Letter from Güyük Khan to Pope Innocent IV
In 1246, Güyük Khan sent a letter to Pope Innocent IV, demanding his submission. The letter was in Persian and Middle Turkic, which was used for the preamble.[1]
The preamble reads as follows:[2]
M(ä)ngü t(ä)ngri küč(ü)nde/kür (u)l(u)γ ulus n(u)ng Taluï nung/xan y(a)rl(ï)γ(ï)m(ï)z.
We, by the power of the eternal heaven, Khan of the great Ulus, Our command.
The letter was a response to a 1245 letter, Cum non solum, from the pope to the Mongols.
Güyük, who had little understanding of faraway Europe or the pope's significance in it, demanded the pope's submission and a visit from the rulers of the West to pay homage to Mongol power:[3]
"You must say with a sincere heart: "We will be your subjects; we will give you our strength". You must in person come with your kings, all together, without exception, to render us service and pay us homage. Only then will we acknowledge your submission. And if you do not follow the order of God, and go against our orders, we will know you as our enemy."
Bibliography
- Rachewiltz, I, Papal Envoys to the Great Khans, Stanford University Press, 1971.
References
- ^ Denise Algie (2014). The Mongol Empire between Myth and Reality: Studies in Anthropological History. p. 173.
- ^ John E. Woods; Ernest Tucker (2006). History and Historiography of Post-Mongol Central Asia and the Middle East: Studies in Honor of John E. Woods. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. p. 191.
- ^ Rachewiltz, p. 103.
- ^ Quoted in Michaud, Yahia (Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies) (2002). Ibn Taymiyya, Textes Spirituels I-XVI". Chap XI
- ^ Also quoted in Roux, Histoire de l'Empire Mongol, p.315