




































 Humanities and Social Science Research; Vol. 4, No. 2; 2021 
ISSN 2576-3024   E-ISSN 2576-3032 

https://doi.org/10.30560/hssr.v4n2p10 

 10 Published by IDEAS SPREAD 
 

Global Middle Ages: Eastern Wisdom (Buddhistic) Teachings in 
Medieval European Literature. With a Focus on Barlaam and 

Josaphat 
Albrecht Classen1 

1 University of Arizona, United States 
Correspondence: Albrecht Classen, University of Arizona, United States. 
 
Received: April 26, 2020; Accepted: June 25, 2020; Published: June 26, 2020 
 
Abstract 
In contrast to many recent attempts to establish concepts and platforms to study global literature, and this also in 
the pre-modern world, this article intends to present much more concrete examples to confirm that a certain degree 
of globalism existed already in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. While numerous scholars/editors have simply 
invited many more voices from all over the world to the same ‘table,’ i.e., literary histories, which has not really 
provided more substance to the notion of ‘global,’ the study of translated texts, such as those dealing with Barlaam 
and Josaphat, clearly confirms that some core Indian ideas and values, as originally developed by Buddha, had 
migrated through many stages of translations, to high medieval literature in Europe.  
Keywords: Global literature, medieval globalism, Barlaam and Josaphat, Jacobus de Voragine, Rudolf von Ems, 
the Laubacher Barlaam, literary translations, Buddhism in medieval Europe, Asia and Europe in the Middle Ages 
1. Introduction: Connections Between East and West 
Throughout the Middle Ages, knowledge about the Asian world was rather limited in Europe, although a good 
number of travelers, most famously, maybe, Marco Polo and Odorico da Pordenone, made their way to the Far 
East and later, after their return to the West, created detailed reports about their experiences. But we have searched 
so far in vain for data that might confirm the opposite movement, of Asians traveling to the West because of 
scientific, religious, medical, political, or artistic reasons. Nevertheless, considering the long history of Asian 
armies moving westward and achieving astounding successes, there must have been more knowledge about the 
European landscape and geo-political terrain available to the respective generals or leaders of the various armies 
to accomplish their goals so effectively.  
Undoubtedly, the Huns, the Avars, the Magyars, and finally the Mongols were stunningly triumphant and moved 
amazingly quickly from East to West, which can have been possible only if they commanded excellent logistics 
and means of collecting data, as we know also from western armies, such as those in the Carolingian empire.[1] It 
is very probable, of course, that local guides were used, but the success of those invading troops would not have 
been possible without some global perspectives, strategic planning, and geographical knowledge on the part of the 
commanding officers. Those hostile forces even seem to have had a better understanding of the various countries 
where they suddenly appeared and attacked than the natives who did not know much about those enemies, had not 
traveled much beyond their parochial limits, and were probably familiar only with their localities.  
However, all those nomadic attackers quickly disappeared again, and it is highly unlikely that the horrible military 
conflicts raised any interest by the victimized population to learn more about the East or to follow the receding 
armies in revenge. [2] In other words, no one tried to track them down after they had retreated, somewhere in Asia, 
for instance. At the same time, if we consider the example of the Vikings with their enormous scope from 
Newfoundland in the West to the Black Sea in the East, then we gain a certain hunch about the abilities of some 
peoples to travel far beyond their traditional homelands. [3] 
If we jump from the early to the late Middle Ages, almost thousand years later, the situation does not seem to have 
changed dramatically at all, despite a flood of new travel experiences by pilgrims, merchants, and diplomats latest 
since the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Linguistic, political, cultural, and also economic hurdles made it very 
difficulties for the average European, even for those with a moderate degree of education, to reach out to eastern 
cultures. [4] Of course, there are exceptions, but those only seem to confirm the rule. The Bavarian slave Hans 
Schiltberger (1381–ca. 1440), for instance, once in Ottoman captivity, was moved around much over thirty years 



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of forced military service and might have made his way as far north as modern-day Kazakhstan and as far south 
as Egypt. But, as a slave, he did not enjoy freedom, did not have the privilege of studying the cultural environment 
where he was stationed or had to fight, and so had little to say about the Asian world. [5] Granted, we learn much 
in his account about the Armenian kingdom, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and other aspects, but Schiltberger’s 
perspectives were limited by default.  
2. Late Medieval Anti-Globalism: The Case of Fortunatus 
A few decades afterwards, the anonymous author of the early modern novel Fortunatus (printed in Augsburg in 
1509) highlighted the central interest in traveling across the entire then known world, but he leaves out the eastern 
Asian continent and does not say anything specific about the local cultures and religions. Specifically, he 
confirmed that it would be an absurd assumption that Asians would have any interest in exploring Christian Europe 
because that western continent would simply not live up to their own cultural standards: “vnsre land vnaertig seyen 
/ von keltin vnd auch nit guote frücht haben / hond sorg das sy gleich sturben” (491; [they believe that] our lands 
are hostile to them due to the cold and the lack of good food; they are afraid that they would die immediately). [6] 
The East Asian Indians would be regarded as fools if they decided to leave their own good lands to visit the bad 
lands in Europe; finally, they would know about the dangers of travel to the West; hence, it would not make sense 
for them to pursue any interest in Europe.  
However, within the fictional framework, and with the help of the miraculous money purse which never empties, 
Fortunatus, at least, is able to make his way from Cyprus to Egypt, and from there to the Holy Land and then even 
India. The poet, of course, knows very little about it and only comments about the three parts which it consists of, 
and the huge size of the lands which far exceeds the large territories of the other mighty rulers in the world, 
including China and Egypt (490). Yet, just when the narrator has reached the point of going into details, he refrains 
from doing that and instead refers his audience to an outside source, here identified as Johann de Monteuilla (490), 
meaning John Mandeville, the famous armchair travelogue author, perhaps really Jean de Bourgogne (d. 1372). 
[7] 
We might have to be careful in general concerning the validity of all medieval travelogues, fictional or factual, 
and thus might not gain much in regard to our search about possible familiarity with Buddhism and Asian culture 
in the European Middle Ages. [8] Even if an individual would have learned something about the foreign religion, 
it would have been extremely dangerous for him/her to relate something about that non-Christian faith since the 
Catholic Church would have responded rather aggressively.  
Nevertheless, we have been called upon for quite some time to explore not only travelers and travelogues from 
that time period, but also to investigate the transcultural exchanges occurring during the pre-modern world, which 
involved numerous translations from Arabic to Hebrew, and then to Latin, which thus became the source for 
countless translations into the various vernaculars. [9] The literary, i.e., fictional, media was much more forgiving 
for opening up of new cultural perspective and for inviting in foreign cultures, laying the groundwork for much 
later actual contacts and visits, at least by Europeans going East. For instance, the first major vernacular account 
about India was delivered by Balthasar Sprenger (d. ca. 1511). [10] 
3. India in Medieval European Perceptions  
The world of India, for instance, was certainly firmly implanted on the minds of the learned Europeans, as 
numerous poets reveal who included specific references to that subcontinent. [11] India appears, of course, also 
on many mappaemundi, and there is no shortage of references to India in pre- and courtly romances, such as in the 
anonymous Herzog Ernst (ms. A ca. 1180; ms. B ca. 1220), [12] in Priest Lambrecht’s Alexander (ca. 1190), [13] 
and in Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival, [14] to refer here to Middle High German literature where it seemed 
to have received more attention than elsewhere. Geographers and travelogue authors mentioned it, but there was a 
lot of confusion and ignorance about India proper during the Middle Ages. [15] Probing this issue further, we 
come certainly across, alas, medieval racist stereotypes and notions, and this well before the rise of modern-day 
racism, as Geraldine Heng has convincingly demonstrated on a global level. [16] But how else could that have 
been considering the lack of mutual contacts, mutual understanding, and mutual interest? There is no doubt that 
most Europeans viewed the rest of the world only through the lens of Christianity, and if they could imagine that 
a St. Thomas or the famous Prester John did his share in missionizing and converting people in the Asian continent, 
then the medieval audience was probably just content with the outcome as outlined in the literary works. 
By the same token, we can be fairly certain about numerous intellectual and creative exchanges between East and 
West via literary channels, though concrete details and evidence still evade our full interpretive grasp. [17] The 
ancient Indian Panchatantra, composed by a Vishnu Sharma or Vasubhaga, later known as Kalila and Dimna, 
certainly exerted considerable influence on Persian, then Arabic, from there on Latin, and vernacular European 



