Journey to Cathay

Marco Polo · 1271 CE – 1295 CE · Earth

Go back to Kublai Khan as his envoys, with the pope’s reply and oil from the lamp of the Holy Sepulchre.

Historical context

By the 1260s Mongol khans ruled from China to Persia and the Black Sea, and a golden tablet from the Great Khan could command horses and escorts across their lands. The Venetian brothers Niccolò and Maffeo Polo had reached Kublai Khan once and come back as his envoys to the pope. Their second journey, with Niccolò’s son Marco, is the one told in Marco’s book, put in writing by Rustichello of Pisa in a Genoese prison in 1298 and copied in many differing versions. Whether Marco went to China at all has been questioned, at book length by Frances Wood in 1995, and defended, among others by Igor de Rachewiltz and Hans Ulrich Vogel.

The voyage, step by step

1. Leaving Venice

   1271 CE

   Marco, about seventeen, sets out with his father and uncle, Niccolò and Maffeo Polo, who are going back to Kublai Khan with the new pope’s letters and oil from the lamp of the Holy Sepulchre.

2. Through Persia

   1272 CE

   From Ayas the Polos ride through Armenia into Persia and the high plateau, ruled by the Mongol Ilkhans, and go by Tabriz, Yazd and Kerman down to Hormuz before turning north again.

3. The high roads of Asia

   1274 CE

   From Balkh the Polos follow the trade roads of Central Asia through Badakhshan and over the Pamir to Kashgar, then by Yarkand and Khotan to Lop and across its desert to Tangut.

4. At the court of the Khan

   1275 CE

   Met by the Khan’s people forty days out, the Polos reach Kublai at his summer capital, Shangdu, where Marco enters the service of Kublai Khan for some seventeen years, before the three sail home with a Mongol bride for Persia.

Outcome

Reached Kublai at Shangdu about 1275; Marco served the Khan for some seventeen years, by his book’s account. The Polos sailed with the embassy taking Kököchin to Persia, where only a few of those who embarked arrived, and reached Venice in 1295. Marco’s book was written down by Rustichello of Pisa in a Genoese prison in 1298.

Marco Polo

Venetian merchant who reached the court of Kublai Khan and whose book introduced Europeans to Asia’s wealth and geography.

Read on Wikipedia

Sources

• The Book of Ser Marco Polo the Venetian, Concerning the Kingdoms and Marvels of the East, volume 1 (third edition)Marco Polo and Rustichello of Pisa, translated and edited by Henry Yule, revised by Henri Cordier · John Murray; Project Gutenberg · 1903
• The Book of Ser Marco Polo the Venetian, Concerning the Kingdoms and Marvels of the East, volume 2 (third edition)Marco Polo and Rustichello of Pisa, translated and edited by Henry Yule, revised by Henri Cordier · John Murray; Project Gutenberg · 1903
• F. Wood’s Did Marco Polo Go To China? A Critical AppraisalIgor de Rachewiltz · Australian National University, Open Research repository
• Review of Hans Ulrich Vogel, Marco Polo Was in China: New Evidence from Currencies, Salts and Revenues (review no. 1667)Na Chang · Reviews in History, Institute of Historical Research (Wayback Machine copy) · 2014
• Marco Polo — Wikipedia

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