ABSTRACT
For those who seek an insight into the Mongol view of the Western world, there are only two avenues – both somewhat indirect, given the absence of any Mongolian narrative source that details the invasion of Europe. There are indications, nevertheless, that in the 1240s the Mongols conceived of Latin Christendom as a single power, of considerable size. According to the 'Tartar Relation', they thought of it as comprising the western half of the inhabited world. For the impact of the Mongol attack of 1241 on what might be called public opinion in the Latin West, the sources are rather more plentiful. The devastation of Poland, Moravia and Hungary in 1241–2 largely dispelled any notion that the Mongols were the forces of a Christian 'King David' or Prester John, as had been assumed on the first news of the attacks by Chinggis Khan's forces on the Islamic world.
