William of Rubruck

William of Rubruck was a Flemish Franciscan friar who travelled across the Eurasian steppe to the Mongol Empire in 1253–1255 on a mission associated with Louis IX of France. He reached the court of Möngke Khan at Karakorum and produced an exceptionally detailed account of Mongol society, geography, religious debate and the many peoples living under imperial rule.

Rubruck’s journey took him through the territories of the Golden Horde to the court of Möngke Khan at Karakorum. His account is unusually observant about Mongol customs, religious diversity, geography and the presence of Christian, Muslim and Buddhist communities across Eurasia. Unlike many medieval travel narratives, it records careful attempts to distinguish eyewitness information from rumour, making it a major source for the thirteenth-century Mongol world.

In Julian Stockwin’s The Powder of Death, In Oxford in 1261, Roger Bacon learns from the returning Franciscan traveller William of Rubruck that China possesses a powder capable of explosive force.