The Tale of Marco Polo

Part 3 - the Tale of his Travels

The book gives a description of the many different places and peoples that Marco Polo saw in his travels, but before we read these tales, first there is a short Prologue - a short history of the travels of the Polos, that Marco told to Rusticiano.

In the year 1260, Nicolas Polo and his brother Maffeo Polo, travelled from Venice with their merchant wares to Constantinople, and then they travelled on across the Black Sea to Soldania [today, it’s known as Sundak, on the south coast of Crimea].

[Note: The Venetians and Genoese were allowed to have trading depots at some ports along the Crimean coast, by agreement with the Mongol rulers - the Kipchak Khanate.]

From Soldania they would travel along the Volga river to Sarai and Bolgara – two towns under Barca Khan.

[Note: Sarai was built at Atil, the former capital of the Khazaria.]

But when a war broke out between Barca and Alau, it was unsafe to travel back the way that they had come, so they travelled further east to Ucaca [near today’s Saratov in Russia] and then across a desert for 17 days until they arrived at Bocara [today’s Bukhara in Uzbekistan], ‘the finest city in all of Persia’, but being unable to travel any further, they remained there for three years.

While at Bocara, some envoys from Alau, who were on their way to the Court of the Great Khan, arrived and invited the two Polo brothers to join them on their journey – since the Great Khan had never seen ‘Latins’ and would be very glad to meet them.

Protected by an embassy to the Great Khan, they had no fear of travelling further, and the Polo brothers continued with the envoys for one year, until they finally arrived at the Court of the Great Khan of all the Tartars, Kublai Khan, who received them with great honor, asking them many questions about the kings and princes of Europe and of the Pope and the church at Rome.

The Khan decided to send the Polo brothers on an embassy to the Pope. After 3 years travel, they arrived at Acre [today’s Akko in Israel], where they learned that the Pope had died, and so they decided to return to Venice to await the election of a new Pope. Later, after a meeting with the new Pope, they would begin their return journey to the Great Khan, and the two brothers would be accompanied by Nicolas’s son, Marco, and after 3 ½ years, they succeeded in reaching the great city of Kemenfu [known as Xanadu, Kublai Khan’s summer capitol of the Emperor of the Yuan dynasty in China - today’s Shangdu in China].

While living at Kemenfu, Marco learned the customs and language of the Tartars, and he also learned several other languages and their manner of writing. He was sent by the Emperor on a mission to Yunnan province, and later on a mission to India. He would travel on many missions for the Great Khan, and he remained in the Khan’s service for 17 years, until the Polos asked permission to return home - they realized that Kublai Khan was getting old, and they weren’t certain how they would be treated by his successor.

[Note: Kublai Khan would die in 1294.]

Agreeing to their request, the Great Khan sent them on a mission to bring a bride to the Lord of the Levant [Arghun of the Ilkhanate] and he also sent them with messages to all the Kings of Christendom in Europe. They travelled on great ships to Java, and across the Sea of India to Ilkhanate [Persia] and after completing their mission, they left for Constantinople and then home to Venice, arriving in the year 1295.

And in a few years, people would be able to read about his wonderful travels.

[next week - part 4 - the Tale of the Black Death]