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Marco Polo
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Marco Polo is one of the most famous European travelers to the Far East. His tales of the exoticism of the court of the Great Khan Khubilai have inspired people to follow his footsteps for hundreds of years. According to his record, Marco Polo, his brother and an uncle set off for the east in the middle of the thirteenth century and spent the next twenty four years exploring the orient. Impressing those whom he met with his erudition and urbanity, Marco even became a confidant of Khubilai Khan and was awarded high office and many important duties which he seems to have performed admirably. This included a geographic assessment of the territories around the Khanate and these form the basis of much of the travels. Marco travels to Beijing via the Silk Road and then around the coasts and mainland of Japan, southern China, Southeast Asia, India and other areas.
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The diversity of the interests of Marco Polo is amazing. The nature, climate, state protocol, trade, architecture, religions, traditions and customs, magnificent palaces of the rulers, the disposition of the courtiers, the eastern bazaars, national cuisine, legends and stories is all addressed and explained in his book. Marco Polo begins his description of Asia from Armenia, writing about areas of present Persia and part of Turkey, and on to the Central Asia. He includes interesting information about Mongolia, China, Japan and India. In his description of the northern areas of Persia (Khorasan), verging now on the borders of the Caspian, he emphasizes the difficulties, the traps the traveler experiences in the desert: lack of water, heat and vicious sand.
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The "Book of Marco Polo" dictated to Rusticiano was compiled in French. A more correct version, revised by Marco Polo, was sent by him in 1307 to Thibaud of Cepoy, the agent of Charles of Valois at Venice, to be presented to that prince, who was a candidate for the Crown of Constantinople and the promoter of a crusading movement. The Latin, Venetian, and Tuscan versions are merely translations which are often faulty, or abridgments of the first two texts. The compilation of his book may be regarded as one of the most important events in the history of geographical discoveries. Hitherto Occidentals knew almost nothing of Asia; in his "Tresor" Brunetto Latini (1230-94) merely reproduces in this respect the compilations of C. Julius Solinus, the abbreviator of Pliny. The "Book of Marco Polo", on the other hand, contains an exact description by an intelligent and well-informed witness of all the countries of the Far East.
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When Marco Polo arrived in China, Mongols had recently completed a conquest of the entire country. The Sung Dynasty of China had collapsed and had been run over by the descendants of Ghengis Khan. Kublai Khan, born 1215, the grandson of Ghengis Khan, completed the defeat of the stubborn Southern Sung Dynasty in Southern China. The Mongolian invasion of Southern China took longer than most victories of the Mongolian army, which swept across virtually all of Asia, from Hungary to Siberia to Vietnam.
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Marco Polo was born in Venice, Italy on September 15, 1254. His father and uncle were prosperous merchants who already begun trading with Chinese and Eastern merchants. Because of the constant threat of war, the Polos left Venice and eventually settled in what is now Uzbekistan. The move east to Uzbekistan made trading with China and the East much easier. In 1264, Marco's father Nicolo, and uncle, Maffio set out on a two-year long journey to meet Kublai Khan, the emperor of China in what is now Beijing. According to the account of Marco Polo, Kublai Khan received them well and requested they come back to teach the Chinese people Christianity and western customs.
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Marco Polo was born in Venice, one of the most prominent centers of trade in medieval Europe, into a merchant family. Venetian merchants of the day traded regularly throughout the Mediterranean region. They ... maintained trading posts in port cities on the Black Sea, where they obtained silk, porcelain, and other goods that came from China over the Silk Road, an ancient trade route linking China with Rome. Little is known about Marco Polo’s early life, because his own account of his travels, published later in his life, is the primary source of biographical material about him. Polo probably received a fairly typical education for children of merchants at that time, learning how to read, write, and calculate.
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Marco Polo