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literature, here not even taking into account the influence on the Far Eastern world. Composed sometime in the 
3rd or 2nd century B.C.E., or possibly as late as the 3rd century C.E., this collection of short narratives containing 
messages about wisdom has survived in a large number of copies and then translations into many of the world’s 
languages. [18] 
Romedio Schmitz-Esser has recently attempted to trace specific evidence concerning the influence of Buddhism 
on the medieval West, or at least a certain degree of familiarity in the West of some aspects pertaining to that 
religion and culture. In order to trace the potential import of “ideas, of art, of material culture from Eastern and 
Southern Asia to medieval Europe” (322), he searches for the almost non-existing Asian traveler to the West, the 
well-known European travelers to the East, literary sources, such as the Legenda aurea, and finally Asian products 
which made their way to the western markets. [19] Indeed, in economic turns, there is a growing body of data 
confirming that East and West met especially in the region of the Black Sea, where the markets brought together 
European and Asian merchants, irrespective of the many military and political conflicts which often threatened to 
disrupt their trade. [20] Even though we might not consider merchants necessarily as the best informed and 
educated intellectuals who would have approached eastern wisdom literature with the eye of a philologist or 
philosopher, they were those who traveled the farthest and by default developed considerable linguistic and cultural 
skills to cope well in the foreign worlds where they found their best markets. And all merchants need entertainment 
after the closing of the shops, so they can be regarded as some of the most likely conveyers of Asian literature, art 
works, or music to the West, and vice versa. 
4. Barlaam and Josaphat 
One of the most striking examples of the intellectual exchange between East and West, that is, the translation of 
Eastern literature and religion into western languages, proves to be the story of Barlaam and Josaphat. In essence, 
this is the account of Buddha’s early life as composed some time around the first century C.E., which was then 
exported both East and West via countless translations. [21] This popular story was a major theme also for a variety 
of courtly poets in medieval Europa, such as Rudolf von Ems, who created his Barlaam und Josaphat in ca. 1225-
1230. At the same time, artists used the account about this young man Josaphat who fights his father over their 
religious orientations and can finally succeed in demonstrating the superiority of Christianity, in various media, 
such as in the frescoes applied to the interior walls of the Gozzoburg (Gozzo Castle) in Krems, Lower Austria. [22] 
5. Jacobus de Voragine 
In Jacobus de Voragine’s Legenda aurea, composed around 1260 by this highly esteemed and very successful 
Dominican priest in Genoa (archbishop since 1292 until his death in 1298), we find one of the many versions of 
the story of this Indian saint, that is, in a way of Buddha himself, considering the critical experiences by the young 
protagonist as a wealthy prince whose father is trying in vain to keep him isolated away from all suffering and 
pain in this world, pretending to him that all life is filled with nothing but pleasure and happiness. [23]  
The narrator does not discuss any of his ancient sources, refers only to the one used by him, a translation by John 
of Damascus in the tenth century, [24] but places us immediately within India where many people have converted 
to Christianity and are yet persecuted by King Avenir who adheres to the old faith. The Christian Church has 
developed there already so much that monasteries have been erected. When one of Avenir’s high-ranking members 
of the court turns away from the world and joins a monastery, this arouses the king’s extreme anger who has him 
fetched and questioned, and is thus informed about the essence of the Christian faith, which he rejects, however. 
In the meantime, Avenir’s son Josaphat is born, and when he inquires with his astrologers concerning the young 
boy’s future, the wisest among them foretells that Josaphat would one day “‘. . . not reign in your kingdom but in 
an incomparably better one, because, as I see it, he will worship as a believer in Christ’s religion, which you are 
persecuting!’” (356). This frightens the father, so he has his son raised in a remote and luxurious castle where no 
one is allowed to talk to him about old age or death. Anyone who is falling ill is immediately removed from the 
prince’s presence.  
However, young Josaphat tires of the complete isolation in the palace and is finally allowed to depart for a ride on 
horses. Here he suddenly encounters a leper and a blind man and is thus finally confronted with the reality of this 
world. Thereafter, he also meets an old man, thus learns about old age and also death, which throws him into deep 
thoughts and awakens profound desires to be instructed about those phenomena (358).  
Soon thereafter, the monk Barlaam appears in the disguise of a merchant and is allowed to join the prince’s 
company. This provides him with the opportunity to teach him lessons about Christianity and convince him of the 
truth of that faith. However, though Josaphat would have liked to join him in his hermitage, Barlaam urges him to 
wait for the right moment in the future. Then he baptizes his mentee and departs. Unfortunately for Josaphat, his 



