Traveling to the "Tartars"

Three Missions to the Mongols, 1245–1248

Alfred J. Andrea

• Publisher: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc.
• Year: 2026
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9781647922924
• Subtopic: Central Asian History
• Index: History

"This outstanding work provides not only new and updated translations of six important accounts of the Franciscan and Dominican missions to different Mongol courts in the mid-thirteenth century, but also fully explains the fascinating historical context in which they were written and transmitted. In short, this is a remarkable resource for both scholars and students to explore and understand this pivotal moment of East-West exchange." 
—Johan Elverskog, Southern Methodist University

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Dedication
• Acknowledgments
• Maps
• Abbreviations
• Preface
• Introduction: Sources for the West’s First Missions to the Mongols
• Chapter 1: John of Plano Carpini, A Description of the Mongols Whom We Call Tartars
• Chapter 2: C. de Bridra, A Description of the Tartars
• Chapter 3: The Narrative of Friar Benedict the Pole
• Chapter 4: Salimbene de Adam, Chronicle
• Chapter 5: Matthew Paris, Greater Chronicle
• Chapter 6: Simon of Saint-Quentin, A Description of the Tartars
• Appendix A: Two Versions of “A Treatise on the Rise of the Tartars”
• Appendix B: Did the Friars Engage in “Orientalism”?
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• Further Reading
• Image Credits
• Index