Misunderstanding the Mongols: Intercultural Communication in Three Thirteenth-Century Franciscan Travel Accounts

This article shows how the travel accounts of three thirteenth-century Franciscan friars provide a window into intercultural communications of the medieval world. The three accounts were written by John of Plano Carpini (1245-47), William of Rubruck (1253-55), and John of Montecorvino (1289). Each of the friars traveled from Europe to the Mongol Empire. The article has two themes: first, how the friars' encounters with new lands, peoples, and cultures prompted them to reconsider, but ultimately not recast, their vocational identities; second, how their participation in long-distance networks reinforced their assumptions about Christianity and human nature.