Ghiyath al-Din Naqqash 2: AM Feasting & Other Diplomatic Concerns

17th-century painting by anonymous artist - (Wikimedia)

A story of medieval travel and diplomacy, the 15th-century story of Ghiyath al-Din and the other Timurid envoys, and their visit to Yongle's Beijing on behalf of Timur's son Shah Rukh.

If you like what you hear and want to chip in to support the podcast, my Patreon is here.

Sources:

• "Report to Mirza Baysunghur on the Timurid Legation to the Ming Court at Peking," in A Century of Princes: Sources on Timurid History and Art, selected and translated by W. M. Thackston. Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture, 1989.

• Ford, Graeme. "The Uses of Persian in Imperial China: The Translation Practices of the Great Ming," in The Persianate World, edited by Nile Green. University of California Press, 2019.

• Hecker, Felicia J. “A Fifteenth-Century Chinese Diplomat in Herat,” in Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 3, no. 1 (1993): 85–98.

• Lipman, Jonathan N. Familiar Strangers: A History of Muslims in Northwest China. University of Washington Press, 2011.

• Park, Hyunhee. Mapping the Chinese and Islamic Worlds: Cross-Cultural Exchange in Pre-Modern Asia. Cambridge University Press, 2012.

• Rossabi, Morris. A History of China. Wiley, 2013.

• Rossabi, Morris. "Two Ming Envoys to Inner Asia," in T’oung Pao 62, no. 1/3 (1976): 1–34.

• Tsai, Shih-shan Henry. Perpetual Happiness. University of Washington Press, 2011.

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Abd-al-Razzāq Samarqandī 3: To Home, to Herat

1550 map of the Arabian Sea and surrounding lands - Wikimedia

The Timurid ambassador's time in India comes to an end, and he heads for home.

If you like what you hear and want to chip in to support the podcast, my Patreon is here.

Sources:

• India in the Fifteenth Century: Being a Collection of Narratives of Voyages to India. Edited by Richard Henry Major. Hakluyt Society, 1857.

• Alam, Muzaffar and Subrahmanyam, Sanjay. Indo-Persian Travels in the Age of Discoveries, 1400–1800. Cambridge University Press, 2007.

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Abd-al-Razzaq Samarqandi 2: City of Victory

Chariot and Temple at Hampi - Wikimedia

Shah Rukh's ambassador to the Indian city of Qaliqut arrives at the heart of the Vijayanagara Empire, finding much to admire but also war, a usurper, and uncertainties about his own status. We visit Hampi, the centre of that late-medieval power, and we talk about elephants.

Sources:

• India in the Fifteenth Century: Being a Collection of Narratives of Voyages to India. Edited by Richard Henry Major. Hakluyt Society, 1857.

• Alam, Muzaffar and Subrahmanyam, Sanjay. Indo-Persian Travels in the Age of Discoveries, 1400–1800. Cambridge University Press, 2007.

• Caine, William Sproston. Picturesque India: A Handbook for European Travellers. G. Routledge, 1891.

• Prange, Sebastian R. Monsoon Islam: Trade and Faith on the Medieval Malabar Coast. Cambridge University Press, 2018.

• Ray, Aniruddha. "The Rise and Fall of Vijayanagar – an Alternative Hypothesis to "Hindu Nationalism" Thesis," in Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, Vol. 64, 2003.

• Sewell, Robert. A Forgotten Empire: Vijayanagar. Swan Sonnenschein & Co., 1900.

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Abd-al-Razzaq Samarqandi 1: The Unwilling Envoy

Qāliqūṭ / Calicut as depicted in Georg Braun and Franz Hogenberg’s atlas Civitates orbis terrarum, 1572

It's 1442, and Shah Rukh, the son of Timur, is sending an ambassador to Qaliqut / Kozhikode on the Indian coast. That ambassador, Abd-al-Razzāq, sails from Hormuz and experiences delays, sickness, death, and disappointment. Making matters worse, he never actually wanted to go.

If you like what you hear and want to chip in to support the podcast, my Patreon is here.

Sources:

• India in the Fifteenth Century: Being a Collection of Narratives of Voyages to India. Edited by Richard Henry Major. Hakluyt Society, 1857.

