William of Rubruck was a Flemish Franciscan friar who was with King Louis IX of France on crusade in the Holy Land. He set out in 1253 with the king's letter, hoping to stay among the Mongols as a missionary, and was passed from one Mongol prince to the next until he reached the Great Khan Mongke. On his return he wrote a long report for the king, the fullest early European description of Mongol life.
On the third day out of Soldaia William meets Mongols for the first time, and soon after reaches the camp of a commander he calls Scatatai. At this point in his book he describes their felt houses on carts, their mare's milk drink, the women's tall headdresses and the tombs on the steppe.
Editorial contextRubruck describes the Mongol dwelling (the yurt or ger): a circular frame of interlaced sticks meeting in a hoop at the top with a chimney collar, covered in felt. The felt is whitened with chalk, clay or bone powder and embroidered with vines, trees, birds and beasts. Rockhill's note adds Carpini's description of the same round felt tents.
converging into a little round hoop on the top, from which projects above a collar as a chimney, and this (framework) they cover over with white felt. Frequently they coat the felt with chalk, or white clay, or powdered bone, to make it appear whiter, and sometimes also (they make the felt) black.
William of Rubruck (translated by W. W. Rockhill, 1900)
A house thirty feet wide, pulled by twenty-two oxen
Editorial contextSome Mongol houses were never taken down but rode on huge carts. Rubruck measured one cart himself and counted the oxen. The axle was as thick as a ship's mast and a driver stood in the doorway of the house. On the next pages he describes felt-covered chests on carts and a rich man's camp of one or two hundred carts.
I myself once measured the width between the wheel-tracks of a cart xx feet, and when the house was on the cart it projected beyond the wheels on either side v feet at least. I have myself counted to one cart xxii oxen drawing one house, eleven abreast across the width of the cart, and the other eleven before them.
William of Rubruck (translated by W. W. Rockhill, 1900)
Editorial contextRubruck gives a step-by-step account of kumiss, fermented mare's milk: foals tied to a rope, mares milked, the milk churned in a skin with a club until it bubbles like new wine and turns pungent. He found it tasted of almond milk and 'intoxicates weak heads'. On the next page he says Batu received the milk of three thousand mares every day.
When they have got together a great quantity of milk, which is as sweet as cow's as long as it is fresh, they pour it into a big skin or bottle, and they set to churning it with a stick prepared for that purpose
William of Rubruck (translated by W. W. Rockhill, 1900)
Women whose headdresses look like helmets and lances
Editorial contextMarried Mongol women wore the bocca (bogtak), a tall bark frame covered with silk and topped with a tuft of quills and peacock feathers. Rubruck says a group of ladies riding in the distance looked like soldiers in helmets with lances raised, and that women rode astride like men. He adds, less kindly, that the fattest women with the smallest noses were thought the most beautiful.
and one sees them from afar, they look like soldiers, helmets on head and lances erect. For this bocca looks like a helmet, and the tuft above it is like a lance. And all the women sit their horses astraddle like men.
William of Rubruck (translated by W. W. Rockhill, 1900)
Editorial contextCrossing the steppe, Rubruck saw the tombs of the Comans: great mounds (kurgans) topped by a stone statue holding a cup, small pointed 'pyramids', tiled towers and stone houses, though there was no stone nearby. Just before, he notes that the burial places of Mongol nobles of Genghis's family were kept secret and guarded. Rockhill's note quotes Carpini on Mongol nobles buried with a horse and a mare.
raise a great tumulus over the dead, and set up a statue to him, its face to the east, and holding a cup in its hand at the height of the navel. They make also pyramids to the rich, that is to say, little pointed structures, and in some places I saw great tiled covered towers, and in others stone houses, though there were no stones thereabout.
William of Rubruck (translated by W. W. Rockhill, 1900)
About Comans (Cumans or Kipchaks), subjects of the Tartars
Keep in mind
These tombs are Cuman, not Mongol; the subject 'The Comans' is on the previous page.
431 July to early August 1253
Camp of Sartaq
Steppe between the Don and the Volga, Russia · rough position
After two months with the ox carts William reaches Sartaq, the son of Batu, three days short of the Volga. Sartaq will not decide anything and after four days sends him on to his father. At this point in his book William explains how Mongols and Tartars differ.
