SUMMARY:

In his article Alexander Iurchenko analyzes the documents of a papal diplomatic delegation to the Mongol empire of the middle of 13th century, namely Ystoria Mongalorum by John of Plano Carpini and Tatar Relation by C. de Bridia. A textological scrutiny of the documents so rich in fantastic episodes and mysterious symbolism and a comparison of fictitious episodes from those materials with Persian and Arabic cosmographies led the author to conclude that the episodes in question constitute a separate text, which was produced by an unidentified Mongolian author from the educated elite of the empire and recorded by Brother Benedict, who served as an interpreter to the papal mission. This text sheds new light on the level of cultural life and intellectual sophistication of politics in the Mongolian empire, which was regarded before as empire of barbarians. The text itself is a subtle rhetorical game, which draws on official symbols of the Mongolian political tradition and the rich literature of the medieval East in order to subvert the official mythology of the Mongolian empire. The historical episode and literary history of the Mongolian text under analysis raises question as to the traditional views on the creativity of medieval authorship and the cultural cleavage between the Western and Asiatic medieval civilizations.