Cathay, Karakorum and William of Rubruck

Cathay and Friar William of Rubruck

King Louis IX of France dispatching Friar William

Friar William of Rubruck a Belgian Franciscan Monk from the Flemish region of France accompanied his King Louis IX in 1248 on the Seventh Crusade. King Louis sent William on May 7, 1253 to convert the Tartar to the One True Faith. At least he did so nominally; Louis also wanted to gauge the chances of using the Mongols to defeat the Muslims. Rather than just a simple Franciscan Friar we must see William as both a spy and an agent provocateur.

Karakorum Mongolia on Google Maps

Karakorum and Taipei (Peking) are 2251 Kilometers by car and it would have been much further  765 years ago

Friar William of Rubruck’s  Description of Karakorum

“Of the city of Caracarum (Karakorum) you must know that, exclusive of the palace of the Chan, it is not as big as the [J: not as fine as the] village of Saint Denis, and the monastery of Saint Denis is ten times larger than the palace [J: is worth ten of the palace]. There are two quarters in it; one of the Saracens in which are the markets, and where a great many Tartars gather on account of the court, which is always near this (city), and on account of the great number of ambassadors; the other is the quarter of the Cathayans, all of whom are artisans. Besides these quarters there are great palaces, which are for the secretaries of the court. There are there twelve idol temples of different nations, two mahummeries [mosques] in which is cried the law of Mahomet, and one church of Christians in the extreme end of the city. The city is surrounded by a mud wall and has four gates. At the eastern is sold millet and other kinds of grain, which, however, is rarely brought there; at the western one, sheep and goats are sold; at the southern, oxen and carts are sold; at the northern, horses are sold.”

By this the west confused China and Cathay

On the basis of this the name Cathay was taken in the West to mean China. There is a fundamental difficulty with this. Karakorum was not in China and the Cathayans were not Chinese. Friar William was speaking of the Khitan people so when he wrote of “Cathayans” what he really meant was Khitan. So when he said, “the other is the quarter of the Cathayans, all of whom are artisans” he was actually referring to the art of the Khitan people.

In the Persian Mongol and IL Khanid period trade flowed to and through Karakorum. When the Armenian nobility traveled to the court of the great Mongol khans they did not visit China. They visited Karakorum. The same can be said for the Seljuk Princes. The silks and robes and the gold and gilt figures were most certainly of Khitan origin. It is often assumed that the early visitors would have received Song Dynasty Blue and White Porcelain from Jingdezhen. This however was a mistake since the blue of the Jingdezhen porcelain was Huihui qing or Persian Blue. This blue was from cobalt which was imported from Persia and was not available to China until the Yuan Dynasty in the early 14^th century.

Yelu Chucai a Khitan Nobleman was the key administrator for both Genghis Khan and his son and successor Ögedei Khan. Yelu Chucai would have been the one to oversee Imperial gifts to visitors such as the Armenians and the Seljuk. Chucai being a Khitan who lived and worked in Karakorum where then do we suppose that are he sourced the gifts?