The Turco-Mongol Invasions and the Lords of Armenia in the 13 ...

that the Pope's letters he was carrying may have been
tampered with, he wrote:
...I feared that as those who had interpreted
your letters were Armenians from
Greater Armenia—great haters of the Saracens
-•they had perhaps through hatred and for the
discomfiture of the Saracens, gratuitously
translated as had suited their fancy. 1.
Turthermore, Bubruck's comment that Armenian Easter
was celebrated in Qara Qorum with a large clerical pro-
cession to the Khan's residence, only makes sense if
there were a sizeable number of Armenian clerics present .
While in Qara Qorum, William encountered an unnamed
Armenian lordly petitioner to MSngke-Khan:
A certain Armenian who had come with the
monk had brought this said cross from Jerusalem,
as he said, and it was of silver, weighing perhaps
four marks, and had four gems in the angles and
one in the center; and it did not have the image
of the Savior, for the Armenians and Nestorians
are ashamed to show the Christ fixed to. the Cross.
And they had presented it to Hongke-Khan, and
Uongke asked him what he wanted. Then he said
he was the son of an Armenian priest, whose church
had been destroyed by the Saracens, and he asked
his help to restore this church. Then [Mbngke]
asked him with how much it could be rebuilt, and
he said two hundred iascot—that is two thousand
marks. And he ordered that he should be given
letters to him who receives the tribute in Persia
and Greater Armenia, to pay him this sum of silver.
1 WH p. 166.
2
WR p. 187.
3 WE p.191.
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