Chapter 4 deals with the encounter of Buddhism and the West during the period of the Mongol Empire. It locates any mention of the Buddha and his religion within a general view of the mediaeval East as a place of wonders – of unicorns, of dog-headed men, and of the mythical kingdom of Prester John. It demonstrates how the West came to see the Buddha as chief among idols. This chapter explores the encounter between Mongols and Franciscan missionaries sent by the West to explore the intentions of the Mongols: of John of Plano Carpini and William of Rubruck and of other travellers – Marco Polo, Andrew of Perugia, and King Hethum of Cilicia. It focuses not only on their often inchoate awareness of Buddhism, but also on Marco Polo’s first account in the West of the life of the Buddha, of the relics of the Buddha in Sri Lanka, and of various hints of Buddhist doctrines.

Although the Mongols constantly threatened South Asia, and despite the fact that Changhadaid raids led to a brief occupation of Delhi, much of the subcontinent remained free from Mongol subjugation. The region’s engagement with the Mongol world of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries was multilayered and complicated. It involved military skirmishes and diplomatic exchanges with multiple Mongol khanates; the circulation of people, knowledge, and technologies; extensive commercial exchanges; and cultural exchanges associated with Buddhism and Islam. This chapter focuses on several facets of these encounters and interactions in order to demonstrate the intricate links between South Asia and the various Mongol khanates that significantly contributed to transforming Eurasian connections through both overland and maritime routes.

The chapter covers the main aspects of the relations between the Mongol Empire and European powers in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. It first discusses the main events and assumed motivations of the Mongol invasion of Europe, which set the stage for the later development of political, diplomatic, and commercial relations. It summarizes the European efforts to gain information on the Mongols by sending missionaries to the heart of the Mongol Empire. Mutual knowledge and formal contacts led to several attempts to establish diplomatic relations between European powers (such as the Pope and the kings of France and England) and the Mongol khans. Furthermore, the chapter examines the commercial relations between European traders and Mongol rulers that flourished in the late thirteenth century and the fourteenth from the Black Sea to China. Finally, material and cultural influences in art, manufacturing, geographical knowledge, and technology are illustrated.

Although most of Catholic Christendom escaped conquest by the Mongols, the West yields a comparatively broad and varied range of sources concerning the invaders and their empire. These include not only contemporary accounts of the onslaught of 1241–1242 on Hungary, but also narratives composed by Westerners who visited the Mongol world; geographical surveys, like Marco Polo’s description of Yuan China, reflecting the West’s considerably extended horizons; mercantile handbooks; and documents relating to trade with the Mongols. Admittedly, the earliest material is often characterized by apocalyptic speculation and misleading preconceptions. But at the opposite extreme, despite retaining some detail of a fantastic nature, the reports of members of the newly founded mendicant orders – the Franciscans and Dominicans – who traveled in Mongol Asia as either envoys or missionaries are unmatched for keen observation and penetrating analysis; they form an indispensable accessory and backcloth to the narrative accounts produced within non-European societies.

This chapter considers the spread of ceramics produced in the Chinese empire to destinations within Eurasia, East and Southeast Asia, and throughout the Indian Ocean during the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. It charts the circulation of Raozhou ceramics as they were traded through the region and far beyond, beginning to show the intricate ways in which local knowledge about making and selling things feeds into and is fed by global patterns of consumption. Moreover, it shows how the look and feel of Raozhou’s porcelain, or the materiality of these goods, changed during this period. To understand these changes, this chapter suggests, one has to consider both local factors, such as the availability of raw materials in the immediate vicinity of the kilns, and global factors, such as the desire for large vessels amongst consumers of porcelain in nomadic communities and in the Islamic worlds of Central Asia. The combination of both local and global factors is key in understanding the changes that occurred during this period.