the grand mongol religious debate

 the grand mongol religious debate

held under the orders of mongke khan, grandson of chengis khan who now occupied the seat of great khan.

The Mongols loved competitions of all sorts, and they organized debate among rival religions the same way they organized wrestling matches. it began on a specific date with a panel of judges to oversee it. In this case Mongke Khan ordered them to debate before three judges: a Christian, a Muslim, and a Buddhist. A large audience assembled to watch the affair which began with great seriousness and formality. An official lay strict rules by which Mongke wanted the debate to proceed: on pain of death no one shall dare to speak words of contention."

Babruck and the other Christians joined together in one team with the muslims in an effort to refute the Buddhist doctrines. As these men gathered together in all their robes and regalia in the tents on the dusty plains of Mangolia, they were doing something that no other set of scholars or theologians had ever done in history. It is doubtful that representatives of so many types of Christianity had come to a single meeting, and certainly they had not debated, as equals, with representatives of the various Muslim and Buddhist faiths. The religious scholars had to compete on the basis of their beliefs and ideas, using no weapons or the authority of any ruler or army behind them. They could use only words and logic to test the ability of their addess to persuade.

In the initial round, Rubruck faced a Buddhist from North China who began by asking how the world was made and what happened to the soul after death. Rubruck countered that the Buddhist monk was asking the wrong questions; the first issue should be about God from whom all things flow The umpires awarded the first points to Rubruck.

Their debate ranged back and forth over the topics of evil versus good, God's nature, what happens to the souls of animals, the existence of reincarnation and whether God had created evil. As they debated, the clerics formed coalitions among the various religions according to the topic. on the end of each round of wrestling, Mongol athletes would drink fermented mare's milk in keeping with that tradition, after each round of the debate, the men paused to drink deeply in preparation for the next match.

neither side seemed to convince the other of anything. Finally, as the effects of alcohal became stronger, the Christians gave up trying to persuade any with logical arguments, and resorted to singing. The Muslims, who did no singing responded by loudly reciting the Koran in an effort to drown out the christians, and the Buddhists retreated into silent meditation. At the end of match unable to convert or kill one another, they concluded the way Mongul celebrations concluded, with everyone simply too drunk to continue.

(from chenghis khan – jack weatherford – three river press, new york – 2004- page 172-173)