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father has learned about his conversion and is deeply grieved, looking for a strategy to change all that. In a 
conversation with his son, he learns the following: “‘Father, I fled the darkness and ran to the light, abandoned 
error and acknowledged the truth. Do not labor in vain, therefore!” (362). The king even threatens to disown him 
if he does not let go of his new faith, which fails to achieve anything. Next, the father tries kindness and love, 
which also does not work. Thereupon he offers to have a public debate between his own people and this Barlaam, 
whom he has allegedly apprehended, though this is the wrong man who actually cooperates with Avenir to deceive 
Josaphat about his new religion (Nachor). 
Nachor, scared of Josaphat’s threats against his life if he were to fail in his public defense of Christianity, tries his 
hardest to do just that and wins, against his own original intentions and the king’s instruction. Surprisingly, 
Josaphat, who actually knows of his true identity, manages to convert Nachor to Christianity, and the latter then 
leaves the court and turns into a hermit (364). Next, the sorcerer Theodas attempts with the help of demons and a 
score of lovely ladies to seduce the prince, but although he is getting close to his goal due to the erotic lure, he 
ultimately fails as well, listens to Josaphat’s teachings, and so also turns into a Christian. 
Finally, the young man’s father divvies up his kingdom and grants half of it to his son, who grudgingly accepts 
the position of a ruler because this allows him to erect churches and crosses and to have his people missionized 
and baptized into Christians. The narrative concludes with the father himself abandoning his old faith and accepting 
the new one: “Thereafter he devoted himself to good works and finished his life virtuously” (366). Josaphat tries 
several times to flee to get away from his worldly post, and finally manages it, wandering throughout the world 
until he finds Barlaam, with whom he then shares many years together until first the older man, than he himself 
dies. Both are honorably buried, and the account concludes with references to miracles which occurred at their 
graves. 
6. Other Asian and European Connections: 
6.1 The Panchatantra 
We are not in a strong position to claim that the European poet was truly familiar with India or even with Buddhism, 
and yet the essential aspects of Buddha’s life are still preserved here despite the many stages of translation, such 
as by Vincent of Beauvais. [25] However, if we adduce a quite parallel account contained in the Roman des sept 
sages de Rome, also translated into many languages, we recognize two strong strands of narrative traditions 
extensively popular both in the eastern world and in medieval Europe highlighting the central importance of wise 
advisors to a ruler who ultimately learns the path to Christian piety and a life of devotion and submission under 
God. [26] In the West, this was probably best illustrated by the Castilian poet Don Juan Manuel (1282-1348) in 
his famous collection of narratives, El Conde Lucanor (1335), parts of which can be traced back to the 
Panchatantra. [27]  
Jacobus de Voragine did not engage intensively with India as such; instead, he focused on the experiences of the 
prince who has suddenly to face old age, sickness, and death, which transforms him deeply and opens the pathway 
toward his conversion to Christianity. Those experiences move him away from the illusions of his splendid life as 
the king’s heir and confront him with the painful aspects of all physical reality. Those experiences, however, are 
so humbling, just as in the case of Buddha, that he ultimately abandons all the material wealth and turns into a 
hermit, together with his teacher and friend Barlaam.  
We can easily refer to any of the many summaries of Buddha’s life to recognize immediately the striking parallels:  

His early life was one of luxury and comfort, and his father protected him from exposure to the ills of the 
world, including old age, sickness, and death. At age 16 he married the princess Yashodhara, who would 
eventually bear him a son. At 29, however, the prince had a profound experience when he first observed 
the suffering of the world while on chariot rides outside the palace. He resolved then to renounce his wealth 
and family and live the life of an ascetic. During the next six years, he practiced meditation with several 
teachers and then, with five companions, undertook a life of extreme self-mortification. One day, while 
bathing in a river, he fainted from weakness and therefore concluded that mortification was not the path to 
liberation from suffering. Abandoning the life of extreme asceticism, the prince sat in meditation under a 
tree and received enlightenment, sometimes identified with understanding the Four Noble Truths. [28] 

Once the Indian version had made its way to Persia, from there to Armenia, Syria, and the Arab-speaking world, 
the account of Buddha’s life spread also to medieval Europe, as exemplified by the various versions by, for instance, 
Gui de Cambrai (first half of the thirteenth century), by Catalan, Hebrew, Italian, and English translators, not to 
forget Latin and French versions. [29] Interestingly, as much as western audiences were deeply intrigued by this 
prince’s personal decision to abdicate from his throne in order to live a life of virtues, spirituality, and purity, as 



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much Buddha’s story spread also to China, Vietnam, and Southeast Asia. In fact, if we want to approach the 
phenomenon of the global Middle Ages, or any other era on a global level, then the story of Barlaam and Josaphat 
provides the best evidence that such global connections actually existed. [30]  
Whereas the poets of traditional courtly romances project a mostly generic physical background without any 
particular interest in translating – here understood in conceptual and mental-cultural terms – in the case of the 
highly popular story of this prince and his hermit-teacher we encounter a much more serious interest in some 
universal questions as they had been raised in the Indian context. Whether the poets/translators and their audiences 
had any concrete knowledge or concept of Buddhismus, or whether they simply found the account of self-imposed 
asceticism by a prince so appealing as a spiritual critique of power-hungry and pompous rulers within their own 
domain, does not have to be decided here. [31] What matters is only the fact that the world of Indian Buddhism is 
indirectly evoked here, especially because the ideals presented in this text appealed to audiences across medieval 
Europe. [32] 
6.2 Rudolf von Ems 
One of the most elaborate versions can be found in Rudolf von Ems’s Barlaam und Josaphat (ca. 1230), who 
created this work upon the request of the Abbot Wido of the Cistercian monastery of Kappel near Zürich. [33] 
Wido wanted Rudolf, a ministerialis (administrator) at the court of the bishops of Constance, to translate the Latin 
origin by John of Damascus, Historia duorum Christi militum. Parallel to Rudolf and independently from him, 
two other Middle High German poets also created translations, the oldest being the Laubacher Barlaam, perhaps 
by Bishop Otto II of Freising (1184-1220). A third translation, also from the thirteenth century, has survived only 
in fragments. [34] 
Rudolf’s version obviously enjoyed considerable popularity, as documented by twenty-three manuscripts 
containing the full text, and twenty-eight manuscripts offering fragments. [35] There are strong parallels with the 
version in Jacobus de Voragine’s Legenda aurea, but also differences. [36] Here, the king father is afraid that his 
son might convert to Christianity, and so he isolates him completely, surrounded only by young and healthy people 
who all look out for his entertainment and pleasures – Jacobus had only emphasized that Josaphat would rule in a 
much better kingdom than his father’s. The subsequent events are fairly parallel, except that later, once the father 
has divvied up the kingdom so that his son can rule over his own part, political and economic aspects enter the 
picture. Surprisingly, Josaphat’s kingdom, where Christianity has been introduced, prospers considerably, whereas 
the other half experiences a dramatic decline. After the father’s death, Josaphat hands over the rule to his loyal 
servant Barachias and turns into a hermit himself. He finally encounters Barlaam and assumes, after his death, the 
government of the hermits’ community. Barachias is identified as the one who has their story recorded and thus 
preserved for posterity. [37]  
Rudolf made considerable efforts to expand on Jacobus’s version, but he stayed close to it, after all. We are, 
however, given many more details, quotes from exchanges, and dramatic illustrations, especially of Josaphat’s 
reaction to the encounter with the leper and the blind man. One of many examples would be that the young man is 
informed that no one here on earth can predict whether s/he will be inflicted by leprosy or any other illness, which 
indicates the complete contingency which all individuals here on earth are subjugated under (1214-19). The poet 
offers considerably more motivational insights and fleshes out whereas Jacobus is rather curt in his account, but 
otherwise, the Middle High German version proves to be very close to the one in the Golden Legends. 
The Laubacher Barlaam draws much inspiration from the late antique tradition of the desert fathers, especially 
illustrated by the repeated references to St. Anthony. This work includes extensive didactic passages, such as 
Barlaam’s elaborate instructions of his student Josaphat, the latter’s intensive engagement with his father and the 
people about the proper faith, then the long explanations of some of the pagan religions, of the concepts by the 
Greeks concerning their gods, of the Egyptians’ cult of plants, and other pseudo-scientific aspects, always 
distancing the Christian faith from the pagan cults. [38] 
As far as I can tell, India, Buddhism, and East-Asian culture did not figure prominently anywhere else in medieval 
literature, even if we hear about India in other literary contexts determined by the account of Alexander the Great. 
[39] Nevertheless, the huge success story with Barlaam and Josaphat all over Europe and far beyond underscores 
that the theme itself, so closely associated with Buddha, exerted profound influence.  
Reflecting on Jacobus de Voragine’s Golden Legend once again, which set the tone for many European vernacular 
translations, we observe primarily that the narrator takes his audience to India as one of the many possible staging 
grounds for his story. There is no particular explanation for the reasons why he used this backdrop, except that the 
narrative set-up proved to be so appealing, with the conflict between father and son, the latter being converted to 
Christianity, which incenses the father immensely, although the narrator gives much praise to him early on as an 



