engleski

European clerics and missionaries on Mongols: The perception of steppe barbarians in 13th century Europe

Two church dignitaries of the Split See, archbishop Roger of Apulia (1250-1266), and archdeacon Thomas of Spalato (1232- 1268), are the authors of the only two extensive immediate reports on the Mongol invasion of Europe in 1241/42. Both of them were in direct contact with the invaders: the former as their long-term prisoner of war, the latter as a resident of the city the Mongols intended to lay siege on. This paper deals with the analysis of their texts, but its primary purpose is to picture the image, through the reports they wrote and the ones of their peers, that Europeans had of Mongols (Tatars). Special attention is given to the contrast between the two topoi (the barbaric and the apocalyptic one) and the demystified image of Mongols, i.e. their flesh-and-blood rather than ‘demonic’ nature.

Mongols/Tatars; barbarians; Roger of Apulia; Thomas of Spalato; Matthew Paris; John de Plano Carpini; William of Rubruck; apocalyptic imagery

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