Monument to the assen dynasty

28: William of Rubruck Image 39: Audience with the Great Khan Möngke. An illustration from Ata-Malik Juvayni’s “Genghis Khan: The History of the World Conqueror” https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Audience_de_M%C3%B6ngke.jpeg Friar William of Rubruck enters history under his travel account composed in the aftermath of his journey.

The writer fences his biography with a veil of obscurity--a feature that he shares with other medieval intellectuals. The French Franciscan was a companion of King Louis IX on the disastrous Seventh Crusade.

When was william of rubruck born

During his stay in the Holy Land, the monarch got wind of the conversion of Sartak, the Mongol chief and the son of Batu Khan. The king commissioned Rubruck to deliver a pen-friend missive to the Tartar noble, attempting to break the ice.

However, aware of the Mongol attitude to diplomatic overtures, the author wanted to avoid sounding like a loser. He disguised the delicate probe of the French court as a conventional missionar