SIMON OF SAINT-QUENTIN

flourished 13th century French Dominican friar, who accompanied a diplomatic and proselytizing mission sent by Pope Innocent IV to the Mongols of Persia and Armenia in 1247. Much of his account of the mission is preserved in the Speculum historiale (Mirror of History) of the French medieval encyclopaedist Vincent of Beauvais. From Acre, Palestine, the mission traveled 59 days to the camp of Baiju (Bachu), situated between the Aras River and Lake Gotchka (now Lake Sevan) in Armenia. Although the group was three times ordered to be executed for conduct that was deemed offensive (e.g., offering no gifts, proselytizing, refusing to visit Gyk, the great khan of the Mongols), the party was dismissed after nine weeks with a letter from Baiju ordering the Pope to visit and submit to the Master of all the Earth (Gyk Khan).