Voyager from Xanadu: Rabban Sauma and the First Journey from
China to the West
By Morris Rossabi
ISBN: 9780520262379
Price: £16.60
I originally picked this text up after listening to the
final episode of the Timur Podcast and seeking to read more on the politics of
the various khanates following the death of Chinggis Khan, especially with
regards to the various key Christian actors involved. Having previously read quite
deeply into the topic I was pleased to find that this book went into
significant detail on the place of the Church of the East in the Yuan Dynasty and
Ilkhanate, and offered much more detail on the journey of Rabban Bar Sauma.
To summarise the book and its purpose, the text is an overview
of the journey of Rabban Bar Sauma to the West and his encounters with the
various religious and secular rulers and authorities, along with the
implications of the journey with regards to the political relationships between
the Ilkhanate and its western neighbours. Throughout the book, we see the
historical context of his visit to a various state and the way in which this
played into his treatment, from the mild response from the cardinals on his
first visit to Rome, to the exaltation of the kings of both England and France
at the possibility of a crusade against the Mamluks. This along with the occasional
side mention of the changing politics of the east allows the narrative to play
out wonderfully or the historically midned reader.
One wonderful benefit of this is that we are given the whole
scope of the journey, not just following Rabban Bar Sauma as he journeys, but
being given an additional layer of context to every gift, handshape, or Mass he
is involved in, helping us understand the significance of every act. Rossabi’s
style of writing also provides a great flow, making this less of a discussion of
an historical record and closer to a piece of journey fiction based in the medieval
period. However this writing style is also something of a burden for the
reader, since Rossabi is often so engaged in the narrative that we are not
treated to the use of Bar Sauma’s own text, in fact Bar Sauma’s own journal is
hardly even quoted in the text. For myself as a theologically minded reader, I
would have been interested in reading Rabban Bar Sauma’s own word’s from some
of his debates and discussions with the cardinals in Rome and scholars
elsewhere, but instead we are given an overview of it by Rossabi instead.
This also raises one more issue for myself as someone coming
to the text to explore the theological implications, since Rossabi’s own
understanding of the theological landscape and debates of the period are somewhat
inaccurate at points. Examples such as calling the Jacobites of the Syriac Church
“Monophysite” and referring to Bar Sauma as a Nestorian without addressing the
implications for this on his visits to the Byzantine empire or Roman Church
(minus a strange interaction regarding the filioque) leave me as a reader seeking
elsewhere for a clearer discussion. In this manner, Rossabi’s book failed to
scratch the itch it promised to.
Overall this was an enjoyable book and recommended for
anyone wishing to know about this specific historical episode, however if you
are seeking dept or a detailed overview then you should look elsewhere.
No comments:
Post a Comment