Travels, Contacts, and Changes in Worldviews and Diplomacy in Eurasia during the Pax Mongolica
Sponsoring Organization(s)
Special Session
Organizer Name
Yong-Jin Park
Organizer Affiliation
Seoul National Univ.
Presider Name
Baik Yong Sung
Presider Affiliation
Hannam Univ.
Paper Title 1
Fourteenth-Century Canton Observed by Western Travelers
Presenter 1 Name
Hyunhee Park
Presenter 1 Affiliation
John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY
Paper Title 2
Eden and the East Described in Late Medieval Travel Accounts
Presenter 2 Name
Yong-Jin Park
Paper Title 3
The Envoys to Pope Benedict XII by the Great Khan in 1338
Presenter 3 Name
Jong Kuk Nam
Presenter 3 Affiliation
Ewha Womans Univ.
Start Date
10-5-2018 3:30 PM
Session Location
Schneider 1225
Description
This panel will examine travel, contact, and changes in both worldviews and diplomacy in the eastern and western societies of Eurasia during the Pax Mongolica by analyzing several kinds of documents, such as travel accounts and pontifical letters, from comparative and global historical perspectives. Although the conquest of the Mongols inflicted a heavy shock on Western Europe, it enabled direct contact with Asia, which had lain dormant for many centuries since the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Merchants, friars, and official envoys who travelled from Europe to the Far East such as Marco Polo, William Rubruck, John of Pian di Carpini, Odoric of Pordenone, John of Montecorvino, and John of Marignolli left accounts of their experiences in travel writings and letters. Ambassadors and envoys dispatched by the Mongol khanates to visit European monarchs and popes, such as Raban Sauma and Toghon Temür’s mission, also left documentary records of their travels. These sources, combined with contemporaneous official documents, allow us to detect the movements of people and ideas that influenced societies across Eurasia, from worldviews to diplomatic policies. The session thus provides an opportunity to explore both the motives and also the significance behind cross-cultural contacts during the period of Pax Mongolica.
Yong Jin PARK
Travels, Contacts, and Changes in Worldviews and Diplomacy in Eurasia during the Pax Mongolica
Schneider 1225
This panel will examine travel, contact, and changes in both worldviews and diplomacy in the eastern and western societies of Eurasia during the Pax Mongolica by analyzing several kinds of documents, such as travel accounts and pontifical letters, from comparative and global historical perspectives. Although the conquest of the Mongols inflicted a heavy shock on Western Europe, it enabled direct contact with Asia, which had lain dormant for many centuries since the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Merchants, friars, and official envoys who travelled from Europe to the Far East such as Marco Polo, William Rubruck, John of Pian di Carpini, Odoric of Pordenone, John of Montecorvino, and John of Marignolli left accounts of their experiences in travel writings and letters. Ambassadors and envoys dispatched by the Mongol khanates to visit European monarchs and popes, such as Raban Sauma and Toghon Temür’s mission, also left documentary records of their travels. These sources, combined with contemporaneous official documents, allow us to detect the movements of people and ideas that influenced societies across Eurasia, from worldviews to diplomatic policies. The session thus provides an opportunity to explore both the motives and also the significance behind cross-cultural contacts during the period of Pax Mongolica.
Yong Jin PARK