusted with pearls and other gems, which had been made by the Russian goldsmith Cosmas.
Following the ceremonies, the Mongol court remained at Sira-ordu, as did Carpini and his party, waiting patiently for their audience with the new Khan. In fact, Carpini never managed to get to Qaraqorum, though that doesn’t seem to have deprived him of things to see and write about. He presents a curiously flattering picture of Guyuk the man, describing him as a somewhat formidable man in his mid-forties. In fact, he was considerably younger, of a sickly complexion, certainly an alcoholic and well on his way to an early grave. Nevertheless, Guyuk had sufficient presence of mind during the first months of his rule to make some dramatic changes to the court.
One of the first to go was Abd al-Rahman, the Muslim merchant whom his mother had made Prime Minister, and in due course it would be the turn of Baiju, the military governor in northern Persia whom his mother had promoted. Guyuk also dealt with his mother’s confidante, Fatima, whom he had convicted of witchcraft and sentenced to be executed by suffocation – a peculiarly Mongolian practice. According to shamanistic tradition, blood contains an individual’s spiritual essence; if the blood of a noble is spilt, it has an evil effect upon the ground on which it falls. Consequently, it was a form of respect towards enemy leaders or members of the aristocracy who had fallen from grace to be executed either by being wrapped in carpets until they were asphyxiated, or crushed under planks of wood. In Fatima’s case, to make doubly sure her blood was not spilt, all her orifices were sewn up before she was rolled in a sheet of felt and then thrown into a river. Though the coming of a new reign seems to have brought with it the usual violent purge, Guyuk was also responsible for returning to power many of the former ministers who had previously been persecuted by his mother.
A FRANCISCAN VIEW OF MONGOL SOCIETY
Carpini described in some detail the comings and goings within Guyuk’s administration, and in particular the return of an extremely able Uighur Christian named Chinqai, who had been Yeh-lu Ch’u-ts’ai’s deputy. Carpini describes him as ‘protonotary’ or chief secretary, though he was more of a Chancellor or Prime Minister. It was Chinqai who acted as an intermediary in their efforts to arrange an audience with Guyuk. But the Great Khan was in no hurry to see the Europeans, partly because he already knew the content of the papal letters, which had been passed on by Batu, and partly because these so-called envoys from the Pope had arrived without any tribute or offering to make to the new Khan – a dreadful lapse in etiquette. Carpini had disposed of all the furs they had purchased in Russia as tribute to Batu. Indeed, not only was Guyuk prepared to let the monks wait, he was also prepared to let them suffer. He was so disappointed with them that he ordered them to be given hardly any food during their stay at his camp, and the wretched monks probably would have starved had not Cosmas, the Russian goldsmith, come to their rescue.
In reality, Carpini’s request for an audience with Guyuk was little more than a formality. He already had private information concerning the Great Khan’s intentions towards Christendom, and it was not encouraging. In the meantime, he made careful observations of the Mongols and their way of life, knowing that his report to the Pope was now even more vital. Yet, given the gloomy prospect that would underline his report, Carpini’s account remained remarkably even-handed and, in many cases, extremely flattering. He devotes considerable space to describing Mongol religious practices: the making and worshipping of felt idols, particularly of Genghis Khan, horse sacrifices and so on. He briefly describes certain shamanistic rituals and the worship of Tengri, the Eternal Heaven or sky god.
As for his mission to convert the Mongols to Christianity, he seems to have swiftly concluded that any efforts in that area would be somewhat premature. Nevertheless, he does note the large number of ‘Nestorian clerics’ at the Mongol court and the fact that most of the royal family were either already Christian or heavily influenced by them. He also claimed that there was some hope for future evangelising in China, of all places. Although he and his party got nowhere near China, there were a great many Chinese at Guyuk’s court and, perhaps because most of these were Christians, they seem to have given him a distorted impression. Although the Church of the East had sent missions to T’ang China since the seventh century, Christianity had been in decline in China for more than a hundred years. Nevertheless, from his enquiries Carpini concluded that the Chinese have ‘an Old and New Testament, and lives of Fathers and hermits, and buildings made like churches, in which they pray at stated times; and they say they have some saints. They worship one God, they honour Our Lord Jesus Christ, and they believe in eternal life, but are not baptised.’ Although none of this was even remotely accurate, in what was the very earliest European account of the Chinese he goes on to give a very good description of their physical appearance and their marvellous craftsmanship.
