9. Their Golden Light
“The artists of China”: Edward Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (London, J. M. Dent, 1910) vol. 6, p. 287.
“two envoys came from the Tartars”: Matthew Paris, Matthew Paris’s English History from the Year 1235 to 1273, trans. J. A. Giles, 1852 (London: Henry G. Bohn; reprint, New York: AMS Press, 1968), p. 155.
related the events of his travels: For the complete text of Rabban Bar Sawma’s account, see E. A. Wallis Budge, The Monks of Kublai Khan, Emperor of China; or, The History of the Life and Travels of Rabban Swama, Envoy and Plenipotentiary of the Mongol Khans to the Kings of Europe, and Markos Who as Mar Yahbhallaha III Became Patriarch of the Nestorian Church in Asia (London: Religious Tract Society, 1928).
“silk sheets and every other luxury”: Marco Polo, The Travels of Marco Polo, trans. Teresa Waugh (New York: Facts on File Publications, 1984), p. 89.
Mongols in Persia supplied their kinsmen: For a thorough account of the exchange between China and the Ilkhanate, see Thomas T. Allsen, Culture and Conquest in Mongol Eurasia (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2001).
the most sophisticated cartography known: For more information on science in China under the Mongols, see Joseph Needham, Science and Civilization, vols. 4 and 6 (Cambridge U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1971, 1986).
moved some 3,000 tons by ship: For information on the Mongol navy, see Louise Levathes, When China Ruled the Seas (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994).
“perfectly safe”: Ronald Latham, introduction to The Travels of Marco Polo, by Marco Polo, trans. Ronald Latham (London: Penguin, 1958), p. 15.
attacked the Chinese cultural prejudice: For more information on the Mongol’s cultural attitudes toward their subjects, see Erich Haenisch, Die Kulturpolitik des Mongolishchen Welstreichs (Berlin: Preussische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Heft 17, 1943), or Larry Moses and Stephen A. Halkovic Jr. Introduction to Mongolian History and Culture, (Bloomington, Ind.: Research Institute for Inner Asian Studies, 1985).
massive amounts of numerical information: For more information on number systems and mathematics, see Joseph Needham, Science and Civilization, vol. 3 (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1970).
“unknown to the ancients:” Francis Bacon, Novum Organum, vol. 3, The Works of Francis Bacon, ed. and trans. Basil Montague (1620; reprint, Philadelphia: Parry & MacMillan, 1854), p. 370.
“In the fresco cycle”: Lauren Arnold, Princely Gifts and Papal Treasures: The Franciscan Mission to China and Its Influence on the Art of the West, 1250–1350 (San Francisco: Desiderata Press, 1999), p. 39.
“a numerous and simple people”: Nicolaus of Cusa, Toward a New Council of Florence: “On the Peace of Faith” and Other Works by Nicolaus of Cusa, ed. William F. Wertz Jr. (Washington, D.C.: Schiller Institute, 1993), pp. 264.
“among these various forms of sacrifice”: Ibid., p. 264.
“It is proper to keep the commandments”: Ibid., pp. 266–267.
imagery of Mongol greatness: For more on “The Squire’s Tale” and the Mongols, see Vincent J. DiMarco, “The Historical Basis of Chaucer’s Squire’s Tale,” Edebiyat, vol. 1, no. 2 (1989), pp. 1–22, and Kathryn L. Lynch, “East Meets West in Chaucer’s Squire’s and Franklin’s Tales,” Speculum 70 (1995), pp. 530–551.
“This noble king”: The original text by Chaucer reads as follows:
Heere Bigynneth the Squieres Tale
At Sarray, in the land of Tartarye,
Ther dwelte a kyng that werreyed Russye,
Thurgh which ther dyde many a doughty man.
This noble kyng was cleped Cambyuskan,
Which in his tyme was of so greet renoun
That ther was nowher in no regioun
So excellent a lord in alle thyng.
Hym lakked noght that longeth to a kyng.
As of the secte of which that he was born
He kept his lay, to which that he was sworn;
And therto he was hardy, wys, and riche,
And pitous and just, alwey yliche;
Sooth of his word, benigne, and honourable,
Of his corage as any centre stable;
Yong, fressh, and strong, in armes desirous
As any bacheler of al his hous.
A fair persone he was and fortunat,
And kepte alwey so wel roial estat
That ther was nowher swich another man.
This noble kyng this Tartre Cambyuskan.
10. The Empire of Illusion
“When Christopher Columbus”: David Morgan, The Mongols (Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell, 1986), p. 198.
– For information on the plague in Mongol territories, see Michael W. Dols, The Black Death in the Middle East (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1977).
– For more information on the plague in general, see Robert S. Gottfried, The Black Death (New York: Free Press, 1983), and David Herlihy, The Black Death and the Transformation of the West (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1997).
bodies of plague victims catapulted over the walls: Belief that the Mongols deliberately spread the plague remained strong enough to inspire imitation of it through the years, but without success. Russian troops reportedly used the tactic against Sweden in 1710, and in World War II, Japan tried it by dropping infected fleas from airplanes onto Chinese villages. The fleas had been exposed to a particularly virulent form of plague and did infect some villagers, but they did not create an epidemic.
the population of Africa declined: For population estimates, see Massimo Livi-Bacci, A Concise History of World Population, 2nd ed., trans. Carl Ipsen (Malden, Mass.: Blackwell, 1997), p. 31, and Jean-Noel Biraben, “An Essay Concerning Mankind’s Evolution,” Population (December 1980).
the epidemic permanently changed life: For a fuller discussion of the impact of the plague and similar diseases, see William H. McNeill, Plagues and People (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1976), pp. 132–175.
“venerable authority of laws”: Boccaccio, The Decameron, trans. M. Rigg (London: David Campbell, 1921), vol. 1, pp. 5–11.
Christians once again turned on the Jews: For information on the Jews being blamed for the plague, see Rosemary Horrox, The Black Death (Manchester, U.K.: Manchester University Press, 1994), pp. 209–226.