BOOK FIRST.
ACCOUNT OF REGIONS VISITED OR HEARD OF ON THE JOURNEY FROM THE LESSER ARMENIA TO THE COURT OF THE GREAT KAAN AT CHANDU.
About This Book
The volume recounts rivalries and military campaigns among Mongol/Tartar princes, tracing shifting successions, key battles, and episodes of captivity and restoration, while interweaving reports on the peoples, geography, and customs of northern regions. It includes descriptions of remote lands and seafaring straits, observations on animals, trade practices, and modes of travel, and shorter narrative summaries where full text is lacking. Extensive appendices collect genealogies, manuscript traditions, maps, bibliographies, notes on coins, weights, and measures, and textual remarks and indices that clarify sources, variants, and historical place-names.