Before Orientalism Phillips_BeforeOrientalism_FM.indd 1 9/24/13 1:25 PM THE MIDDLE AGES SERIES Ruth Mazo Karras, Series Editor Edward Peters, Founding Editor A complete list of books in the series is available from the publisher. Phillips_BeforeOrientalism_FM.indd 2 9/24/13 1:25 PM Before Orientalism Asian Peoples and Cultures in European Travel Writing, 1245–1510 Kim M. Phillips university of pennsylvania press philadelphia Phillips_BeforeOrientalism_FM.indd 3 9/24/13 1:25 PM Copyright © 2014 University of Pennsylvania Press All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations used for purposes of review or scholarly citation, none of this book may be reproduced in any form by any means without written permission from the publisher. Published by University of Pennsylvania Press Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-4112 www.upenn.edu/pennpress Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Phillips, Kim M. Before Orientalism : Asian peoples and cultures in European travel writing, 1245– 1510 / Kim M. Phillips. — 1st ed. p. cm. — (The Middle Ages series) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8122-4548-6 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Travel, Medieval—Asia—History—Sources. 2. Travelers’ writings, European— History and criticism. 3. Asia—Description and travel—Early works to 1800. 4. Asia—Foreign public opinion, Western—History. I. Title. II. Series: Middle Ages series. GT5240.P55 2014 303.48'209—dc23 2013019443 Phillips_BeforeOrientalism_FM.indd 4 9/24/13 1:25 PM For John, Heloise, and Sylvie Phillips_BeforeOrientalism_FM.indd 5 9/24/13 1:25 PM This page intentionally left blank Contents Note on the Text ix Introduction 1 PART I. THEORY, PEOPLE, GENRES Chapter 1. On Orientalism 15 Chapter 2. Travelers, Tales, Audiences 28 Chapter 3. Travel Writing and the Making of Europe 50 PART II. EnVISIONING ORIENTS Chapter 4. Food and Foodways 73 Chapter 5. Femininities 101 Chapter 6. Sex 123 Chapter 7. Civility 148 Chapter 8. Bodies 172 Afterword: For a Precolonial Middle Ages 199 22225 Phillips_BeforeOrientalism_FM.indd 7 22225 9/24/13 1:25 PM viii Contents Notes 203 Bibliography 267 Index 305 Acknowledgments 313 Phillips_BeforeOrientalism_FM.indd 8 22225 9/24/13 1:25 PM 22225 Note on the Text All English-speaking authors in this field find themselves compromised by the problem of spelling proper nouns. As a broad guide, I generally follow the forms employed in John Block Friedman and Kristen Mossler Figg, eds., with Scott D. Westrem, associate editor, and Gregory G. Guzman, collaborating editor, Trade, Travel, and Exploration in the Middle Ages: An Encyclopedia (New York: Garland, 2000). Chinese places and names are given in Pinyin without tone marks. Where there is potential for confusion, especially with regard to place-names, the medieval author’s spelling is included as well as a currently accepted form. No doubt some readers will be dissatisfied with the results, but I hope that all will be able to recognize the people and locations mentioned or find them in a reference work or map. When using abbreviated forms of medieval European authors’ names I include only the most distinctive part of the name (usually Anglicized). Chris- tian names are generally preferred over bynames, but not surnames, except where the Christian name is too common to avert confusion: thus: Carpini rather than John, Rubruck rather than William, but Ricold and Jordan rather than Monte Croce and Catala. When an author is infrequently referred to or no part of his name is memorable, the whole is preferred (for example, Bene- dict the Pole, Andrew of Perugia). In the text, quotes are generally given in English translation. The transla- tions have been compared with the original text in the edition named in the endnotes and modified in some instances. To save space, the original Latin, French, Franco-Italian, or other wording is only briefly quoted, whether in the text or endnotes, when likely to be of special interest. References to the main primary texts in the endnotes are generally given by medieval author and now commonly used title, with book and chapter numbers or other subdivisions where available, followed in parenthesis to page references to the edition of the original language used and (in most cases) to an English translation. Where I have modified a translation or provided my own, this is made clear. 