Życie codzienne w podróży na przykładzie relacji „Ambasady do Tamerlana” (1403-1406) : z badań nad relacjami międzykulturowymi - ŁUKASZ BURKIEWICZ (Autor) (Akademia Ignatianum w Krakowie, 2019)
https://wydawnictwo.ignatianum.edu.pl/zycie-codzienne-w-podrozy-na-przykladzie-relacji-ambasady-do-tamerlana-1403-1406.htm
Publikacja recenzowana
My intention was not to write a classic historical book, although this can never be entirely avoided when researching a topic that originated in the past, but to write a book which would be a source of knowledge about the cultural aspects of everyday life on the road, including all cross cultural relations that result from the meeting that follows the journey, i.e. a broad cultural perspective based on the Castilian travel narrative entitled Embassy to Tamerlane (Embajada a Tamorlán). Embassy to Tamerlane, a monument of Castilian travel literature and the oldest Spanish travel narrative, describes the course of the diplomatic mission (1403–1406) sent by King of Castile and Léon Henry III (1390–1406) to East to report on the situation there and – if possible – to meet Tamerlane personally. Its participants travelled through Constantinople, Trebizond, Erzincan, Erzurum, Tabriz, Sultania and Tehran, and finally arrived in Samarkand where they were brought before the Chagatay leader. We can only speculate about the effects of King Henry III’s diplomatic mission, as we do not know exactly what his ambassadors achieved. However, Embassy to Tamerlane plays an important role from a different point of view; it is an excellent travel narrative which contains detailed descriptions of everyday life on the road, observations, travellers’ cognitive processes and their contacts with other cultures and religions, which is related to such anthropological and cultural issues as cultural change, the clash of cultures, acculturation, and – using contemporary language – intercultural communication. Embassy to Tamerlane – as a travel narrative – retains the chronological order and the descriptive style typical of a chronicle, and, as its title indicates, the leading role travelling plays in it. The Castilian ambassadors, like their numerous predecessors, experienced passage, the ethnologically understood “passage”, a unique experience of personal contact with a different civilization. The most important impulse for writing this book was the desire – present in, I am convinced, all cultural (and not only) scientists – to take up a research area that was not analysed in Polish subject literature before. I believe that this initiative is justified by virtual absence of a broader view of Embassy to Tamerlane in Polish. Although in contemporary Polish scientific reflection on cross-cultural relations the subject of travel enjoys great popularity, this particular narrative that is of interest to me is poorly recognized in our science and also rarely referred to in world historiography. Moreover, in view of the fact that the subject was addressed in national literature in a superficial manner only, it seemed important to me to show this important journey from the point of view of everyday life on the road and against the background of cross-civilizational (cross-cultural) relations between the West and the East at the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries based on the context of the journey. The very issue of cross-cultural exchange became the greatest inspiration for my further scientific enquires. Another argument supporting the choice of this topic is the fact that Embassy to Tamerlane is a very realistic text and, compared to similar texts of its predecessors, devoid of fantasising. The basic source material used while writing this book was already mentioned travel narrative entitled Embassy to Tamerlane. From a methodological point of view, it is considered to be the best (the most reliable) and most detailed source material regarding Tamerlane’s country; of course, from the point of view of “Western” science. For cultural historians, the narrative offers an extremely vivid depiction of everyday life of both the court and the inhabitants of the Chagatay empire. Art historians, on the other hand, will find in it detailed descriptions of architectural objects, while historians interested in economic aspects – information on Latin commercial activity in C
Keywords: nauki o kulturze i religii; ambasada; „Ambasada do Tamerlana”; Azja; cywilizacja łacińska; Kastylia; Konstantynopol; misja; Mongołowie; ogrody; podróże; posłowie; Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo; średniowiecze; Tamerlan