Friar Carpine’s Journey to the Mongol Empire

Friar Giovanni da Pian del Carpine was one of the first Europeans to visit the Mongol Empire and provide a detailed report of Mongol life, politics, and military organization.

Friar Carpine traveled to the Mongol Empire on a mission to take a letter, which was written by the Pope, on March 9, 1245, to the great Khan.

He and his party set off from Lyon, France, the home of the Pope, on Easter, April 16 on a mission to take a letter from the Pope to the Great Khan.

Carpine was over 60 years old at the time.

Carpine's party consisted of Franciscan friars. They were begging friars who depended mainly on the charity of people they encountered. Fortunately, these were often rich men-the kings, dukes, and bishops of Silesia, Bohemia, and other eastern European countries-who gave generous amounts of alms.

Carpine did not know any Asian languages. He found an interpreter, Benedykt Polak (Benedict of Poland), in England.

Everyone Carpine met said that that the envoys would get nowhere with the Mongols unless they were prepared to make ample use of gifts and bribes, so Carpine and his companions spent some of the alms they received on buying furs, which would be luxurious enough to please the Mongols, but light enough to carry easily on horseback.

Kiev

At the beginning of February 1246, Carpine and the others reached the Dniepr River and the city of Kiev, which had been the chief city of Russia until 1240, when it had become part of the Mongol empire.

Carpine reported that while Kiev had once been a huge, heavily populated city, it had been devastated. There were barely 200 houses left, and their inhabitants were kept in bondage.

He realized that the large European horses his party had brought could not manage the journey across the steppes and deserts of Asia. From Kiev, they switched to using hardier Mongol ponies.

Batu

Carpine and his followers soon had their first encounter with the Mongols, or Tartars, as they were called by Europeans. A group of armed Tartars came charging at them "in uncivil and horrible manner" but as soon as they were told that Carpine's party was traveling in the name of the Pope, and were given some victuals, they were satisfied.

The Mongols at these first outposts gave the party Christian guides to escort them through the realms of a succession of lesser warlords to the court of Batu, a grandson of Genghis Khan.

Batu was one of the greatest Mongol chiefs, and founder of the Golden Horde, which comprised southern Russia and Kazakhstan. Batu's encampment was on the lower Volga River.

In Russia, Carpine and his party traveled through the Golden Horde, passing four mighty rivers on the way. Carpine was one of the first Europeans to identify these rivers by their Russian names as the Dniepr, the Don, the Volga, and the Yaik (now known as the Ural).

Having journeyed down the Dniepr (which was frozen over) for several days, the Christian party made for the Volga where they found Batu's encampment.

Although he received them graciously, he forced them to take part in a ceremony of purification by fire, in which they had to pass between two widely spaced fires.

With the help of Batu's most learned men, Carpine and Benedykt translated the contents of the Pope's letter into the Russian, Tartar, and Saracen languages.

Batu then ordered the missionaries to go almost immediately to the court of Güyük, another grandson of Genghis and son of Ögedei, who was about to be elected the next Great Khan.

Batu detained some of Carpine's servants, saying that he would send them straight back to the Pope with letters from Carpine telling of the good treatment Batu had given his party.

In fact, as Carpine found on his return journey, the servants were kept inside Mongol borders.

Journey to the Court of the Great Khan

On Easter Day, 1246, Carpine's party set off on their long journey.

He reported seeing many desolate cities and towns and innumerable skulls and bones.

Crossing central Asia north of the Caspian Sea and the Aral Sea with its long stretches of arid, desolate wasteland, Carpine's party reached the waters of the Syr Darya River.

After following the course of the river for several hundred miles, the monotony of the flat-dry plain was broken by the cool peaks of the Tien Shan range.

Carpine's party took advantage of the Mongol post-horse system, which was already well established. Toward the end of the 1200s, there were 10,000 way stations, each of which had from a few to up to 400 ponies.

Using this system, riders could get from one end of the empire to the other in a couple of months.

Carpine and his companions they traveled all day, eating only enough to stay alive.

From the Tien Shan Mountains, the mission journeyed to the northeast toward the heights of the Tarbagatai and Altai Mountains where, at the end of June, they experienced severe cold and a heavy snowfall.

Güyük's Court

They rode on for about three weeks until they arrived at Güyük's summer court in Syra Orda on July 22. Syra Orda was half a day's ride from the capital, Karakorum, which the visitors were not allowed to see.

Güyük, the emperor-elect, kept the Pope's envoys waiting a long time and allowed them only a near-starvation diet. He did allow the travelers the rare privilege of entering his tent-anyone who stepped into it uninvited was immediately beaten or put to death.

Carpine spent some of the time in the four months his company stayed at Syra Orda listening to court gossip. He succeeded in working out the relationships and intermarriages of all the descen¬dants of Genghis Khan.

Carpine also learned that Güyük was destroying all the subjects of his empire who had grown too powerful during Ögedei's more lenient rule.

Carpine was at Güyük's court when the coronation of the khan took place.

Return to Europe

The party's journey home lasted all winter long.

They arrived back at Batu's camp on the Volga on May 9, 1247. From there, they were given safe conduct to the Mongol borders. They collected their servants and year old letters to Pope Innocent on the way.

They reached Kiev on June 9.

Carpine and Benedykt reached the Pope's court at Lyon in the autumn of 1247. They presented Güyük Khan's letter, which has been preserved in the Vatican vaults.