Healers, Illness and Care in the Early Mongol Empire

During the winter of 1253–54, Franciscan visitor William of Rubruck travelled with Möngke, the Great Khan (supreme Mongol ruler), and his mobile court, accompanied by Friar Bartholomew of Cremona. The court was still moving through the steppe before Rubruck reached Karakorum in present-day Mongolia in April 1254. His account follows care from the needs of a weakened traveller to treatment inside the ruler’s household.

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Shelter and clothing for a weakened traveller

In early January 1254, Rubruck asked Möngke’s court for permission to stay until the severe cold passed because Bartholomew was too weak to travel safely on horseback. Möngke granted them two months. Their first dwelling was cold; attendants supplied couches, bedding, fuel and food. The party received one sheep for six days and daily millet and millet drink, and borrowed a kettle and tripod for cooking. Rubruck explained that their hut was too small to stand in or open books beside the fire. The court arranged a larger dwelling with a Christian monk nearby.

Cold weather also changed what they wore. Möngke sent three fur gowns to the party, with the fur outside. In February, one of the ruler’s wives gave Rubruck and Bartholomew grey tunics and trousers padded with silk because Bartholomew complained that his heavy fur gown was tiring to wear. Rubruck accepted the clothing for Bartholomew but declined his own set, which he passed to their interpreter. Food, warm clothing and a larger shelter allowed the party to remain at court through winter.

Keeping illness within the household

Rubruck says a sick person lay on a couch and a sign was placed above the dwelling to keep visitors away; only the person serving the patient entered. When someone in a great court household became ill, guards could ring the encampment and diviners were called. These diviners, specialists asked to interpret illness and its cause, repeated incantations and judged whether they considered an illness natural or caused by witchcraft.

Rubruck attributes one account of that practice to Paquette, a woman from Metz in present-day France who lived in a court household. She said a noblewoman developed shooting pains after criticizing diviners who had taken too much from a fur delivery. The diviners sat at a distance and directed a maid to press the painful place and pull away what she found. They interpreted the object as evidence of sorcery and accused a servant who had challenged them. The servant was tortured for seven days while the noblewoman died. Möngke then ordered that the servant be allowed to live when she continued to deny wrongdoing.

Cota’s illness and a root remedy

One of Möngke’s wives, whom Rubruck calls Cota, was ill when he first visited her dwelling. An Armenian monk named Sergius had her rise from bed and prostrate herself before a cross; he prayed for her. Around 15 February 1254, Rubruck says, her condition became life-threatening. Möngke sent for Sergius, who promised that she would recover or he would lose his head.

Sergius chopped a root Rubruck calls rhubarb almost to powder and put it in water with a small cross. He said whether the cross stuck to a patient’s chest foretold recovery or death. Rubruck and his companion kept vigil with him, and Rubruck added holy water. The cross soaked in the mixture overnight. The next day, Cota drank it and washed her breast with it. Two priests of the Church of the East, an eastern Christian church, accompanied Sergius, while Rubruck read the Passion narrative in John’s Gospel. Rubruck says Cota felt better; he visited her on three days and found her restored. She gave silver to Sergius and the priests after the first visit.

Rubruck later says he learned that Sergius was a cloth weaver who had never been ordained, despite claiming priestly status. In this treatment, a strong bitter root, water, a cross, prayer and a prediction all figured in the care. Cota became seriously ill again in May and died on 22 May, so the earlier improvement was not lasting.

Another patient and the same drink

In April 1254, Master William of Paris, a goldsmith working at Karakorum, fell gravely ill. Rubruck later found that Sergius had given William two bowls of rhubarb water while he was convalescing. William had taken it for holy water, and Rubruck says the dose nearly killed him. He challenged Sergius for giving a strong medicinal drink as if it were a religious blessing. The episode connects a remedy’s preparation with the care needed in administering it.

Clergy at the court

On days that court diviners or Church of the East priests identified as holy, Christian clergy prayed for Möngke and blessed his cup, part of the court’s prayer and divination.