Comparing eastern and missionary sources on the Golden Horde’s history

Abstract

Research objectives: The author of this article seeks to draw the attention of researchers to the whole body of little-known Latin sources concerning the details of the development of Catholic missionary work in the territory of the Golden Horde since the second half of the 13 century. Research materials: These sources seem to be important primarily because they include “internal” sources, namely, reports of Catholic missionaries compiled in the territory of the Golden Horde and sent to the leadership of the Mendicant orders (mainly the Franciscan Order of the Friars Minor) in Europe. The body of writings also includes “external” sources, that is, papal bulls addressed to the Golden Horde rulers, the missionaries themselves in the dominions of these rulers, and their subjects in the steppes and cities of the Golden Horde whom the Roman curia regarded as immediate targets for their missionary activity. In addition, narrative descriptions of the Franciscan chroniclers who received information either directly from missionaries returning from the Golden Horde, or through their unpreserved letters, are discussed here as “external” Latin sources. The novelty of this study stems from its comparison of the already well-known sources on the Golden Horde with the content of reports of the Mendicants, papal bulls, and Franciscan chronicles, which allows the author to significantly diversify the information on its history. Research results: In particular, the author resorted to a comparison of missionary and Eastern (Mamluk, Persian, Russian, Greek, and Armenian) sources, completely independent of each other. In doing this, the author sought to demonstrate the usefulness of such a comparison to clarify the existed data and to obtaining new information. In addition, the author tried to justify the importance of the missionary sources presented in the article.