Carpini's History of the Tartars is a well-organized and meticulous account of the Mongol Empire told from Giovanni Carpini's point of view. As an overweight sixty-year-old friar, Carpini was an unlikely candidate to undertake the journey to the unexplored Mongol Empire, however, due to his ability to socialize easily among the peasants, he was chosen to carry out this task. Thanks to his determination not only to evangelize but also to spy on the Mongols, Carpini was able to write the History of the Tartars with great detail and accuracy. Only thanks to the work of Giovanni Carpini, we know as much about the Mongols as we know today. Reading Carpini's observations about the Mongols, there is a tremendous amount of information regarding the military might of the Mongols. Of the nine chapters in his book, two deal specifically with the value of their armies. These chapters illustrate how the Mongols waged war and how to actually defeat them. In the sixth chapter, Carpini is able to describe in great detail the weapons used by the Mongols and the intelligent tactics they employed in battle. Carpini first discusses the army's rank structure. It states that each rank employs ten men. The rankings are as follows, from lowest to highest; decanus, centenarius, millenarius, tenebra, general, and then supreme general of the whole army. Through his descriptions, Carpini is able to show us the complexity and effectiveness of the way the army is organized. Carpini is also able to tell us about the armament and armory of the Mongolian army. Each soldier receives at least one good bow, multiple quivers full of arrows, and a single battle axe. The armor that the soldiers wear is made of iron and is placed one on top of the other to create...... middle of paper......assassins, because in this way the ambassadors would spy on them, as the friar used to spy on the Mongols . There is a lack of information about their culture along with everything else compared to the overwhelming amount of information about the Mongol army, although the nature of its mission influenced this. Despite the slight bias of his observations, I don't think this discredits Carpini in the slightest. All in all, I believe Carpini's report on the Mongol Empire is a reliable primary source. Through Carpini's descriptions of the Mongols in his report, I can say that the Mongol Empire was indeed a postclassical society. The Mongol Empire was interconnected with many other empires such as the Byzantine and Turkish empires. They were all connected to each other because they were so close and constantly influenced each other.