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Updated: June 13, 2025
The last audience of Rubruquis with Mangu-khan, and the letter he received for the King of France. On Whitsunday I was called into the presence of the khan, and before I went in, the goldsmiths son, who was my interpreter, informed me that it was determined I was to return to my own country, and advised me to say nothing against it.
They had but one sickly boy who could speak Turkish and a little French, and they had the Popes letters of request to Sartach, Baatu, and Mangu-khan, that they might be suffered to continue in the country to preach the word of God.
I was informed of a certain Armenian who came, as he said, from Jerusalem along with the monk Sergius, carrying a silver cross of about four marks weight, adorned with precious stones, which he presented to Mangu-khan, who asked what was his petition.
On the east side, there is a market for millet and other grain, but which is ill supplied; on the west, sheep and goats are sold; on the north side, oxen and waggons; and on the south side, horses. Mangu-khan has eight brothers, three by the mother and five by the father.
The letters sent by Mangu-khan to your majesty, are written in these characters, and in the language of the Moal. These people burn their dead in the manner of the ancients, and deposit the ashes on the top of certain pyramids.
He afterwards went to Poitou in France, where he dictated in French to Nicholas Salconi, a history of the events which had occurred in the east from the first commencement of the conquests of the Tartars or Mongals, including the reigns of Zingis-khan and his successors, to Mangu-khan inclusively; and a particular narrative of the history of his own country, Armenia Minor, from the reign of Haitho I. to that of Leon II. both inclusive.
"This is the commandment of the Eternal GOD, and by the virtue of the Eternal GOD, the commandment of Mangu-khan, the great emperor of the Moals, is given to Lodowick the French King, and to all other lords and priests, and to the great world of the Franks, that they understand my words and the commandments of the Eternal GOD, made to Zingis-khan; neither but from Zingis-khan ever came this commandment unto you .
Zingis was the first king of the Tartars; the second was Khen-khan, the third Bathyn-khan, the fourth Esu-khan, the fifth Mangu-khan, the sixth Kublai-khan, whose power is greater than that of all his predecessors, as, besides having inherited all their acquisitions, he has added almost the whole world to his empire, during a long and prosperous reign of sixty years . All the great khans and princes of the blood of Zingis, are carried for burial to the mountains of Altai, even from the distance of an hundred days journey; and those who attend the body, kill all whom they meet by the way, ordering them to go and serve their lord in the other world, and a great number of fine horses are slain on the same occasion and pretence.
When he was dead, the monk said to me, "Never mind it: This man only, among the Nestorians, had any learning, and opposed us; henceforwards Mangu-khan and all the rest will crouch at our feet." He even pretended that he had killed him by his prayers.
Caten signifies lady and Cotata was her particular name. Harris. Of a great Cure performed by the Armenian monk Sergius, on one of the Wives of Mangu-khan. Sometime after the lady Cota was sick almost to death, and the divination by lot of the idolaters did her no good. Mangu-khan then sent for the monk, who indiscreetly engaged to cure her on the forfeiture of his head.
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