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

ISBN-13: 9780520262379 / Angielski / Miękka / 2010 / 248 str.

Morris Rossabi

Opis

Toward the end of the thirteenth century, at about the time Marco Polo was being received by the great Khubilai Khan, a Nestorian Christian monk from China called Rabban Sauma was making the reverse journey from the Mongol capital (what is now Beijing) to Jerusalem. Upon reaching Baghdad--the first traveler to arrive from China--Sauma learned that his pilgrimage could not be fulfilled because of Islamic control of the Holy Land. In Voyager from Xanadu, Morris Rossabi traces Sauma's trans-Eurasian travels against the turbulent era of the Mongol Empire and the last Crusades. His indispensable book provides a unique first-hand Asian perspective on Europe and illuminates a crucial period in the early history of global, diplomatic, and commercial networking.