22225 Phillips_BeforeOrientalism_FM.indd 9 22225 9/24/13 1:25 PM This page intentionally left blank Introduction I speak and speak, but the listener retains only the words he is ex- pecting. The description of the world to which you lend a benevo- lent ear is one thing; the description that will go the rounds of the groups of stevedores and gondoliers on the street outside my house the day of my return is another; and yet another, that which I might dictate late in life, if I were taken prisoner by Genoese pirates and put in irons in the same cell with a writer of adventure stories. It is not the voice that commands the story: it is the ear.1 To write a book is to make a journey. Yet as is so often the case with travel, the final destination may look quite different from what was initially imagined. In the early stages of research for this book, influenced by some recent studies on travel writing, I thought the distant parts of Asia might represent “a loca- tion of definitive Otherness” for late medieval European writers and readers. However, I have since moved far from that view, having found that the end location has a much more varied landscape than first envisaged. This book examines European travel writing on central, east, south, and southeast Asia composed or in circulation from around 1245 to around 1510. “Orient,” “Asia,” “far East” (with lowercase “f”), “distant East,” and “farther East” will be employed as synonyms encompassing the whole area under dis- cussion with due acknowledgment of the difficulties of these labels. Terms such as “Orient” and “East” have become problematic for modern commenta- tors who rightly point to their geographic assumptions (“East” from where?), ideological baggage, and pejorative or romantic connotations. Yet to medieval Europeans the lands of Asia were literally in the distant “East” of their world. The book deals with descriptions of places we now call Mongolia, China, India, and Southeast Asia. It largely excludes the Holy Land and surrounding regions on the grounds that western Europe’s relations with middle eastern Phillips_BeforeOrientalism_TX.indd 1 22225 9/24/13 1:22 PM 2 Introduction (and, indeed, northern African and southern Iberian) people were shaped by Christian rhetoric that sought to emphasize the religious basis of relations with, and alienation from, Islam and Judaism to a greater extent than dis- course on cultures further east. Although Christian crusading rhetoric and anti- Judaic traditions had their own complexities—indeed, were not univo- cally damning— one cannot deny the persistence of later medieval Christian tendencies to condemn most stridently the religious and cultural traditions closest to its own.2 John Tolan is among a number of scholars who have com- mented on Christianity’s harsher treatment of Judaism and Islam than more distant faiths, such as Animism and Buddhism, with whom they would seem to have less in common: “It is precisely because Christians and Jews [and Muslims] are fighting for rightful ownership of a common spiritual heritage that their disputes are so bitter.”3 Geographical proximity and military threats may similarly raise tensions. As we will see, Europeans were most hostile in portrayals of Mongols in the early to mid- thirteenth century when the physi- cal peril of “Tartars” was nearest. This book does not tell the travelers’ stories of discovery again, apart from some necessary background material on authors, books, and audiences, nor is it a history of exploration and discovery. It does not treat the travelers’ nar- ratives as sources of information on Asian cultures historians might use to supplement or support what they have learned from non-European sources. Rather, it attempts something different: a cultural history of aspects of the encounter between late medieval Latin Christians and Asian cultures with a focus on themes that have not usually been granted headline attention. In par- ticular, it asks how prevailing European preoccupations with food and eating habits, gender roles, sexualities, civility, and the human body helped shape late medieval perspectives on eastern peoples and societies. It aims to contribute to European cultural history, not Asian history. Its central argument is for a dis- tinctive European perspective on Asia during the era c. 1245–c. 1510. Attitudes were moving away from tendencies to create a homogenous “India” of marvels and monsters yet were little touched by the colonialist mentalities that would emerge through the early modern era and dominate the modern. It argues that desire for information and for pleasure were two chief impulses guiding late medieval readers’ interest in travel writing on Asia. In regard to the first mo- tivation, some authors supplied specific information to help with immediate military and evangelical necessities. Other travelers, particularly when writing on China, sought to satisfy a more generalized hunger for knowledge about civilized living that pervaded late medieval burgess and noble life. Readers’ Phillips_BeforeOrientalism_TX.indd 2 22225 9/24/13 1:22 PM 22225 Introduction 3 appetites for pleasure were also variously satisfied. Some representations of eastern peoples fulfilled the urge to wonder, which has been noted as an im- portant characteristic of medieval cultures, while other elements of their de- scriptions met desires for amusement or delight. Monstrosity or alien customs were comprehended within ancient conventions on the “barbarian” and could assist an emerging European sense of selfhood or in some cases provide a kind of pleasure through horror.