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admirable and wise ruler. But the outcome demonstrates that the Christian faith would triumph even under difficult 
circumstances. Most important proves to be that for the author/narrator Christianity had already made a major 
inroad into India, as documented by the presence of many converted individuals and also of a good number of 
monasteries. Josaphat’s triumph at the end thus represents the complete victory of Christianity, although, which 
none of the western authors ever mentioned explicitly, the religious ideals presented here were really anchored in 
Buddhistic teachings. 
6.3 Marco Polo 
If we include also the perspectives and observations offered by Marco Polo in his famous Travels (ca. 1300), we 
can clearly observe the opaque approach to India, which he obviously visited, though without learning overly much 
about the various cultures and religions there. Most important for his attention was the political and military 
relationship of the local ruler with the Mongols, which was of a submissive kind. So we read: “this king renders 
the Great Khan every year a quantity of aloe wood and twenty elephants, the biggest and handsomest that can be 
found in his country. That is how he came to be the Great Khan’s liege man and to pay him this tribute” (250). 
[40] 
Similarly, the association of the Indian ruler and of the Indian masculine culture with extreme sexual control of 
the other gender also comes through loud and clear: “in this kingdom no pretty girl can marry without first being 
presented to the king for his inspection. If he is pleased with her, he takes her to wife. . . . this king had 326 children, 
male and female” (250). As to the economics, Polo emphasizes, always being the merchant in his mind, that India 
produces mostly elephants, aloe wood, and ebony wood, and obviously nothing else (ibid.).  
Apart from some exotic sounding references to various religious practices, the author does not allow his audience 
any further insights into the Indian culture, which voids his account of the desired anthropological information we 
would have liked to learn about. Of course, The Travels convey a much more vivid image of the world to the East 
as experienced by this extraordinary personality, but we cannot claim that Polo demonstrated particular awareness 
of and/or interest in the culture and spirituality practiced there. By the same token, the literary and religious works 
consulted above cannot claim any better authenticity, on the contrary. However, in light of the various versions of 
Barlaam and Josaphat we notice at least a strong interest to present a unique account about asceticism and piety 
as practiced by the hermit and then by his disciple, Josaphat.  
The medieval audiences would not have mistaken them for accurate reports about India or Buddhism, the term of 
which was probably entirely unknown in Europe during the pre-modern era. At the same time, in all versions we 
clearly detect a strong sense of India as being a major battle ground where Christianity could become victorious 
and defeat the local pagan religions, and this by means of God’s intervention helping Barlaam in his teaching of 
his princely disciple. In a way, we might even go so far as to read the various vernacular and the Latin versions as 
indirect criticism of the European rulers who did not perform the way how Josaphat did. Almost in a reversal of 
what Edward Said had called “Orientalism,” these medieval poets demonstrated a kind of rudimentary Indiaphilia, 
a curious phenomenon particularly for an age very little informed about India itself. [41] 
7. Conclusion 
We can now conclude with some final reflections on the relevance of those works in which India is integrated as 
the essential battle ground for Christianity. As little as the various poets and their audiences could have really 
learned much about the eastern world through those reports which were predicated on the ancient Sanskrit texts 
reflecting the life of Buddha, as much do those works indicate a growth in global awareness. Whereas recent 
scholars have endeavored very hard to develop ‘global literature,’ ‘globalism,’ or similar universal concepts by 
way of simply allowing many different voices from around the world to come to the same table, here we face the 
unique opportunity to comprehend ‘world literature’ in a more meaningful way. 

With respect to the Panchatantra, McComas Taylor observes insightfully:  

The language and culture of earlier world literature was not imposed on audiences by the push-factors 
of colonial power. Rather, it was attracted by the pull-factors exerted by emergent elites. These include 
the Persian Sasanids who absorbed Indic culture, the recently Islamized Arbs who learned from the 
Persians, and the Spanish kings in Toledo and Greek elites in Constantinople who appropriated Middle 
Eastern scholarship.[42] 

It seems, indeed, much more meaningful to trace themes, motifs, subject matters, and specific accounts as they 
unfolded across the world and made their influence felt wherever there was interest, for instance, in wisdom 
literature, than to assume that such global concepts as Orality, Heroism, Lyric Poetry, or Erotics and Politics of 



