Daily Medieval

Arghun Khan (1258 - 1291) was the son of Abaqa Khan and ruler of the Ilkhanate, in the southwestern part of the Mongol Empire. Arghun (shown...

After spending time at the court of Kublai Khan , Niccolò and Maffeo Polo tried to get home to Venice and to deliver a letter from Kublai t...

Marco Polo didn't get to China on his own; he was taken there as a young man by his father and uncle, who had been there before. Why? B...

When Marco Polo returned to Venice after two decades of traveling in the East, he signed up to join the war between Venice and Genoa. Incarc...

Marco Polo was not the first European to visit China—far from it—but he was the first to write a detailed account of his time there. And he ...

Now we approach the part that everyone knows about Kublai Khan even if they don't know anything about Kublai Khan. Kublai was emperor o...

With the Toluid Civil War concluded, Kublai Khan still had troubles dealing with the other khanates descended from Genghis, but I'm go...

Folklores from all over the world include tales of dog-headed humanoids. The phenomenon is referred to as cynocephaly, from the Greek words ...

The Shrine of the Three Kings The Three Kings, or Magi, appear suddenly in the Gospel of Matthew and just as quickly disappear. That pa...

Lovely ceiling tiles at Cleeve Abbey with asbestos in them Pliny the Elder has a chapter in his Natural History on something he calls ...

Today is the anniversary of the death of Kublai Khan (1215 - 1294), grandson of Genghis Khan . During his 34-year reign (he was crowned on...

Page from Chapter CXXIII Everyone is familiar with the story of Marco Polo , who traveled to the Far East, had amazing adventures, and r...

Coins from Kingdom of Jerusalem in British Museum (l. to r.) dinar (1162-75), Arabic bezant (1140-80), Christian bezant (1250-) [ source ]...

Almost 100 manuscripts exist that are part of the legend of Prester John , mostly copies of the letter supposedly written from him to one or...

That "inaccessible area" in Asia mentioned in the Finding Paradise entry fascinated Europeans. Knowledge of the lands to the ea...

Today is the anniversary of the death of Pope Gregory X. He has already been mentioned in Daily Medieval, but let's take a closer look a...

Today is the 805th anniversary of Rumi's birth. On the 800th anniversary, in a story done by BBC News online, he was referred to as ...

Silk was not a medieval invention. According to Chinese tradition , Empress Si-Ling-Chi in 2460 BCE watched silkworms spinning cocoons; she ...

Today is the 758th anniversary (according to tradition) of the birth of Marco Polo (1254-1324). Son of a wealthy Venetian merchant who tra...

In honor of Independence Day in the USA... Everyone knows that to discuss the history of fireworks means talking about China and Marco Pol...