Globalism in the late Middle Ages: The low German Niederrheinische Orientbericht as a significant outpost of a paradigm shift. The move away from traditional Eurocentrism

If we want to talk about globalism in the pre-modern world, we must identify specific personal contacts and contact zones, individual exchanges, dialogues, and concrete cases of information sharing. This study at first problematizes many of the recent attempts to project a global Middle Ages and then introduces a remarkable voice from the middle of the fourteenth century which made serious attempts to inform his European audience about the Middle East from a uniquely 'objective' point of view. The anonymous author of the Niederrheinische Orientbericht (ca. 1350) offers a plethora of valuable information about the Muslim world in the Middle East, about Georgia and Armenia, about Mongolia and even India, including data on the political and military history, customs, religions, fauna and flora. His approach is determined by a sense of open dialogue, information sharing, and mutual respect, all fundamental elements making possible the pursuit of global perspectives already in the late Middle Ages.