1241: Matthaeus Parisiensis on Jewish Smuggling and the Mongol Expansion

Abstract

For the year 1241, the Chronica majora by Matthaeus Parisiensis reports on an alleged Jewish plot to deliver weapons to the Mongols. The Mongols had only recently advanced into Eastern Europe and are described here as co-religionists of the supposed Jewish conspirators. This episode provides a well-known example of antisemitic popular feeling in mid-thirteenth-century England. At the same time, it illustrates how a Latin-Christian historiographer created “knowledge” about the Mongol invaders. The article deals with this conspiracy theory against the backdrop of a pan-European regime of economic sanctions put in place against the (Muslim) targets of papal crusading policy. Whereas the interplay of embargoes and sanctions-busting structures the chronicle’s conspiracy theory, the episode also elucidates the potentials and problems of implementing sanctions across the Mediterranean.