• Alam, Muzaffar and Subrahmanyam, Sanjay. Indo-Persian Travels in the Age of Discoveries, 1400–1800. Cambridge University Press, 2007.

• Prange, Sebastian R. Monsoon Islam: Trade and Faith on the Medieval Malabar Coast. Cambridge University Press, 2018.

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Medieval Lives 1: al-Ghazāl

Abd al-Rahman III Receiving the Ambassador at the Court of Cordoba, Dionisio Baixeras Verdaguer (note that the emir in this story is Abd al-Rahman II)

This is a story about Abū Zakariyyāʾ Yaḥyā ibn Ḥakam al-Bakrī al-Jayyānī, known also as al-Ghazāl (the Gazelle). It's the story of a 9th century poet on an embassy from the Emirate of Córdoba to a Viking ruler.

If you like what you hear and want to chip in to support the podcast, my Patreon is here.

Sources:

• Allen, W.E.D. "The Poet and the Spae-Wife: An Attempt to Reconstruct Al-Ghazal’s Embassy to the Vikings," Saga Book, Vol. 15, No. 3 (1960).

• Hermes, Nizar F. The [European] Other in Medieval Arabic Literature and Culture: Ninth-Twelfth Century AD. Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.

• Pons-Sanchez, Sara M. "Whom did al-Ghazal meet? An Exchange of Embassies Between the Arabs From al-Andalus and the Vikings," Saga Book, Vol. 28 (2004).

• "A Hispano-Muslim Embassy to the Vikings in 845: An Account of al-Ghazal’s Journey to the North" at ballandalus.wordpress.com.

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Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo 2: Sacred Objects in the Imperial City

1608 depiction of the monuments at the Hippodrome of Constantinople - Wikimedia

In their journey to see Timur, Clavijo and the other envoys stop in at Constantinople where we visit artifacts and sacred objects.

If you like what you hear and want to chip in to support the podcast, my Patreon is here, my Ko-fi is here, and Paypal is here.

Sources:

• Narrative of the embassy of Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo to the court of Timour at Samarcand, A.D. 1403-6, translated by Clements R. Markham. Hakluyt Society, 1859.

• Embassy to Tamerlane: 1403-1406, translated by Guy le Strange. Routledge, 2005.

• Lee, A.D. From Rome to Byzantium AD 363 to 565. Edinburgh University Press, 2013.

• Majesca, George P. Russian Travelers to Constantinople in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries. Dumbarton Oaks, 1984.

• Manz, Beatrice Forbes. The Rise and Rule of Tamerlane. Cambridge University Press, 1999.

• Necipoğlu, Nevra. Byzantium Between the Ottomans and the Latins: Politics and Society in the Late Empire. Cambridge University Press, 2009.

• Norwich, John Julius. The Middle Sea: A History of the Mediterranean. Knopf Doubleday Publishing, 2007.

• Norwich, John Julius. A History of Venice. Penguin, 2003.

• Stephenson, Paul. The Serpent Column: A Cultural Biography. Oxford University Press, 2016.

• Zarinebaf, Fariba. Mediterranean Encounters: Trade and Pluralism in Early Modern Galata. University of California Press, 2018.

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Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo 1: Byzantine Entanglements

Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo, as imagined in a 19th century engraving. Wikimedia

In 1403, Henry III of Castile sent ambassadors to Timur (Tamerlane), among them a man named Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo. In this episode, we cover the context and depart from port near Cadiz, travel the length of the Mediterranean, and visit Lesbos where we spend time with the ruling family and their involvements in Byzantine imperial politics.

If you like what you hear and want to chip in to support the podcast, my Patreon is here, my Ko-fi is here, and Paypal is here.

Sources:

• Narrative of the embassy of Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo to the court of Timour at Samarcand, A.D. 1403-6, translated by Clements R. Markham. Hakluyt Society, 1859.

• Embassy to Tamerlane: 1403-1406, translated by Guy le Strange. Routledge, 2005.

• Manz, Beatrice Forbes. The Rise and Rule of Tamerlane. Cambridge University Press, 1999.

• Necipoğlu, Nevra. Byzantium Between the Ottomans and the Latins: Politics and Society in the Late Empire. Cambridge University Press, 2009.