Editorial contextRubruck, told at the Mongol court, explains that the Tartars were a separate poor people living next to the Moal (Mongols). Chingis (Genghis) united both and sent the Tartars ahead in every war, so Europeans heard only 'The Tartars are coming!'. By Rubruck's time the Tartars had mostly been killed off and the Mongols disliked the name. Rockhill's note quotes Rashid al-Din saying the same.
Now this Chingis used to despatch the Tartars in every direction, and so their name spread abroad, for everywhere was heard the cry : "The Tartars are coming !" But through the many wars they have been nearly all killed off, and now these Moal would like to extinguish even the name and raise their own in its stead.
William of Rubruck (translated by W. W. Rockhill, 1900)
Rubruck's story of Genghis's rise (as a blacksmith, and Prester John's brother 'Unc chan') mixes real events with legend.
5August to mid September 1253
Camp of Batu
East bank of the Volga below Saratov, Russia · rough position
William goes down the Volga by boat to Batu's moving camp on the east bank and is astonished that it looks like a great city. Batu sends him on to the Great Khan, and the friars travel down the river with the camp for five weeks before starting east.
Editorial contextArriving at Batu's camp on the Volga, Rubruck was amazed: the ordu spread out like a city for three or four leagues, with every family knowing its place. He explains that orda means 'middle', because the court stands in the middle of the people, with its doors opening south. This is the moving 'city' of the steppe, the ancestor of the word 'horde'.
When I saw the ordu of Baatu, I was astonished, for it seemed like a great city stretched out about his dwelling, with people scattered all about for three or four leagues.
William of Rubruck (translated by W. W. Rockhill, 1900)
Talas valley near Taraz, Kazakhstan · rough position
After weeks of hard riding east across the steppe, the party turns south through the mountains and comes to a small Muslim town where William sees vines and drinks wine.
7About 18 to 30 November 1253
Cailac
Koilyk, south-east Kazakhstan · rough position
William rests for twelve days in this market town and visits its temples. Just beyond it he finds a village of Nestorian Christians with a church, then rides on past a great lake, probably Alakol.
827 December 1253
Camp of Mongke Khan
Central Mongolia, some days' ride south of Karakorum · rough position
William reaches the winter camp of the Great Khan and is given his first audience about 4 January 1254. He lives with the court until it moves north to Karakorum at the end of March, and asks priests from China about distant peoples.
No monsters, but hairy little men who cry 'chin, chin'
Editorial contextRubruck asked priests at Karakorum about the dog-headed and one-eyed monsters described by Isidore and Solinus. They told him they had never seen any, which surprised him. Then a priest from Cathay told him of tiny hairy creatures with stiff knees living among rocks east of Cathay, caught by leaving out mead to get them drunk, whose blood made a red dye.
They told me they had never seen such, which astonished me greatly, if it be true. … in the countries east of Cathay there are high rocks, among which dwell creatures who have in all respects human forms, except that their knees do not bend, so that they get along by some kind of jumping motion
William of Rubruck (translated by W. W. Rockhill, 1900)
The creature story is hearsay from a single informant; the denial of monsters is a useful check on older book-learning.
95 April to about 10 July 1254
Karakorum
Kharkhorin, Mongolia
William enters the Mongol capital with the court on Palm Sunday. He describes the small walled town and the silver drinking fountain, takes part in a debate between faiths, and hears Mongke explain his own belief before sending him home.
A silver fountain-tree made by a captive Parisian goldsmith
Editorial contextAt the entrance of Mongke Khan's palace stood a silver tree built by 'master William', a Paris goldsmith taken captive in Hungary. Four silver lions spouted mare's milk, and pipes in the tree poured wine, clarified kumiss, honey mead and rice wine when a hidden man blew a trumpet-blowing angel on top. On the next page Rubruck says the palace itself was laid out like a church with a nave and two rows of pillars.
master William the Parisian had made for him a great silver tree, and at its roots are four lions of silver, each with a conduit through it, and all belching forth white milk of mares. … And from one of these pipes flows wine, from another caracosmos, or clarified mare's milk, from another bal, a drink made with honey, and from another rice mead
William of Rubruck (translated by W. W. Rockhill, 1900)
Karakorum: smaller than the village of Saint-Denis
Editorial contextRubruck lived for weeks at Karakorum, the Mongol capital founded by Ogedei in 1235. His verdict is famously unimpressed: apart from the Khan's palace the town was smaller than the village of Saint-Denis outside Paris. Rockhill's note records that the ruins were located on the Orkhon river in 1889 by the Russian traveller Yadrintsev.