When he comes to piece together a history of the Mongol tribes he is forced, again, to rely upon a mixture of fact and legend. Carpini is armed with his own thorough knowledge of the histories of the East, the Alexander romances and other European texts. With these in hand he is forced to make sense of the accounts gathered from Uighur scribes, travellers and any others that might shed light on the Mongols’ origins. He provides Europe with an authoritative account of the importance of ‘Chingiscan’ and couples it, almost inevitably, with a further reference to that ubiquitous figure Prester John. In his account, Carpini makes it clear that Genghis Khan was not Prester John, nor King David, but the founder of a great pagan empire. Prester John, on the other hand, is identified as the Christian king of Greater India, who is supposed to have defeated Genghis Khan by using Greek fire (burning sulphur that was catapulted at the enemy) and manikins tied to horses.
This is a mixture of certain elements from the accounts of Genghis’s campaign against the Khwarazm Shah, combined with legends surrounding Alexander’s defeat of the Indian King Porus. Carpini heard these stories at a time when the Mongols were developing their own Genghis romances, having already elevated him to something approaching a deity. The Mongols were already familiar with the Oriental version of the Alexander romances and had blended themes from this with facts from Genghis’s exploits. As for the account of Genghis’s defeat, Carpini received this from Russian captives at the court, who had probably concocted the story as a way of ridiculing their masters.
By far the most important section in Carpini’s account is that describing the Mongol army, its decimal structure, discipline and manner of fighting. It is an accurate and in parts detailed picture of a modern fighting machine. He ends this part by emphasising that Europe’s only hope of countering this formidable threat is to unite in common cause: ‘Therefore, if Christians wish to save themselves, their country and Christendom, then kings, princes, barons and rulers of countries ought to assemble together and by common consent send men to fight against Tartars before they begin to spread over the land.’
It was November before Chinqai managed to secure Carpini a series of audiences with Guyuk Khan. At those occasions the contents of the papal letters were read out, chiding the Mongol Khan for the great destruction his armies had created in Christian Europe, entreating him to make assurances that these attacks would cease and offering him and his people the gift of baptism. Guyuk Khan’s response was unequivocal. Chinqai was at great pains to record it accurately for the envoys to take back to Europe; a copy was made in Latin and another in Persian.
To the Pope’s complaint about the destruction carried out in Europe, Guyuk replies: ‘I do not understand these words of yours. Tengri [Eternal Heaven] has slain and annihilated these peoples, because they had adhered neither to Genghis Khan nor to Khagan [Ogedei], both of whom have been sent to make known God’s command.’ Mongol notions of political diplomacy had probably been borrowed from the Chinese, and Guyuk’s response was completely in character with Chinese principles. The fundamental concept was that the founder of a new dynasty clearly held the mandate of heaven; that is to say, the unquestionable proof that a leader held this holy mandate was his very success in seizing power. The spectacular achievements enjoyed by the Mongol armies had led them to see their holy mandate not simply in terms of a dynasty, but in relation to the entire world. The Mongol empire was not just another state, it was the supreme universal monarchy, and all the lands not within its borders were automatically regarded as subordinate and therefore potential vassals.
As to the Pope’s request that the Mongols accept baptism, Guyuk replied: ‘Thou, who art the Great Pope, together with all the princes, come in person to serve us… If you do not observe God’s command, and if you ignore my command, I shall know you as my enemy. Likewise I shall make you understand. If you do otherwise, God knows what I know.’ The Great Khans saw themselves as God’s representatives on earth, charged by God with the task of world conquest. Every nation would either have to submit or be destroyed. Cosmas, who had made the Great Seal used to stamp Guyuk’s letter, explained the legend he had been asked to work into the design: ‘By the strength of Eternal Heaven, Order of the Universal Ruler of the Empire of the Great Mongols. When it reaches the subject and rebel people, let them respect it, let them fear it.’
Before his departure, Carpini was approached by one of the soldiers detailed to escort him. He was told that Guyuk was keen to send his own ambassadors to the Pope and wanted another audience with the clerics to arrange this. It was the convention that the invitation to send Mongol ambassadors should come from the visiting envoys, but Carpini decided against it. He felt it would have been a mistake for Mongol ambassadors to travel on official business through Europe as ‘they would see dissensions and wars among us and that it would encourage them to march against us’. On 13 November 1246, Carpini and his party finally departed Guyuk’s tent city to begin the long journey home. They travelled through the depth of winter, arriving at Batu’s camp in early May the following year. Batu granted them safe passage to Kiev, where they were greeted ‘as if we had come back from the dead’, sixteen months after they had departed.
