dominated by the rulers of Rus’, the so-called Golden Horde (“horde” derived from
the Turkic word for “court”). Settled along the lower Volga River valley, the Mongols
of the Golden Horde combined traditional pastoralism with more settled activities.
They founded cities, fostered trade, and gradually gave up their polytheism in favor
of Islam. While demanding regular and exactly calculated tribute, troops, and
recognition of their overlordship from the indigenous Rus rulers, they nevertheless
allowed the princes of Rus’ considerable autonomy. Their policy of religious
toleration allowed the Orthodox Church to flourish, untaxed, and willing in turn to
offer up prayers for the soul of the Mongol khan (ruler). Kiev-based Rus’, largely
displaced by the Mongols, gave way to the hegemony of northern Rus princes
centered in the area around Moscow. As Mongol rule fragmented, in the course of
the fifteenth century, Moscow-based Russia emerged.
FROM EUROPE TO CHINA
The Mongols taught Europeans to think globally. Once settled, the Mongols sent
embassies west, welcomed Christian missionaries, and encouraged European trade.
For their part, Europeans initially thought that the Mongols must be Christians; news
of Mongol onslaughts in the Islamic world gave ballast to the myth of a lost Christian
tribe led by a “Prester John” and his son “King David.” Even though Europeans soon
learned that the Mongols were not Christians, they dreamed of new triumphs: they
imagined, for example, that Orthodox Christians under the Golden Horde would now
accept papal protection (and primacy); they flirted with the idea of a Mongol-
Christian alliance against the Muslims; and they saw the advent of the “new” pagans
as an opportunity to evangelize. Thus in the 1250s the Franciscan William of
Rubruck traveled across Asia to convert the Mongols in China; on his way back he
met some Dominicans determined to do the same. European missions to the East
became a regular feature of the West’s contact with the Mongol world.
Such contact was further facilitated by trade. European caravans and ships
crisscrossed the Mongol world, bringing silks, spices, ceramics, and copper back
from China, while exporting slaves, furs, and other commodities. (See Map 7.2.) The
Genoese, who allied with the Byzantines to overthrow the Latin Empire of
Constantinople in 1261, received special trading privileges from both the newly
installed Byzantine emperor, Michael VIII Paleologus (r.1259–1282), and the khans
of the Golden Horde. Genoa, which set up a permanent trading post at Caffa (today
Feodosiya), on the Black Sea, was followed by Venice, which established its own
trade-stations at Tana and Tabriz. These were sites well poised to exploit overland