Of the city of Caracarum you must know that, exclusive of the palace of the Chan, it is not as big as the village of Saint Denis, and the monastery of Saint Denis is ten times larger than the palace.
William of Rubruck (translated by W. W. Rockhill, 1900)
Editorial contextRubruck describes who lived in and built up Karakorum: a Muslim ('Saracen') quarter with the markets, and a quarter of Cathayans (northern Chinese), all artisans. There were twelve temples of various peoples, two mosques and one church, inside a mud wall with four gates, each gate with its own market. Rockhill's note adds that the Mongols themselves mostly lived in tents even at the capital.
one of the Saracens in which are the markets … the other is the quarter of the Cathayans, all of whom are artisans. … There are there twelve idol temples of different nations, two mahummeries in which is cried the law of Machomet, and one church of Christians in the extreme end of the city. The city is surrounded by a mud wall and has iiii gates.
William of Rubruck (translated by W. W. Rockhill, 1900)
Mongke Khan: one God, many ways, like fingers on a hand
Editorial contextAfter a debate between Christians, Muslims and Buddhists at his court, Mongke Khan explained the Mongol faith to Rubruck. The Moal believe in one God, he said, but God gives different peoples different ways, as he gives the hand different fingers. It is a vivid statement of the Mongol court's religious tolerance, spoken through an interpreter.
"We Moal," he said, "believe that there is only one God, by whom we live and by whom we die, and for whom we have an upright heart." … "But as God gives us the different fingers of the hand, so he gives to men divers ways.
Mongke Khan, as reported by William of Rubruck (translated by W. W. Rockhill, 1900)
Near Selitrennoye on the lower Volga, Russia · rough position
William rides back by a more northerly road and finds Batu's camp again on 16 September, a year after leaving it. A month later he goes down the Volga to Sarai, the new town Batu is building, and leaves on 1 November.
Editorial contextOn his way home Rubruck asked about his lost books and vestments. Coiac, an official of Batu's son Sartach, said he had left them near Sarai, a town Batu was then building on the Volga. It is a rare contemporary glimpse of the founding of the Golden Horde's capital, and Rubruck later travelled south toward it.
I left your things at my father's, who stays near Sarai, the new town that Baatu is making on the Etilia
Coiac, an official of Sartach, as reported by William of Rubruck (translated by W. W. Rockhill, 1900)
Heading south toward the Caspian shore, William passes through the walled town he calls the Iron Gate. He notes that the Tartars have knocked down the tops of its towers.
Editorial contextRubruck passed through the Iron Gate (Derbent) on the Caspian. He credits Alexander the Great with building it, following medieval legend, and describes a narrow town with strong walls and towers of dressed stone. The Tartars had levelled the tops of the towers and the parapets, making them even with the walls. Rockhill's note says Muslim geographers credited the Persian king Khosrow Anushirvan.
The next day we came to the Iron Gate, which Alexander the Macedonian made … It has very strong walls without moats, and towers of great dressed (politis) stones ; but the Tartars have destroyed the tops of the towers and the parapets of the walls, making the towers even with the walls.
William of Rubruck (translated by W. W. Rockhill, 1900)
The Alexander attribution is legend; the walls are Sasanian Persian work.
12Christmas 1254 to 13 January 1255
Nakhchivan
Nakhchivan, Azerbaijan
After crossing the plain of the Kura and Aras rivers and passing through the camp of the Mongol general Baiju, William spends Christmas in this town. Snow holds him there until 13 January.
132 February 1255
Ani
Ruins of Ani, eastern Turkey
William reaches the Armenian city of Ani and is there on 2 February. He goes on up the Aras river and crosses into the lands of the Seljuk sultan.
14About 19 April 1255
Iconium
Konya, Turkey
Travelling down the upper Euphrates and then by Sivas and Kayseri, William reaches the Seljuk capital three weeks after Easter.
