Adventures in China
(Marco Polo)
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In 1271, 17 year old Marco Polo along with his uncle and father sailed from Venice to Acre (now Akko), a port in Palestine. From there, they rode camels to the Persian port of Hormuz, which is now in Iran. The Polos wanted to sail to China from Hormuz, but the ships available there did not seem seaworthy. The travellers continued by camel across the deserts and mountains of Asia. More than three years after leaving Venice, they reached Kublai Khan's summer palace in Shangdu (also spelled Shang-tu), near what is now Kalgan. The Khan gave the Polos a hearty welcome.
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Kublai Khan
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Kublai Khan had set up his court at Beijing, which was not a Mongol encampment but an impressive city built by Kublai as his new capital after the Mongols took over China in 1264. Kublai asked them all about their part of the world, the Pope and the Roman church. Niccolo and Matteo, who spoke Turkic dialects perfectly, answered truthfully and clearly. The Polo brothers were well received in the Great Khan's capital. One year later, the Great Khan sent them on their way with a letter in Turki addressed to Pope Clement IV asking the Pope to send him 100 learned men to teach his people about Christianity and Western science. He also asked Pope to procure oil from the lamp at the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Khan wanted his visitors to receive the best of treatment and offered them an enscribed golden tablet that served as a passport allowing them to receive lodging,food etc., throughout the kingdom.
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Khan did not want the Polos to leave but in 1292 he reluctantly agreed and they set off from from Zaitun (now Quanzhou), a port in southern China with fourteen large boats, and 600 other passengers from a port in southern China. The armada sailed through Indonesia to Sri Lanka and India and onto its final destination at the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf. Supposedly, only eighteen people survived from the original 600, including the princess who was to the wed the King of Persia.
The Polos returned to Venice after over 20 years and Marco joined the army in the battle against Genoa but was imprisoned in 1296.He dictated detailed accounts to another prisoner , Rustichello.Soon a French publication was released.Though Polo's fanciful tales were somewhat exaggerated , he provided specific information on the life and cultures of numerous Asian provinces.
Printing had not yet been invented in Europe, and so scholars copied Polo's book by hand. Description of the World was widely read in Europe. Historians believe it may have influenced many explorers. The book influenced Christopher Columbus's estimate of the distance between Spain and Asia.
However Marco Polo's best achievement is best said with his own words in his own book:
" I believe it was God's will that we should come back, so that men might know the things that are in the world, since, as we have said in the first chapter of this book, no other man, Christian or Saracen, Mongol or pagan, has explored so much of the world as Messer Marco, son of Messer Niccolo Polo, great and noble citizen of the city of Venice."
Biography................Marco Polo
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