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Love indeed allow us to claim global connections.[43] The issue at stake here is whether we want to aim for a 
pastiche or a collage, an integrated image or a kaleidoscope. It is one thing to identify a universal quest for 
knowledge, wisdom, and spiritual insights, if not even for mystical visions. It is a very different thing, by contrast, 
to trace connections, influence, translations, adaptations, summaries, paraphrases, imitations, or recreations across 
languages, cultures, and historical epochs. Azadeh Yamini-Hamedani observes, for instance, that “[m]ysticism in 
many respects is concerned with facing and overcoming limitations: be it the limitations of language or the 
entrapments of the self. Practices meant to invoke it, from rituals of devotion and meditation to asceticism or 
chanting, are all attempts in transcendence.”[44] Would this, however, also entail that spiritualists and mystics 
from across the world would have automatically learned from it each other? Or did their visions and revelations 
simply follow similar epistemological patterns which allow us to place them side by side.  
It is fully understandable that there are many attempts at writing global history and global literary history today in 
light of the actually ongoing globalization in the present time.[45] However, if those connections, parallels, 
identifications, or similarities in pre-modern literature exist in name only, and do not constitute deeply-seated 
intellectual, spiritual, and mental interaction, as I observe them in the vast tradition of Barlaam and Josaphat or 
in The Book of the Seven Sages (Historia septem sapientum), then the entire notion of global literature could be a 
rather shaky concept.[46] Even though we cannot claim that Jacobus de Voragine or Rudolf von Ems were 
intimately familiar with the Oriental origin of their tale, they explicitly situated it in India and predicated the 
religious and ethical concept on the ancient account of Buddha’s life. They certainly ignored Buddha, and did not 
realize that they were actually engaging with the spiritual values and concepts of Buddhism, but in essence, their 
translation and adaptation efforts clearly signaled that the ideals presented here were those shared by poets and 
audiences in East and West. We thus confront in this case a phenomenal opportunity to probe more deeply what 
globalism might have meant already in the pre-modern world. These literary examples signal that there existed 
elements of globalism at least in the mind of some western poets and authors, although it seems highly unlikely 
that eastern literature was equally determined by an interest in the West. 
References 
[1] David S. Bachrach and Bernard S. Bachrach, “Military Intelligence and Long-Term Planning in the Ninth 

Century. The Carolingians and Their Adversaries,” Mediaevistik 33 (2020): 89-111. See also Reaven Amitai, 
“Mamluk Espionage Among the Mongols and Franks,” Asian and African Studies 22 (1988): 173-81; see also 
the contributions to Go Spy the Land: Military Intelligence in History, ed. Keith Neilson and B. J. C. 
McKercher (Westport, CT: Prager, 1992); cf. also Beyond Ambassadors: Consuls, Missionaries, and Spies in 
Premodern Diplomacy, ed. Maurits Ebben and Louis Sicking. Rulers&elites, 19 (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 
2021). 

[2] Recent years have seen extensive new research on all those nomadic people, whether the Huns, the Avars, the 
Magyars, or the Mongols. See, for instance, Walter Pohl, The Avars: A Steppe Empire in Central Europe, 567-
822. Trans. from the German (3rd ed., 2015; Ithaca, NY, and London: Cornell University Press, 2018); 
Ruotsala, Antti, Europeans and Mongols in the Middle of the Thirteenth Century: Encountering the Other. 
Suomalaisen Tiedeakatemian Toimituksia, Humaniora, 314 (Helsinki: The Finnish Academy of Science and 
Letters, 2001); Timothy May, The Mongols. Past imperfect (Leeds: ARC Humanities Press, 2020). 

[3] See now Sæbjørg Walaker Nordeide and Kevin J. Edwards, The Vikings. Past imperfect (Leeds: ARC 
Humanities Press, 2020); Vikings Across Boundaries: Viking-Age Transformations II, ed. Hanne Lovise 
Aannestad, Elise Naumann, Heidi Lund Berg, Hanne Lovise Aannestad, Unn Pedersen, and Marianne Moen. 
Culture, Environment and Adaptation in the North, 2 (New York and London: Routledge, 2020). 

[4] See now the contributions to Travel, Time, and Space in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Time: Explorations 
of Worldly Perceptions and Processes of Identity Formation, ed. Albrecht Classen. Fundamentals of Medieval 
and Early Modern Culture, 22 (Berlin and Boston: Walter de Gruyter, 2018). 

[5] Johann Schiltberger, The Bondage and Travels of Johann Schiltberger, a Native of Bavaria, in Europe, Asia, 
and Africa 1396‒1427, trans. from the Heidelberg ms. ed. in 1859 by Karl Friedrich Neumann by J. Buchan 
Telfer. With notes by P. Bruun and a preface, introduction and notes by the translator and editor (London: 
Hakluyt Society, 1897); cf. also the recent edition: Hans Schiltberger, Als Sklave im Osmanischen Reich und 
bei den Tataren: 1394‒?1427, ed. Ulrich Schlemmer. Alte abenteuerliche Reiseberichte (Wiesbaden: Ed. 
Erdmann, 2008); and for a German translation, see Johann Schiltbergers Irrfahrt durch den Orient: Der 
aufsehenerregende Bericht einer Reise, die 1394 begann und erst nach über 30 Jahren ein Ende fand. Aus 
dem Mittelhochdeutschen übertragen und herausgegeben von Markus Tremmel. Bayerische Abenteuer 
(Taufkirchen: Via Verbis Bavarica, 2000). For recent studies, see Albrecht Classen, “Global Travel in the Late 



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Middle Ages: The Eyewitness Account of Johann Schiltberger,” Medieval History Journal 23.1 (2020): 1–28 
(online at: https://doi.org/10.1177/0971945819895896); id., “The Topic of Imprisonment in Medieval 
German Literature: With an Emphasis on Johann Schiltberger’s Account About his 30-Year Enslavement in 
the East,” Studia Neophilologica (2020): 
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00393274.2020.1755362 (both last accessed on April 24, 
2021). 

