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Rating: 
Summary: Romans in China?
Review: A fascinating book! Of interest not only to the expert, but also to everyone seriously interested in history. The following article provides perspective. On August 24, 2000, The Los Angeles Times carried an article headlined "Digging for Romans in China." The article presented evidence for a Roman legion having been stationed in China sometime around the beginning of this era. The Romans apparently stayed a considerable while, and very likely intermarried with the local Chinese.What? Romans in China? But wasn't Marco Polo the first? No, he was simply the most famous. Sporadic, but unrecorded, contacts quite possibly occurred since the domestication of the horse in prehistoric times. Nor was Marco Polo the first documented contact. Preceding him by some fifty year was Friar Giovanni di Plano Carpini. In Giovanni's time, about 1250 AD, some 800 years had passed since the devastation caused by the Huns, but these events were by no means forgotten. Reports filtering in regarding the Mongols (also called Tartars) were even more frightening. Europe badly needed information on how to deal with this new threat. Friar Giovanni was sent by the Pope to convert the Mongols to Christianity -- if possible. But the main purpose of his mission was to spy. Friar Giovanni seems like an unlikely emissary/spy - he was sixty years old and corpulent; but he executed his mission admirably. His slender book is not only an important historical source, but also a most fascinating record of his observations. Compared to other medieval travel accounts (e.g., Polo, Mandeville) Giovanni's is very measured and matter of fact; nor does he pepper his account with numerous fantastic assertions. Yet - and this is the fascinating part - he is not entirely free of these either. He mentions a race of people who have no knees; another race whose women are of human appearance, but whose men have the shape of a dog; another who have only one arm and leg, and who must work in pairs to shoot a bow; yet another have very small mouths and live off the fumes of their cooking; and several more. He also mentions a place where the sun makes such a terrible sound (yes, sound!) that people live underground. Now, he does not actually claim to have seen these wonders. So why does he seemingly cheapen his account by including these? My own explanation is this: the medieval worldview required that such creatures exist. It appears to have been the duty of every writer of travel accounts to confirm this worldview. But then, have we really gotten very far away? What about recurrent reports of Bigfoot? And what about the strange menagerie populating Star Wars and Star Trek? The cover of the book is a gem! Taken around 1900, it shows a Mongol warrior in full panoply - he could have stepped right out of the army of Jenghis Khan! Worth getting for the cover alone.
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Summary: A must read primary source!
Review: If you are in the process of reading about Mongolia and its domination of world afairs in the 13th century, then this book is a must read. Eric Hildiger's translation makes this work by the Friar flow in a smooth easy readable manner. If you are a student of History then you know the invaluable nature of primary sources. This account reflects the attitudes of Europeans at this time period toward the peoples from the steppe and yet it is surprisingly refreshing in pointing out characteristics that the Europeans might emulate. The Friar's accounts of events has become the main source for many works written about this era . I highly recommend this book as a starting off point for this subject area.
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Summary: Very Interesting and Colourful Read
Review: Set in the wastes of central Asia, circa XIII c., our author is is an unlikely spy - an old and arthritic friar, but he does his job well. His compiled work, presented to the pope upon his return to Italy, was the first real glimpse Europe had into the terrible threat on her eastern borders. It was widely reproduced and sent far and wide to the kings and princes of Europe, and became a kind of handbook for fighting the Mongols. His occassional embelishments, held as sacred truths when first written, add unintentional comic relief, and help one understand the mysterious worldview the medieaval European held. I picked this one up for a paper, and was planning to skim through it, but I ended up reading the whole thing. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Rating:
Summary: Very Interesting and Colourful Read
Review: Set in the wastes of central Asia, circa XIII c., our author is is an unlikely spy - an old and arthritic friar, but he does his job well. His compiled work, presented to the pope upon his return to Italy, was the first real glimpse Europe had into the terrible threat on her eastern borders. It was widely reproduced and sent far and wide to the kings and princes of Europe, and became a kind of handbook for fighting the Mongols. His occassional embelishments, held as sacred truths when first written, add unintentional comic relief, and help one understand the mysterious worldview the medieaval European held. I picked this one up for a paper, and was planning to skim through it, but I ended up reading the whole thing. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Rating:
Summary: Just a must
Review: This book is a must for schoolas and historians. One of few avaible sourses from European monk who traveled to Mongol Empire. Very interesting.
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