초록/요약

In 1336, the great Khan Toghon Temür (1333-1368) sent an embassy to Pope Benedict XII in Avignon to bring horses and other marvelous things from Europe. At first glance, this mission seems to have been initiated by the great Khan, but others actually played a leading role in this diplomatic exchange. This paper aims to reveal who played the most important role in dispatching the embassy. Toward this end, this paper examines diplomatic correspondence between the Mongol realm and the Papacy, travel accounts, commercial documents left by Genoese merchants, Venetian Senate documents, and papal records. It was the chiefs of the Alans, forming the backbone of the Mongol army for the Great Khan, that asked him to send an envoy to Avignon. An Indo-European tribe who had been living in the Caucasus, they were defeated by the Mongol forces in the mid-thirteenth century, and were transported across Asia from their homeland to serve the Mongol khan. After converting to Roman Catholicism, they sent a letter to the Pope requesting a successor to the Archbishop of Beijing who had died in 1328. Being about seventeen years old in 1336, and lacking a firm hold on power, the great khan had no choice but to accept their demands. However, the mission was led not by chiefs of the Alans but by Genoese merchants. How could the Mongol embassy sent to Avignon by the Great khan have been led by Genoese merchants, instead of the Mongol people? At that time, Genoese merchants were able to play a leading