[6] Quoted from Romane des 15. und 16. Jahrhunderts, ed. Jan-Dirk Müller. Bibliothek der frühen Neuzeit, 1 
(Frankfurt a. M.: Deutscher Klassiker Verein, 1990), 385‒585; here 491. For a review of the relevant research 
and the central topics, see Albrecht Classen, The German Volksbuch. A Critical History of a Late-Medieval 
Genre. Studies in German Language and Literature, 15 (Lewiston, NY, Queenston, and Lampeter: Edwin 
Mellen Press, 1995, reissued 1999), 163–83; cf. also Anne Simon, “The Fortunatus Volksbuch in the Light of 
Later Mediaeval Travel Literature,” Fifteenth-Century Studies 12 (1987): 175–86; Hannes Kästner, 
Fortunatus – Peregrinator mundi: Welterfahrung und Selbsterkenntnis im ersten deutschen Prosaroman der 
Neuzeit. Rombach Wissenschaft – Reihe Litterae (Freiburg i. Br.: Verlag Rombach, 1990), 76–106; Albrecht 
Classen, “Die Welt eines spätmittelalterlichen Kaufmannsreisenden. Ein mentalitätsgeschichtliches 
Dokument der Frühneuzeit: Fortunatus,” Monatshefte 86.1 (1994): 22–44; id., “The Crusader as Lover and 
Tourist: Utopian Elements in Late Medieval German Literature: From Herzog Ernst to Reinfried von 
Braunschweig and Fortunatus,” Current Topics in Medieval German Literature: Texts and Analyses 
(Kalamazoo Papers 2000–2006), ed. Sibylle Jefferis. Göppinger Arbeiten zur Germanistik, 748 (Göppingen: 
Kümmerle, 2008), 83–102; id., “The Encounter with the Foreign in Medieval and Early Modern German 
Literature: Fictionality as a Springboard for Non-Xenophobic Approaches in the Middle Ages: Herzog Ernst, 
Wolfram von Eschenbach, Konrad von Würzburg, Die Heidin, and Fortunatus,” East Meets West in the 
Middle Ages and Early Modern Times: Transcultural Experiences in the Premodern World, ed. Albrecht 
Classen. Fundamentals of Medieval and Early Modern Culture, 14 (Berlin and Boston: Walter de Gruyter, 
2013), 457–87; id., “Fremdbegegnung, Dialog, Austausch, und Staunen: Xenologische Phänomene in der 
deutschen Literatur des Mittelalters. Vom Hildebrandslied bis zum Fortunatus,” Mediaevistik 26 (2013): 
183–206. 

[7] See the comments by Jan-Dirk Müller, ed., Romane, 1210; as to Mandeville, see, for instance, Mary Campbell. 
The Witness and the Other World: Exotic European Travel Writing,400-1600 (Ithaca, NY, and London: 
Cornell University Press, 1988); and Kim Phillips, Before Orientalism: Asian Peoples and Cultures in 
European Travel Writing, 1245-1510. The Middle Ages Series (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania 
Press, 2014); Eastward Bound: Travel and Travellers, 1050-1550, ed. Rosamund Allen (Manchester: 
Manchester University Press, 2004). For eastern, specifically Arabic perspectives, see Nizar F. Hermes, The 
[European] Other in Medieval Arabic Literature and Culture: Ninth-Twelfth Century AD. The New Middle 
Ages (New York and London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015). For the text by Mandeville, see The Book of John 
Mandeville with Related Texts, ed. and trans. Ian Higgins (Cambridge, MA: Hackett Publishing, 2011). 

[8] Shayne Aaron Legassie, The Medieval Invention of Travel (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago 
Press, 2017). 

[9] Sonja Brentjes, Alexander Fidora, and Matthias M. Tischler, “Towards a New Approach to Medieval Cross-
Cultural Exchanges,” Journal of Transcultural Medieval Studies 1.1 (2014): 9-50; with an extensive 
bibliography. 

[10] Die Meerfahrt: Balthasar Springers Reise zur Pfefferküste: mit einem Faksimile des Buches von 1509, ed. 
Andreas Erhard and Eva Ramminger (Innsbruck: Haymon-Verlag, 1998); Albrecht Classen, “India Perceived 
Through the Eyes of Sixteenth-Century Readers: Ludovico de Varthema’s Bestseller on the Early Modern 
Book Markets—A Narrative Landmark of the Emerging Positive Evaluation of curiositas,” Medievalia et 
Humanistica 40 (2015): 1-24. 

[11] Albrecht Classen, “Indien: Imagination und Erfahrungswelt in Antike und Mittelalter,” Mittelalter-Mythen, V. 
Ed. Ulrich Müller and Werner Wunderlich (St. Gall: UVK, 2008), 359-72; for early modern perspectives, see 
id., “India Perceived Through the Eyes of Sixteenth-Century Readers: Ludovico de Varthema’s Bestseller on 
the Early Modern Book Markets—A Narrative Landmark of the Emerging Positive Evaluation of curiositas,” 
Medievalia et Humanistica 40 (2015): 1-24. 

[12] Herweg, Mathias, ed. Herzog Ernst: Mittelhochdeutsch / Neuhochdeutsch, ed. Mathias Herweg. In der 
Fassung B (Stuttgart: Philipp Reclam jun., 2019). 



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[13] Lienert, Elisabeth, ed. Pfaffe Lambrecht: Alexanderroman.  Mittelhochdeutsch / Neuhochdeutsch. Stuttgart: 
Reclam 2007). 

[14] Wolfram von Eschenbach, Parzival. Studienausgabe, ed. Karl Lachmann (6th ed.), trans. into German by 
Peter Knecht, intro. by Bernd Schirok (Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1998). 

[15] U. Knefelkamp, “Indien,” Lexikon des Mittelalter, vol. V: Hiera-Mittel bis Lukanien (Munich and Zurich: 
Artemis Verlag, 1991), 404-05. 

[16] Geraldine Heng, The Invention of Race in the European Middle Ages (Cambridge: Cambridge University 
Press, 2018). 

[17] East Meets West in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Times: Transcultural Experiences in the Premodern 
World, ed. Albrecht Classen. Fundamentals of Medieval and Early Modern Culture, 14. Berlin and Boston: 
Walter de Gruyter, 2013); D’Orient en Occident: les recueils de fables enchâssées avant les “Mille et une 
Nuits” de Galland; (Barlaam et Josaphat, Calila et Dimna, Disciplina clericalis, Roman des Sept Sages), ed. 
Marion Uhlig and Yasmina Foehr-Janssens. Cultural Encounters in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, 16 
(Turnhout: Brepols, 2014); Die Figur des Herrschers in der Exempelliteratur – Transkulturelle Perspektiven, 
ed. Mechthild Albert and Ulrike Becker. Studien zu Macht und Herrschaft, 8 (Göttingen: V&R unipress; Bonn 
University Press, 2020). 

[18] The Pancatantra: The Book of India’s Folk Wisdom, trans. Patrick Olivelle (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 
1997). For a truly solid overview of the history of this famous collection and its reception, along with a great 
bibliography, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panchatantra (last accessed on April 24, 2021). See now 
Nasrullah Munshi, Kalila and Dimna, trans. from the Persian by Wheeler Thackston (Indianapolis, IN, and 
Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company, 2019). For a case of a late medieval German translation, see 
Albrecht Classen, “India, Persia, and Arabia in the Mind of a Late Fifteenth-Century German Author: 
Transcultural Experiences through the Literary Discourse. Antonius von Pforr and His Buch der Beispiele 
der Alten Weisen,” Philological Quarterly 99.2 (2020): 119–45. 

