Eurasia Case

Take Home Essay

Agli Pançi

Instructor: Adam Ehrlich

Course: Eastern Empires

Time: Thursdays, 17:00-20:00

In Europe as well as in Asia, the civilized people considered themselves better than the others. In fact, they aimed at dominating the richer parts of the world. The concept of the barbarism was invented by civilized man who underestimated the barbarian life. The concept "barbarian" was invented by the ancient Greeks, who gave the word a negative connotation. They used the word to refer to those people, principally Asian, who had a different culture from them. Later, the Romans hired this word and its message from the Greeks, but during the expansion period, this word was mainly used to refer to the Celts and Germans, who were against their actions and deeds. Both, the Greeks and Romans portrayed the barbarism in moral terms. In the fourth and fifth centuries, the barbarians were the Germanic invaders. The Romans tried hard to convert the Arian and the Pagan Germans to Christians. The Romans saw the Germanic intruders as wild brutes, unbridle and incapable to learn obedience of law. Since most of the nations in Europe adopted Catholic Christianity, the barbarism was cast out to the frontiers. The non- catholic Christians were usually seen as barbarians. But in the twelfth and thirteen centuries, the meaning of the word Barbarus implied much more than the simple meaning of the 'non- Christians'. Ferocity, bravery and cruelty were associated to mainly with Barbarus. In the thirteenth and fourteenth century, the most notorious barbarians were the tartars who were seen as a threat to civilized Europe. The Europeans were afraid by the fierce ways, and filthy habits of tartars. In middle Ages, despite the crusades and encounters with the Moslem enemy, the image of barbarians did not change. At this time, Islam was seen as a hateful and dangerous converter of faith. In the fifteenth century, the image of the barbarians did not contain any more the religious content and after the occupation of Constantinople the Ottomans were seen as barbarians.

Barbarians were considered even the Mongolians, whose armies were present in Eastern and Central Europe in 1240-1241. But unlike the hostile image of the Muslim, the Europeans changed the way how they perceived the Mongols from the mid- thirteenth to the mid- fourteenth centuries. From a major threat of Christian civilization, then they were seen as a possible ally against Islam.Pope Innocent IV undertook and began carrying out mission of intelligence across the Mongol Empire. After that, in 1253-1254 another mission was carried out, aiming at converting the Mongols and making them an ally against the Muslims. In 1266, Roger Bacon believed that the Mongols were forces of the Antichrist who announced the end of the world. In missionary reports the physical characteristics, custom and social habits of Mongols are seen as traits hired from others. In several publications the Mongols were described as horrible and monstrous because they had different appearances and custom. Ricoldo of Montecroce wrote down that they had "wide faces and small eyes" and according to him they lived like "beast, following their natural instincts and not according to the law of the god". The Franciscan missionaries described the Mongols as people outside the boundary of civilization, the enemy that completes in full the Islamic and heretic enemies.

But there have been even positive thought about Mongols. Marco Polo backed the civilizing mission carried by the Mongol rulers. For example, he spoke about the prohibition of all gambling and cheating and the forbiddance of killing the visitors. In his book, Polo described the custom of the Mongols, saying that they live in tents, carry their family, practice polygamy, but hate adultery, believe in one main god and are physically resistant. The Mongols had a centralized system of governing with its standing army, currency and postal services. The hope of an alliance between Europe and Mongols was presented even in the art, especially