Forundring og avsky: Vestlige beskrivelser av østlige religioner i senmiddelalderen.
Type
Master thesisNot peer reviewed

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Date
2016-05-18Author
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Den mongolske invasjonen av Øst-Europa i 1241
utløste en rekke diplomatiske oppdrag fra
Europa til det mongolske hoffet. Opp til 1368
og Yuan-dynastiets fall i Kina reiste flere på
lignende oppdrag mot Øst med forskjellige
motiv: handel, misjonering eller diplomati. På
deres reise ble de reisende konfrontert med nye
og fremmede kulturer med praksiser og
tradisjoner som var forskjellig fra noe de
hadde sett tidligere. Denne oppgaven søker å
vise hvordan beskrivelser av østlige
trosretninger utviklet seg innenfor
fransiskanske reisefortellinger mellom 1241 og
1368. For et komparativt perspektiv vil
oppgaven bruke reisefortellingene til
handelsmannen Marco Polo, dominikaneren Jordan
Catala og den marokkanske muslimen Ibn Battuta. The Mongol invasion of Eastern Europe in 1241
ignited a series of diplomatic missions from
Europe to the Mongol court. Up until 1368 and
the fall of the Yuan dynasty in China, several
traveled on similar missions to the East with
various motives: commerce, missionary or
diplomatic. On their journeys, the travelers
encountered new and strange cultures with
customs different from what they were used to.
This thesis aims to document how descriptions
of Eastern beliefs developed within the
Franciscan travel literature between 1241 and
1368. In a comparative view, the thesis will
use the travel writing of the merchant Marco
Polo, the Dominican Jordan Catala, and the
Moroccan Muslim Ibn Battuta. To show how these
descriptions of Eastern beliefs developed, the
thesis will argue that the development of the
Franciscan educational system explains why the
later Franciscans have a holistic worldview.
This development in the educational system made
the Franciscans able to construct this holistic
worldview, but the Pope's involvement, both
direct and indirect, was the decisive factor in
how the descriptions of Eastern beliefs
developed. The Pope's establishment of the
Eastern archiepiscopal sees in Khanbalik and
Soltaniyeh created a foothold for the
missionary work of the mendicant orders in the
East. Through the doctrine of contra naturam
and the bulls cum hora undecima, the
eschatological motivation behind the missionary
work of the Mendicant Orders was pushed to the
forefront. They became sure that the end was
near, and had to convert the obis terrarium
into the coming orbis Christianus. This
affected the discourse on the beliefs of the
East in a way that the later and better-
educated Franciscans could construct a holistic
worldview. In addition, the expansion of
knowledge of eastern beliefs explain how the
different levels of contrast between unfamiliar
and well-known religions developed within the
period of 1241 until 1368. Here, the
development of the Franciscan educational
system makes a greater impact, where training
made them capable of singling out wrong"
doctrinal and ritual practices. This time
period of cultural exchange and the Europeans
discovery" of the Eastern religions ended with
the disintegration of the Mongolian empire in
the 1370s. Not until the 1490s and the Age of
Discovery will this exchange open once more,
and then the stories from the late Middle Ages
are dusted of to inspire a new generation of
ethnographers.
Publisher
The University of BergenSubject
ReisefortellingMarco PoloVilhelm av RubruckreligionsenmiddelalderenbeskrivelsernestorianeretaoisterbuddhisterCollections
- History 368
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