[19] Romedio Schmitz-Esser, “The Buddha and the Medieval West: Changing Perspectives on Cultural Exchange 
Between Asia and Europe in the Middle Ages,” Travel, Time, and Space (see note 2), 311-30; for Asian textiles 
at least in the Byzantine world, see Jaroslav Folda, “The Use of Çintamani as Ornaments: A Case study in the 
Afterlife of Forms,” Byzantine Images and Their Afterlives: Essays in Honor of Annemarie Weyl Carr, ed. 
Lynn Jones (Farnham: Ashgate, 2014), 183-204; see also Jens T. Wollesen, “East Meets West and the Problem 
with Those Pictures,” East Meets West in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Times: Transcultural 
Experiences in the Premodern World, ed. Albrecht Classen. Fundamentals of Medieval and Early Modern 
Culture, 14 (Berlin and Boston: Walter de Gruyter, 2013), 341-88. 

[20] Evgeny Khvalkov, The Colonies of Genoa in the Black Sea Region: Evolution and Transformation. Routledge 
Research in Medieval Studies, 11 (New York and London: Routledge, 2018); id., “Population de Caffa 
génoise à la lumière des livres comptables des années 1423-1424 et 1461-1462,” Mediaevistik 33 (2020): 
155-65. 

[21] Albrecht Classen, “Kulturelle und religiöse Kontakte zwischen dem christlichen Europa und dem 
buddhistischen Indien während des Mittelalters: Rudolfs von Ems Barlaam und Josaphat im europäischen 
Kontext.” Fabula 41 (2000): 203–28; Constanza Cordoni, “Barlaam und Josaphat in der europäischen 
Literatur des Mittelalters,” Ph.D. diss., Vienna, 2010. See also the contributions to Barlaam und Josaphat: 
Neue Perspektiven auf ein europäisches Phänomen, ed. Constanza Cordoni und Matthias Meyer (Berlin and 
Boston: Walter de Gruyter, 2015); Jacques Le Goff, In Search of Sacred Time: Jacobus de Voragine and The 
Golden Legend, transl. by Lydia G. Cochrane (2011; Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2014). 

[22] Gertrud Blaschitz, “Farbiger Innenraum – genealogische Metapher? Barlaam- und Josaphat-Fresken in der 
Kremser ‘Gozzoburg’,” Farbe im Mittelalter: Materialität – Medialität – Semantik, ed. Ingrid Bennewitz and 
Andrea Schindler. Akten des 13. Symposiums des Mediävistenverbandes vom 1. bis 5. März 2009 in Bamberg 
(Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 2011), 159–74; eadem, “‘Barlaam und Josaphat’ als Vorlage für Wandmalereien in 
der Gozzoburg von Krems,” Medium Aevum Quotidianum 57 (2008): 28–48. For critical comments, see 
Christian Opitz, “Die Wandmalereien im Turmzimmer der Kremser Gozzoburg. Ein herrschaftliches 
Bildprogramm des späten 13. Jahrhunderts,” Österreichische Zeitschrift für Kunst und Denkmalpflege 62 
(2008): 588–602. Andreas Zajic, Kulturgeschichte der Überlieferung im Mittelalter. Quellen und Methoden 
zur Geschichte Mittel- und Südosteuropas, ed. Elisabeth Gruber, Christina Lutter, Oliver Jens Schmitt 
(Cologne, Weimar, and Vienna: Böhlau Verlag, 2017), 294–300; but confer also Gertrud Blaschitz, “‘Barlaam 



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und Josaphat’ im moldawischen Kloster Neamt, Neamt, Rumänien,” Barlaam und Josaphat: Neue 
Perspektiven auf ein europäisches Phänomen, ed. Constanza Cordoni und Matthias Meyer (Berlin and Boston: 
Walter de Gruyter, 2015), 21–42. I summarize here the overview provided by Romedio Schmitz-Esser, 327, 
n. 49, 328, n. 52. 

[23] Jacobus de Voragine, The Golden Legend: Readings on the Saints, trans. William Granger Ryan (Princeton, 
NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993), vol. 2, no. 180, 355-166. Jacobus de Voragine, La légende dorée, trans. 
from the French by Jean-Baptiste-Marie Roze (Paris: Citadelles & Mazenod, 2008). See also the edition and 
German translation, Jacobus de Voragine, Legenda aurea: die Heiligenlegenden des Mittelalters. Hrsg., neu 
übersetzt und mit einem ausführlichen Anhang versehen von Matthias Hackemann (Cologne: Anaconda, 
2008). For a pragmatic approach to our text sample, see Reading Medieval Latin with the Legend of Barlaam 
and Josaphat, ed. and supplied with commentary by Donka D. Markus. Michigan Classical Commentaries 
(Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2018). 

[24] Historiae animae utilis de Barlaam et Ioasaph, ed. Robert Volk. Die Schriften des Johannes von Damaskos, 
6. Patristische Texte und Studien, 60-61 (Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2006). 

[25] Mattia Cavagna, “Barlaam and Josaphat in the ‘legenda aurea’ and the ‘Miroir historia’: A Tale Twice Framed,” 
Barlaam und Josaphat (see note 15), 85-100. 

[26] Die Historia von den sieben weisen Meistern und dem Kaiser Diocletianus. Nach der Gießener Handschrift 
104 mit einer Einleitung und Erläuterungen, ed. Ralf-Henning Steinmetz. Altdeutsche Textbibliothek, 116 
(Tübingen: Max Niemeyer, 2001). See also Obermaier, S. (2004). Das Fabelbuch als Rahmenerzählung: 
Intertextualität und Intratextualität als Wege zur Interpretation des Buchs der Beispiele der alten Weisen 
Antons von Pforr. Beihefte zum Euphorion, 48 (Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter, 2004). 

[27] Reinaldo Ayerbe-Chaux, El Conde Lucanor: Materia tradicional y originalidad creadora (Madrid: J. Porrúa 
Turanzas, 1975). Mario Cossío Olavide, “‘Algunos moros muy sabidores’: Virtuous Muslim Kings in 
Examples 30 and 41 of ‘El conde Lucanor’,” Bulletin of Spanish Studies 97.2 (2020): 127-38; see also Maria 
Cecilia Ruiz, “Theft in Juan Manuel’s El Conde Lucanor,” Crime and Punishment in the Middle Ages and 
Early Modern Age: Mental-Historical Investigations of Basic Human Problems and Social Responses, ed. 
Albrecht Classen and Connie Scarborough. Fundamentals of Medieval and Early Modern Culture, 11 (Berlin 
and Boston: Walter de Gruyter, 2012), 247-80. 

[28] Giuseppe Tucci, Joseph M. Kitagawa, and Frank E. Reynolds, “Buddhism,” online at: 
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Buddhism/The-life-of-the-Buddha; see also https://www.diamondway-
buddhism.org/buddhism/buddha/; https://www.accesstoinsight.org/ptf/buddha.html (all last accessed on 
April 25, 2021). For a scholarly rendition, see Chikō Komatsu The Way to Peace: The Life and Teachings of 
the Buddha, trans. from the Japanese (Kyoto: Hōzōkan Publ. Co., 1989). 

