Voyager from Xanadu: Rabban Sauma and the First Journey from China to the West [Hardcover]

Morris Rossabi (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1992

An account of the life and the travels of the first man known to have reached Europe describes the customs, cultures, and places Rabban Sauma encountered as he crossed two continents, witnessing volcano eruptions and the conversations of kings.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This is a dense, dazzlingly erudite overview of the complicated intrigues and upheavals of the 13th-century Mongol-Muslim-Christian worlds. For a framework, Rossabi ( Khubilai Khan: His Life and Times ) calls on the record left by Rabban Sauma, a Nestorian monk who in 1275 set out on a daring and dangerous pilgrimage from Peking to Jerusalem. Because Sauma's notes, much edited by their original translator, are fragmentary, Rossabi reconstructs what the traveler probably saw and experienced along his route and sets this in the religious and political background of the times. Interrupting his journey in Persia, Sauma was entrusted by the Mongol ruler to call on the pope and the Christian kings of the West to propose a joint crusade against their common enemy, the Muslims, who then held Jerusalem. Had this early attempt at an East-West alliance succeeded, speculates Rossabi, it might have changed world history. Illustrations.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

This slim volume by the author of Khubilai Khan: His Life and Times ( LJ 4/15/88) serves as an introduction to a little-known chapter in European-Mongol diplomatic relations. In the late 13th century, Sauma, a Nestorian Christian monk raised in China, traveled from the court of Kublai Khan to Persia. His pilgrimage turned into a diplomatic mission when the Mongol ruler Arghun sent him to Rome to seek an alliance against the Moslems. Rossabi (East Asian history, Columbia Univ.) takes the Syriac abridgment of Sauma's travel diary and, checking the account against contemporary sources, retraces his journey in the context of the volatile world political situation. Repeated lamentations that "we will never know the truth" serve only to frustrate the reader, and placements of some illustrations are inappropriate. Still, the book should pique interest among scholars and informed lay readers.
- Katharine L. Kan, Aiea P.L., Hawaii
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Kodansha Amer Inc; 1st edition (June 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 4770016506
• ISBN-13: 978-4770016508
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,267,107 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Interesting but superficial, November 9, 2009

By 

N. Perz (St. Louis) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Voyager from Xanadu: Rabban Sauma and the First Journey from China to the West (Hardcover)

VfX was interesting on its face: documenting the first traveler from China (via Persia) to Western Europe. In execution, however, the book is rather superficial. It appears to be based on a re-written version of Rabban Sauma's own report(s) from his travels. Why not just print the original manuscrips instead of giving us the modern summation? There just isn't much of substance here. There seem to be few (if any) sources documenting these travels. As it is little more than a summation, VfX has little offer other than a rather thin narrative. I guess, if the source material doesn't exist, then there isn't much you can do. Even so, it was rather disappointing.

Not recommended.