Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae
Volume/Issue:
Volume 77: Issue 1
A Proposal for the Identity of the Inner Asian City of Ornas (Hornach) Mentioned in Thirteenth-Century Latin Sources
Author:
Stephen Pow Saint-Petersburg State University, Russia

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Pages:
157–175
Online Publication Date:
11 Mar 2024
Publication Date:
25 Mar 2024
Article Category:
Research Article
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1556/062.2023.00305
Keywords:
Mongol Empire; Konye-Urgench; Ornas; Inner Asian cities; Khwarazmian Empire; Jochi; Carpini
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Ornas (also Hornach) appears in the mentions of several Latin authors in the mid-thirteenth century as an important city deep in Asia that had been conquered by the Mongols. There have been several past suggestions by scholars for its identity; the scattered mentions of Ornas (Hornach) have been variously suggested to refer to Tana, Otrar, or Konye-Urgench. The present paper argues that these references, though confused on matters of geography since the Western European authors were writing about largely unknown regions that they did not personally visit, are typically references to the city of Konye-Urgench. The Latin authors’ descriptions of its fall to the Mongols unquestionably draw parallels with Middle Eastern, Rus’, Chinese, and Mongol accounts. This paper argues that the Latin references to Ornas’ proximity to a nearby sea are related to the Aral Sea which had southerly stretches very close to Konya-Urgench as is indicated, for instance from Russian survey maps of the nineteenth century. This identification allows us to place John of Plano Carpini’s description of the fall of Ornas within a larger, cohesive narrative which, though confused on points, offers insights on the fall of the Khwarazmian Empire in the early 1220s.

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Cover Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae
Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae
Print ISSN:
0001-6446
Online ISSN:
1588-2667

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Editor(s)-in-Chief: Gábor KÓSA

Editorial Board

  • Benedek PÉRI (Eötvös Loránd University)
  • Ágnes BIRTALAN (Eötvös Loránd University)
  • Csaba DEZSŐ (Eötvös Loránd University)
  • Peter B. GOLDEN (Rutgers University)
  • Arlo GRIFFITHS (École française d'Extrême-Orient)
  • Imre HAMAR (Eötvös Loránd University)
  • Zoltán SZOMBATHY (Eötvös Loránd University)
  • István VÁSÁRY(Eötvös Loránd University)
  • Yutaka YOSHIDA (Kyoto University)
  • Peter ZIEME (Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities)

 

Dr. Gábor Kósa
Editor-in-Chief
Institute of East Asian Studies
Eötvös Loránd University
Múzeum krt. 4/F
H-1088 Budapest, Hungary
kosa.gabor@btk.elte.hu

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Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae
Language English
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Foundation		 1950
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ISSN 0001-6446 (Print)
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