155 to 17 May 1255
Curta
Korykos (Kizkalesi), south coast of Turkey
William comes down to this port in the Armenian kingdom of Cilicia and sends his baggage on by ship. He then goes inland to Sis to see the king's father, and sails for Cyprus from the port of Ayas.
1615 August 1255
Tripoli
Tripoli, Lebanon
By way of Cyprus and Antioch William reaches Tripoli for a meeting of his order. King Louis has already gone back to France, and William's superior posts him to Acre and tells him to send his report in writing.
The road ends here
How sure is the line? The towns are well known, but the Mongol camps moved with the seasons and the long steppe ride between the Volga and Mongolia is fixed by only a few named places, so those positions are rough. The line joins the stops. It is not the exact road.
What is still uncertain (16 notes)
The five descriptions of Mongol life (tents, carts, kumiss, headdresses, tombs) come from William's general chapters on Tartar customs, which he places straight after first meeting them on the third day out of Soldaia. They are not tied to one camp, so they are shown at the first camps as the best fit. The tombs passage speaks of Coman graves that he saw all the way to Sartaq's camp.
The explanation of the names Tartar and Mongol is dated 1254 and described as told at the Mongol court in the atlas notes. In the book it comes in the chapter on leaving Sartaq's camp in August 1253 (page 115), prompted by Sartaq's officials saying their lord was a Moal and not a Tartar. It is therefore kept at Sartaq's camp. William does not say who told him the story.
The talk about monsters with priests from Cathay (page 199) comes in the chapter on the winter at Mongke's camp, before the court leaves for Karakorum. It was moved from Karakorum to the camp for that reason, but William does not say on what day or exactly where the talk took place.
The camps of Scatatai, Sartaq, Batu and Mongke were moving camps and their coordinates are rough. Sartaq was three days west of the Volga. Rockhill thought William reached the river near Ukek, just south of modern Saratov, and the Sartaq and Batu points follow that view. Mongke's winter camp is put a week's travel south of Karakorum because William says the court moved north to reach the town between 29 March and 5 April 1254. None of these positions is certain.
Kinchat is not firmly located. Rockhill links it with a town called Kendjek near Talas, and the coordinates given are those of modern Taraz.
Cailac is now usually identified with the excavated site at Koilyk (Antonovka) in Kazakhstan. Rockhill placed it near Kopal, somewhat to the west. One manuscript gives the stay there as fifteen days, not twelve. Rockhill identifies the lake beyond it as Alakol.
The site of Batu's first Sarai is usually put at Selitrennoye, as Rockhill also says, but this is debated. The atlas gazetteer has only an approximate point for Sarai (46.6 N, 47.8 E), so the Selitrennoye position was used and marked as rough. William does not give the day he reached Sarai, only that he set out for it on 16 October and left it on 1 November.
Coiac's remark about Sarai was made when William met Sartaq's party on the road, some days before he got back to Batu's camp. It is shown at Sarai because it is about that town.
Mongke's statement of belief was made at an audience on 31 May 1254, when the court was close to Karakorum. The exact spot is not certain.
William says his first audience was on the octave of the Innocents, which is 4 January. Rockhill's text gives 3 January in brackets, and his itinerary table gives 4 January.
William does not give the day he left the court. He says he took leave a fortnight after the feast of Saint John (24 June) and reached Batu after two months and ten days, on 16 September. Rockhill works this out as about 10 July 1254. Some older accounts put it in August.
The Derbent date is worked out, not stated. William left Sarai on 1 November, met no one for fifteen days, and was on the Aras by 23 November. Rockhill's table gives 17 November for Derbent. Rockhill's text also glosses the feast of Saint Martin as 15 December, which is a slip.
William says he left Batu's camp in 1253 on the day after Holy Cross (15 September) in one place and on the second day after (16 September) in another.
The dates were checked against Rockhill's 1900 text. They were not checked against Peter Jackson's 1990 edition, which may differ by a day here and there.
The port William calls Curta is identified by Rockhill with Korykos. William reached it on 5 May 1255 but sailed for Cyprus from Ayas (his Auax), which is not shown as a separate stop.
William says he was ordered to stay at Acre and to write to the king. The report was probably written there. Whether William had first come east with Louis's crusade in 1248 is often stated but not proven.