[29] Barlaam und Josaphat, ed. Cordoni and Meyer (see note 17). 
[30] Toward a Global Middle Ages: Encountering the World Through Illuminated Manuscripts, ed. Bryan C. Keene 

(Los Angeles, CA: The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2019), 3-4. 
[31] María Jesús Lacarra, “The Figure of the Ruler in ‘Calila e Dimna’ and the ‘Exemplario contra los engaños y 

peligros del mundo’,” Die Figur des Herrschers (see note 12), 53-71. She limits herself to the Spanish 
tradition and traces it back primarily to Arabic sources. But, as we know already, the lines of transmission 
often go much further back to Persia and then India; see José Manuel Pedrosa, “Los cuentos en la España 
medieval entre la voz y la lettra,” Cuentística castellana medieval, ed. Marta Haro Cortés. Vol. 1: Origen, 
consolidación y evolución. Del ‘Calila e Dimna’ al ‘Exemplario contra los engaños y peligros del mundo. 
Colección Parnaseo, 6 (Valencia: Universitat de València, 2013), 229-47 (easily accessible online at: 
http://parnaseo.uv.es/AulaMedieval/AulaMedieval.php?id=CuentosMedievales (last accessed on April 25, 
2021). 

[32] Constanza Cordoni, Barlaam und Josaphat in der europäischen Literatur des Mittelalters: Darstellung der 
Stofftraditionen - Bibliographie - Studien (Berlin and Boston: Walter de Gruyter, 2014). 

[33] Helmut de Boor, Die höfische Literatur: Vorbereitung, Blüte, Ausklang 1170-1250. Geschichte der deutschen 
Literatur von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart, 2 (Munich: C. H. Beck, 1966), 176-87. 

[34]“‘Barlaam’-Bruchstücke,” ed. Franz Pfeiffer, Zeitschrift für deutsches Alterthum 1 (1841): 126-35. Online at: 
https://www.jstor.org/stable/20649870?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents (last accessed on April 25, 2021). 

[35] The latest account is provided online at: https://handschriftencensus.de/werke/321 (last accessed on April 25, 



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2021).  
[36] Rudolf von Ems, Barlaam und Josaphat. Dichtungen des deutschen Mittelalters, 3. Nachdruck mit einem 

Anhang, einem Nachwort und einem Register von Heinz Rupp (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1965); online at: 
https://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/en/view/bsb10107283?page=1 (last accessed on April 25, 2021). 

[37] Joachim Bumke, Geschichte der deutschen Literatur im hohen Mittelalter (Munich: Deutscher Taschenbuch 
Verlag, 1990), 394-95. 

[38] Helmut de Boor, Die deutsche Literatur im späten Mittelalter. Part I: 1250-1350. 5th ed. Newly revised by 
Johannes Janota. Geschichte der deutschen Literatur von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart, III/1 (1962; 
Munich: C. H. Beck, 1997), 459-61. 

[39] Alexanderdichtungen im Mittelalter: Kulturelle Selbstbestimmung im Kontext literarischer Beziehungen, ed. 
Jan Cölln, Susanne Friede, and Hartmut Wulfram. Veröffentlichungen aus dem Göttinger 
Sonderforschungsbereich 529 “Internationalität nationaler Literaturen”, 1 (Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag, 2000). 

[40] The Travels of Marco Polo, trans. and with an intro. by Ronald Latham (London: Penguin, 1958); for recent 
critical studies, see the contributions to Marco Polo and the Encounter of East and West, ed. Suzanne Conklin 
Akbari and Amilcare Iannucci (Toronto, Buffalo, and London: University of Toronto Press, 2008). One of the 
best studies continues to be by John Larner, Marco Polo and the Discovery of the World (New Haven, CT, 
and London: Yale University Press, 1999); cf. also Albrecht Classen, “Marco Polos Il Milione/Le Divisement 
du Monde: der Mythos vom Osten,” Mittelalter Mythen. Herrscher, Helden, Heilige. Ulrich Müller and 
Werner Wunderlich, eds. (St. Gall: UVK, 1996), 423-36; id., “Marco Polo and John Mandeville: The Traveler 
as Authority Figure, the Real and the Imaginary,” Authorities in the Middle Ages: Influence, Legitimacy, and 
Power in Medieval Society, ed. Sini Kangas, Mia Korpiola, and Tuija Aionen. Fundamentals of Medieval and 
Early Modern Culture, 12 (Berlin and Boston: Walter de Gruyter, 2013), 239-48. 

[41] Edward Said, Orientalism (London: Routledge, 1978); Khanmohamadi, Sh. A., In Light of Another’s Word: 
European Ethnography in the Middle Ages. The Middle Ages Series (Philadelphia, PA: University of 
Pennsylvania Press, 2014). 

[42] McComas Taylor, “The Panchatantra: World Literature Before ‘World Literature,’” A Companion to World 
Literature, ed. Ken Seigneurie. Vol. 1: Third Millennium BCE to 600 CE, ed. Wiebke Denecke and Ilaria L. 
E. Ramelli (Hoboken, NJ, and Chichester, West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons, 2020), 561-75; here 572. 

[43] This is, as I see it, the major problem with the six-volume set, A Companion to World Literature (see note 35). 
Cf. also Roland Wenzlhuemer, Doing Global History: An Introduction in Six Concepts (London: Bloomsbury 
Academic, 2020). Salisbury, J. E., ed. (2009). The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Global Medieval Life and 
Culture. 3 vols (Westport, CT, and London: Greenwood, 2009); Heng, G., and Ramey, L. (2014). Early 
Globalities, Global Literatures: Introducing a Special Issue on the Global Middle Ages. Literature Compass, 
1–6; online at: 10.1111/lic3.12156;  

[44] Azadeh Yamini-Hamedani, “On Transcendence and Literariness,” A Companion to World Literature (see. note 
35), vol. 2, 774-82; here 776. 

[45] Forde, Simon. The Encyclopedia of the Global Middle Ages. London: ARC Humanities Press, 2019; online 
at: https://www.bloomsburymedievalstudies.com/encyclopedia?docid=b-9781350990005. 

[46] Die Historia von den sieben weisen Meistern und dem Kaiser Diocletianus (see note 22); see also Le roman 
des sept sages, ed. Jean Misrahi. Rpt. (1933; Geneva: Slatkine, 1975); Le roman de Dolopathos: edition du 
manuscrit H 436 de le Bibliothèque de l’Ecole de Médecine de Montpellier, ed. Jean-Luc Leclanche. Les 
classiques français du Moyen Âge, 126 (Paris: Champion, 1997). 

 
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