European Clerics and Missionaries on Mongols: the Perception of the Steppe Barbarians in Mid-Thirteenth-Century Europe

Splitski nadbiskup Rogerije i Toma Arhiđakon autori su jedinih dvaju neposrednih izvještaja o mongolskoj provali u Europu 1241./1242. Obojica su s napadačima bili u izravnom doticaju: prvi kao njihov višemjesečni zarobljenik, drugi kao stanovnik grada što su ga Mongoli umalo podsjeli. Njihovi opisi, nastali u vrijeme provale, uspoređuju se s izvještajima Ivana de Plano Carpini i Vilima od Rubruka koji su nekoliko godina kasnije bili poslani na istok sa zadatkom da istraže razne aspekte života Mongola. Članak je pokušaj rekonstrukcije razvoja predodžbe koju su Europljani imali o Mongolima (Tatarima), od prvih glasina o njima do kraja 13. stoljeća. Posebna je pažnja dana doživljaju Drugoga, kao i opreci: barbarsko/apokaliptički topos – ljudi od krvi i mesa.The article starts with a short diachronic introduction on the perception of the Other and the imagery of nomadic peoples (the Huns, Avars, Cumans and Mongols) in the accounts of European authors. Its focus is, however, on the Mongols, their invasion of Europe in 1241/1242 and its consequences, especially concerning the evolution of the European perception of the foreign people. The author comments on the differences in the accounts of English chronicler Matthew Paris, two Central European clerics, Roger of Apulia and Thomas of Split, and two Franciscan travellers to Central Asia, John of Plano Carpini and William of Rubruck. The topic has been dealt with, especially in the last 20 years (by Peter Jackson, Axel Klopprogge, Antti Routsalla, Felicitas Schmieder, etc.), but in this article the author tends systematically to analyse the background of the reports, and the circumstances in which they were written (together with their reception), including the rather neglected works of Roger of Apulia and Thomas of Split, the only two European authors writing in extenso about the Mongol invasion from first-hand experience. Furthermore, special attention is accorded to the contrast between the two topoi (the barbaric and the apocalyptic one) and the eventually demystified image of Mongols, with their flesh-and-blood rather than ‘demonic’ nature. In the frame of the evolution of the perception from the myth to reality, the following problems have been analysed: the problem of perceiving the nature and origin of the Tatars and their dietary habits (including their alleged cannibalism); the problem of apocalyptic traditions and identification of the Mongols with God’s punishment, and finally the problem of the unprecedented strategic superiority of the Mongol armies and their individual (in)vulnerability. Finally, along with the conclusion on the evolution of perception, there is a short overview of the changed Eurasian relations in the late Middle Ages. The Mongol Empire was short-lived, but the Pax Mongolica opened the boundaries of Asia to Europeans: the exchange between peoples and goods brought the continents closer together