The story of the Mongols whom we call the Tartars =: Historia Mongalorum quos nos Tartaros appellamus: Friar Giovanni di Plano Carpini's account of his embassy to the court of the Mongol Khan

The story of the Mongols whom we call the Tartars = Historia Mongalorum quos nos Tartaros appellamus : Friar Giovanni di Plano Carpini's account of his embassy to the court of the Mongol Khan Giovanni, da Pian del Carpine, Archbishop of Antivari, d. 1252.Except for Marco Polo (whose book entitled, The Million, meaning a million lies about a fabulous China), Europeans knew very little about China. When the Mongols pushed out of China in their conquests to the west, suddenly the Europeans were faced with a veritable threat. In 1241, Mongols had killed more than 100,000 knights and soldiers in Russia, Poland and Hungary. In addition, the invaders laid waste to the land like no other force in history. Pope Gregory IX, understanding too well the threat of doom, was helpless because Europe knew nothing about those invaders; worse, there was no standing army to meet the challenge. The Pope put together a team of missionaries to go to China with the secret mission of gathering appropriate intelligence to bring back. Friar Giovanni Carpini did exactly that. He went to China, gathered the information, wrote them down in Latin, and presented them to the Pope. His extensive report, however, was never published. The present English translation by Hildinger is the first ever to be published in English, and may still be one of a kind in the world. Few Europeans knew anything reliable about the Far East before the 13th century. In 1241, Mongols from central Asia conquered most of east Europe and quickly killed more than one hundred thousand knights and soldiers in Russia, Poland, and Hungary. In addition, the invaders laid waste to the land like no earlier force in history; no standing army in Europe met the challenge of this unfamiliar, lethal threat. Gregory IX, pope, understood the threat but died in 1241 amid a conflict with Frederick II, holy Roman emperor. Innocent IV succeeded as pope in 1243 and took refuge in Lyon. While preparing for the first council of Lyon, the pope put together a team of missionaries to go in 1245 to the great khan of the Mongols with the secret mission of gathering appropriate intelligence to bring back. Giovanni Carpini, a Franciscan friar, fulfilled exactly that mission. He traveled to the Mongol capital of Karakorum, gathered the information, wrote it in Latin, and presented it to the pope. He also carried the reply in Persian of Gyk Khan, then reigning as supreme khan of the Mongols, back to the pope. This book presents the report of the friar. Although the Mongols vanquished the Tatars circa 1206, people in west Europe, including the popes and the author, continued to call the inhabitants of the former Tatar domains as Tatars, not Mongols, hence the name of this book. People, however, neither published nor widely disseminated his extensive report. Erik Hildinger first translated this book into English and published it, perhaps still of a kind in the world. A few decades after Giovanni da Pian del Carpine, Marco Polo traveled beyond Karakorum and visited China.