• Rubiés, Joan-Pau. "Late Medieval Ambassadors and the Practice of Cross Cultural Encounters" 1250-1450," in The 'Book' of Travels: Genre, Ethnology, and Pilgrimage, 1250-1700, edited by Palmira Johnson Brummett. BRILL, 2009.

• Wright, Christopher. The Gattilusio Lordships and the Aegean World 1355-1462. BRILL, 2014.

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Ibn Fadlan 2: A Letter from the Caliph

The envoys of Byzantine Emperor Michael II are received by Omurtag the Bulgar ruler - Wikicommons

Ahmad ibn Fadlan carries on to his cash-poor appointment with the Volga Bulgars. There's talk of funerals, cultural differences, and threats of death. 10th century diplomacy could be hard.

If you like what you hear and want to chip in to support the podcast, my Patreon is here, my Ko-fi is here, and Paypal is here.

Sources:

• Ahmad ibn Fadlan. Mission to the Volga, translated by James E. Montgomery. New York University Press, 2017.

• Ibn Fadlan and the Land of Darkness: Arab Travellers in the Far North, translated and with an introduction by Paul Lunde and Caroline Stone. Penguin, 2012.

• Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia, edited by Josef W. Meri. Routledge, 2005.

• Bukharaev, Ravil. Islam in Russia: The Four Seasons. Routledge, 2014.

• Curta, Florin. Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 500-1250. Cambridge University Press, 2006.

• Hansen, Valerie. The Year 1000: When Explorers Connected the World and Globalization Began. Simon and Schuster, 2020.

• Le Strange, Guy. The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate: Mesopotamia, Persia, and Central Asia from the Moslem Conquest to the Time of Timur. Cosimo Classics, 2010.

• Romano, John F. Medieval Travel and Travelers: A Reader. University of Toronto Press, 2020.

• Vernadsky, George. Kievan Russia. Yale University Press, 1973.

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Rabban Bar Sauma 4: Ilkhanid End Times

This episode is the conclusion of the Rabban Bar Sauma series. It's his return to the Ilkhanate and the results of his journey. It's the end of the line for him and the catholicus, and it's the changes that were going on in the Ilkhanate and how they affected the Church of the East and our main characters. (MP3)

If you like what you hear and want to chip in to support the podcast, my Patreon is here, my Ko-fi is here, and Paypal is here.

Sources:

• The Monks of Kublai Khan, translated by Sir E. A. Wallis Budge. The Religious Tract Society, 1928.

• Aigle, Denise. The Mongol Empire between Myth and Reality: Studies in Anthropological History. Brill, 2014.

• Grousset, René. Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia. Rutgers University Press, 1988. 

• Jackson, Peter. The Mongols and the Islamic World. Yale University Press, 2017.

• Jackson, Peter. The Mongols and the West: 1221-1410. Pearson Longman, 2005.

• Kolbas, Judith. The Mongols in Iran: Chingiz Khan to Uljaytu 1220–1309. Routledge, 2006.  

• Lambton, Ann K. S. Continuity and Change in Medieval Persia. SUNY Press, 1988.

• Rossabi, Morris. Voyager from Xanadu: Rabban Sauma and the First Journey from China to the West. Kodansha International, 1992.

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Marco and the Polos 3: Marco and the Great, Great Khan

Marco Polo was a tremendous admirer of Kublai Khan and of his Genghisid legacy more generally. This episode, we explore that admiration, the character of Kublai, and the anecdote of the treacherous minister. You'll hear about the khan at his summer palace of Shangdu, the rebellion of Nayan (with the support of Kaidu), the role of Liu Bingzhong, and the story of Ahmed. I also posted a written addition to this episode here. 

(MP3)

If you like what you hear, my Patreon is here, my Ko-fi is here, and Paypal is here.

Sources:

• The Travels of Marco Polo, the Venetian, translated by William Marsden, edited by Thomas Wright. George Bell & Sons, 1907.

• Larner, John. Marco Polo and the Discovery of the World. Yale University Press, 1999.

• Man, John. Marco Polo: The Journey that Changed the World. HarperCollins, 2009.

• Olschki, Leonardo. Marco Polo's Asia. University of California Press, 1960.

• Rossabi, Morris. Khubilai Khan: His Life and Times. University of California Press, 1988.

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