The Story of the Mongols Whom We Call the Tartars [Paperback]

Carpini Friar Giovanni Di Plan (Author), Giovanni Di Plan Carpini (Author), Adolph Caso (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0828320179 | ISBN-13: 978-0828320177 | Publication Date: March 1996

Except for Marco Polo (whose book entitled, "The Million", meaning a million lies about a fabulous China), Europeans knew very little about China. When the Mongols pushed out of China in their conquests to the west, suddenly the Europeans were faced with a veritable threat. In 1241, Mongols had killed more than 100,000 knights and soldiers in Russia, Poland and Hungary. In addition, the invaders laid waste to the land like no other force in history. Pope Gregory IX, understanding too well the threat of doom, was helpless because Europe knew nothing about those invaders; worse, there was no standing army to meet the challenge. The Pope put together a team of missionaries to go to China with the secret mission of gathering appropriate intelligence to bring back. Friar Giovanni Carpini did exactly that. He went to China, gathered the information, wrote them down in Latin, and presented them to the Pope. His extensive report, however, was never published. This English translation by Hildinger is the first ever to be published in English, and may still be one of a kind in the world.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: Latin (translation)
Original Language: English

Product Details

• Paperback: 132 pages
• Publisher: Branden Books (March 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0828320179
• ISBN-13: 978-0828320177
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #498,116 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very useful., July 21, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Story of the Mongols Whom We Call the Tartars (Paperback)

The publisher hasn't seen fit to provide a description of this book's contents, so I shall. Friar Carpini was sent by Pope Innocent IV on an embassy to the Mongols; this is his account of the journey. He met Batu Khan in Russia and then journeyed onward to reach the court of Guyuk Khan. He had been sent to preach Christianity to the Mongols and to offer baptism, but the other important part of his mission was to spy on them, for the Europeans were almost wholly ignorant of the Mongols when they swept acroos Europe. The chapter subheadings are perhaps the best guide to the book's contents:

1. The Tartar Country, its Location and Description and its Weather.

2. The People, their Clothes, Homes, Possessions and Marriages

3. Religion, What the Tartars Believe are Sins; Divination, Absolution and Funeral Rites

4. Their Good and Bad Customs, their Food and their Habits

5. The Founder of the Tartar Empire, its Princes and the Power of the Emperor and his Government

6. War, the Organization of the Tartar Forces, their Arms, their Tactics when Fighting and their Cruelty to Captives, How they Besiege Forts, and their Treachery toward those who Surrender to them

7. How the Tartars Make Peace; the Countries they have Conquered, the Countries which have Resisted them Successfully, and the Despotism the Tartars Exert over their Subjects

8. How to Fight the Tartars and what to Expect; the Arms and Organization of such Forces; How to Meet Tartar Cunning in Battle, and how to Supply Fortresses and Cities, and What should be Done with Captives

9. The Provinces We Passed Through and their Location; the Court of the Emperor of the Tartars and his Government, and the Witnesses who Met us there

Carpini isn't encyclopedic on any of these subjects, but he does manage a decent overview. There are only a couple of illustrations and no maps; the book would be improved if the reader could see where Carpini went, and pictures of what he's talking about. But it's very handy all the same.

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Romans in China?, July 16, 2001

By 

V. N. Dvornychenko (Rockville, MD) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Story of the Mongols Whom We Call the Tartars (Paperback)

A fascinating book! Of interest not only to the expert, but also to everyone seriously interested in history. The following article provides perspective. On August 24, 2000, The Los Angeles Times carried an article headlined "Digging for Romans in China." The article presented evidence for a Roman legion having been stationed in China sometime around the beginning of this era. The Romans apparently stayed a considerable while, and very likely intermarried with the local Chinese.

What? Romans in China? But wasn't Marco Polo the first? No, he was simply the most famous. Sporadic, but unrecorded, contacts quite possibly occurred since the domestication of the horse in prehistoric times. Nor was Marco Polo the first documented contact. Preceding him by some fifty year was Friar Giovanni di Plano Carpini.

In Giovanni's time, about 1250 AD, some 800 years had passed since the devastation caused by the Huns, but these events were by no means forgotten. Reports filtering in regarding the Mongols (also called Tartars) were even more frightening. Europe badly needed information on how to deal with this new threat. Friar Giovanni was sent by the Pope to convert the Mongols to Christianity -- if possible. But the main purpose of his mission was to spy.

Friar Giovanni seems like an unlikely emissary/spy - he was sixty years old and corpulent; but he executed his mission admirably. His slender book is not only an important historical source, but also a most fascinating record of his observations. Compared to other medieval travel accounts (e.g., Polo, Mandeville) Giovanni's is very measured and matter of fact; nor does he pepper his account with numerous fantastic assertions. Yet - and this is the fascinating part - he is not entirely free of these either. He mentions a race of people who have no knees; another race whose women are of human appearance, but whose men have the shape of a dog; another who have only one arm and leg, and who must work in pairs to shoot a bow; yet another have very small mouths and live off the fumes of their cooking; and several more. He also mentions a place where the sun makes such a terrible sound (yes, sound!) that people live underground. Now, he does not actually claim to have seen these wonders. So why does he seemingly cheapen his account by including these? My own explanation is this: the medieval worldview required that such creatures exist. It appears to have been the duty of every writer of travel accounts to confirm this worldview.

But then, have we really gotten very far away? What about recurrent reports of Bigfoot? And what about the strange menagerie populating Star Wars and Star Trek?

The cover of the book is a gem! Taken around 1900, it shows a Mongol warrior in full panoply - he could have stepped right out of the army of Jenghis Khan! Worth getting for the cover alone.

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A must read primary source!, November 26, 1999

By 

Paul Schneider (York, New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: The Story of the Mongols Whom We Call the Tartars (Paperback)

If you are in the process of reading about Mongolia and its domination of world afairs in the 13th century, then this book is a must read. Eric Hildiger's translation makes this work by the Friar flow in a smooth easy readable manner. If you are a student of History then you know the invaluable nature of primary sources. This account reflects the attitudes of Europeans at this time period toward the peoples from the steppe and yet it is surprisingly refreshing in pointing out characteristics that the Europeans might emulate. The Friar's accounts of events has become the main source for many works written about this era . I highly recommend this book as a starting off point for this subject area.