The rise of the Mongol empire and the Mongol devastation of Hungary and Poland in 1241-2 brought the West for the first time into contact with Inner Asia. Newly emerging orders of preaching friars found their field of operations greatly expanded, and William of Rubruck’s report of his missionary journey through the Mongol empire is the earliest such account. He covers not only the Mongols, but also first encounters with Buddhism and the shamanistic practices of steppe people, and observations on the Nestorian Christian church and its rites, with additional perceptive remarks on geography, ethnography and fauna.