Thomas of Spalato and the Mongols: A Thirteenth-Century Dalmatian View of Mongol Customs

Abstract

When Qadan, grandson of Genghis Khan, and his Mongol horsemen arrived before the walls of Spalato in the spring of 1242, the Adriatic Sea became the westernmost boundary of the Tartar Empire, stretching eastward across the vast Eurasian landmass to the shores of the Sea of Japan. Thomas, archdeacon of Spalato (1200-1268) , was a witness and principal reporter of that historic moment. Four chapters of his Historia Pontificum Salonitanorum atque Spalatensium narrate the approach of the Mongols to Hungary, the conquest of the country, the flight of Béla IV to Dalmatia with the invading army in pursuit, the unexpected withdrawal of the Mongols, and the famine that followed their departure. This portion of Thomas's work ranks as a major western narrative of the Mongol invasion of Europe. The value of his narrative lies in the fact that the author was a contemporary of the events described and that his sources included his own eyewitness observation and reports made to him by informed refugees. Moreover, although he embraced a traditional mediaeval Christian historiographical outlook, his work is relatively free of the apocalyptic speculation found in other accounts of the Mongol invasion. His narrative is by no means a complete description of events in Hungary and Dalmatia during 1241-1242, but the information he provides can be shown, wherever corroboration exists, to be largely trustworthy.