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Aïbeg and Serkis, also Aibeg and Sergis or Aïbäg and Särgis, were two embassadors sent by the Mongol ruler Baichu to Pope Innocent IV in 1247-1248. They were the first Mongol envoys to Europe.

Aïbeg ("Moon Prince") is thought to have been a Turcophone Christian, possibly Uighur, and Serkis (from the Christian name "Sergius") a Nestorian, possibly Syrian. Both were sent by Baichu , to accompany the 1245 embassy of the Dominican Ascelin of Lombardia back to Lyon, France. They stayed there for about a year.

Aïbeg and Serkis met with Innocent IV in 1248, and remitted to him a rather vexing letter from Baichu, expressing his difficulty in understanding the Pope's message, and asking for his submission:

"By the strength of the Kaghan, the word of Prince Baichu. You Pope, know that your messengers came to visit us and brought to us your letters. They made strange discourses to us, and we do not known if you ordered them to utter these words, and if they did so of their own accord..."

— Letter from Baichu to Pope Innocent IV, 1248

As a reply to the letter from Baiju, Innocent IV remitted to the envoys the letter known as Viam agnoscere veritatis. According to the letter, the Pope received the messengers from the Mongol commander, treated them hospitably, and understood their messages. According to historian Kenneth Setton, it "stated that Innocent IV had acted out of a sense of duty to let the true religion be known to the Mongols, and that he regretted the Mongols' perseverance in their errors and adjured them to cease their menaces." The Pope appealed to the Mongols to stop their killing of Christians, while indicating no further interest in continuing the dialogue.

According to Grousset, in the response he remitted to them the Pope deplored the delays in establishing a general alliance between the Christians and the Mongols. Runciman also states that Aibeg and Sarkis returned to the Mongol realm in November 1248, "with complaints that nothing further was happening about the alliance".

Aïbeg and Serkis stayed at Lyon for about a year, before returning to the Mongol realm on November 22, 1248.

Aïbeg and Serkis are mentionned in name by Simon de Saint-Quentin, Historia Tartarorum, xxxii.51 where the author quotes in full the letter Baiju sent to Pope Innocent IV in 1247. The last line reads: Istud preceptum per manus Aybeg et Sargis misimus, mense julii, .xx. lunacionis.

Matthew of Paris in his Chronica Maiora records the visit of two messengers from the Mongols in the summer of 1248. He says that their meetings with the pope were secretive, that the letters they carried were translated three times from an unknown language, that gifts were exchanged, and that rumors circulated about a Mongol attack on John Vatatzes, then Emperor of Nicaea and the son-in-law of Innocent's enemy Frederick II.

See also

• Franco-Mongol alliance

Notes

1. Roux, p.316: "Ascelin of Cremone (...) had himself accompanied by two diplomats, a Christian turcophone, maybe Uighur, named Aibeg ("Moon Prince"), and a Nestorian, probably Syrian, Sergis".
2. Runciman, p.259
3. Roux, p.316
4. Quoted in Roux, p.316
5. Roux, Histoire de l'Empire Mongol, p.316: "Sergis et Aibeg were finally sent back on November 22, 1248, with an answer, known as Viam agnoscere veritatis" (Original French quote: "Serbeg et Aibeg furent finalement congédiés le 22 Novembre 1248 avec une réponse, la lettre connue comme Viam agnoscere veritatis").
6. Setton, p.522 "The Pope's reply to Baidju's letter, Viam agnoscere veritatis, dated November 22, 1248, and probably carried back by Aibeg and Sargis"
7. Latin original: Nuntios vestros, quos ad nostram presentiam destinastis, benigne recepimus, et ea que significastis nobis per ipsos intelleximus diligenter..
8. Setton, p.522
9. Rachewiltz, p. 118. "In his letter the pontiff urged the Mongols to stop persevering in their errors and to end the slaughter, especially of Christians. There is not even a hint at a renewal of the dialogue with the Tartars."
10. "Histoire des Croisades", René Grousset, p523: Grousset mentions the "response remitted to Aibag and Sargis" in which "he deplored the delays to the general agreement between Mongols and Christiandom" ("Innocent IV congédia Aibag and Sargis en leur remettant pour Baiju une réponse dans laquelle il déplorait les retards apportés à une entente générale des Mongols et de la Chrétienté.").
11. Runciman, p.259
12. Runciman, p.259
13. Roux, Histoire de l'Empire Mongol, p.316
14. Full text: Matthew of Paris, Chronica Majora, ed. Henry R. Luard, in Rerum britannicarum Medii Aevi Scriptores (London, 1872-73), pt. V, pp. 37-38.
    "Eadem aestate venerunt duo nuntii Tartarorum, a principe eorum ad dominum Papam destinati. Causa autem nuntii eorum adeo cunctos latuit in curia, ut nec clericis, notariis, nec aliis, licet familiaribus, claruit patefactum. carta autem eorum quam Papae detulerunt ter fuit de idiomate ignoto ad notius translata, prout nuntii partibus occidentalibus appropinquaverunt. Suspicabatur autem a multis per quaedam argumentorum indicia, quod in carta continebatur, propositum et consilium Tartarorum fuisse, movere guerram in proximo contra Battacium generum Fretherici Graecum, scismaticum, et Romanae curiae inobedientem. Quod domino Papae non credebatur displicuisse; dedit enim eis vestes pretiosissimas, quas robas vulgariter appellamus, de eskarleto praeelecto, cum penulis et fururiis de pellibus variis cisimorum, et libenter confabulabatur ac favorabiliter et crebro per interpretes cum eisdem, et munera contulit in auro et argento clanculo pretiosa.

References

• Jackson, Peter, Mongols and the West
• Grousset, Rene, Histoire des Croisades, III, Tempus, 2006 edition, ISBN 226202569X
• Rachewiltz, I, Papal Envoys to the Great Khans, Stanford University Press, 1971.
• Roux, Jean-Paul, Histoire de l'Empire Mongol, 1993, Fayard, ISBN 2213031649
• Kenneth Meyer Setton, "A History of the Crusades"
• Runciman, Steven, History of the Crusades, III, Penguin Books, 2002 edition, ISBN 014013705X

• Mongol Empire
• Ambassadors