- Tommaso Ugi di Siena
Tommaso Ugi di Siena was a 14th century Italian adventurer, native of the city of
Siena inItaly . He resided at the court of theMongol Ilkhanid rulerOljeitu in thePersian capital ofTabriz , where he held the high position of "Ildüchi", "Sword bearer", for Oljeitu. [Tommasso is mentionned as such in a letter byPope Nicholas IV recognizing the role of Westeners at the Ilkhanid court. In Jean-Richard, p.469] Other adventurers, such asBuscarello de Ghizolfi orIsol the Pisan , are known to have played similar roles at the Mongol court. Hundreds such Western adventurers entered into the service of Mongol rulers. [Roux, p.410]In 1307, Tommaso led a Mongol embassy sent by Oljeitu to European monarchs. This embassy encouraged
Pope Clement V to speak in 1307 of the strong possibility that the Mongols could remit theHoly Land to the Christians, and to declare that the Mongol embassy from Oljeitu "cheered him like spiritual sustenance". [Peter Jackson, "The Mongols and the West", p.171] Relations were quite warm: in 1307, the Pope namedJohn of Montecorvino the first Archbishop ofKhanbalik and Patriarch of the Orient. [Foltz, p.131]The embassy further promissed the delivery of between 100,000 to 200,000 horses to the Crusaders upon their arrival in the Holy Land. [Jackson, p.178]
European nations accordingly prepared a crusade, but were delayed. A memorandum drafted by the Grand Master of the
Knights Hospitallers Guillaume de Villaret about military plans for a Crusade envisaged a Mongol invasion of Syria as a preliminary to a Western intervention (1307/8). [Peter Jackson, p.185] A corps of Frankmangonel specialists is known to have accompanied the Ilkhanid army in the conquest ofHerat in 1307. [Peter Jackson, "The Mongols and the West", p.315]ee also
*
Franco-Mongol alliance Notes
References
* Foltz, Richard (2000). "Religions of the Silk Road : overland trade and cultural exchange from antiquity to the fifteenth century". New York: St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN 0-312-23338-8.
* Jackson, Peter, "The Mongols and the West", Pearson Education Ltd, ISBN 0582368960
* Roux, Jean-Paul, "Histoire de l'Empire Mongol", Fayard, ISBN 2213031649
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