Marco Polo: The Travels of Marco Polo

welcome to another session of intel Equestria spooks in this session we'll explore a very unique book in our series the only work that can be termed a travelogue although it's also an autobiography a history and a sociological study the book is the travels of Marco Polo published in 1299 in Genoa Italy it tells of Marco Polo's life and his travels from his home in Venice across Eastern Europe the Middle East and Asia to the court of Kublai Khan located in an area we now know as Beijing China Marco Polo's book is generally considered nonfiction although as you'll see the writers imagination and tendencies to exaggerate make it a blend of both nonfiction and fiction for 13th century readers who were unfamiliar with the places and people polo described it was difficult to discern fact from fantasy but today with our vast knowledge of history and geography it's somewhat easier to tell when the author was striving more for effect than for accuracy fantasies aside the travels of Marco Polo was an extremely important book for its time and still offers an enchanting and rich glimpse into far-off exotic lands and a period of history that no one else of his era had the opportunity to describe it also ushered in the Age of Exploration inspiring many adventurers including Christopher Columbus to seek new worlds and to discover the new in the old Marco Polo traveled for 26 years in the near and far east and for 20 of those years he was in the service of Kublai Khan the mighty Mongol Emperor who was a descendant of Genghis Khan when he returned to Italy he recorded the memories of his travels with the help of a romance writer from Pisa named Brewster cello those records almost 400 pages of them are a valuable and mesmerizing account of the cultural political and social life in the many lands he visited his vivid and detailed descriptions include dress and costumes food religious beliefs and rituals marital customs funeral rites housing and architecture and shrines transportation trade and commerce agriculture plants and animals geography and topography government class structure and arts and crafts his book is also peppered with anecdotes folktales legends and oral histories he'd heard from the people he met because he became a trusted friend an emissary of the great Kubla Khan a special feature of the book is his colorful descriptions of the Khan himself of his palace his wives and concubines his servants his wealth and his regal opulent lifestyle polo traveled in the countries and regions we know today as Turkey Iraq Iran Afghanistan Pakistan India Tibet and China it was an extraordinary journey for its time no other European had ever traveled so far there were no books no chronicles no first-hand accounts of the lands in the Far East everything the 13th century European knew about these areas which was very little was based on distant rumor ever since the days of Alexander the Great the Western world had had some knowledge of India but north and east of India lay parts unknown though great quantities of Chinese silk were carried along the caravan trails of Central Asia for sale in the Roman Empire no one seemed to have any knowledge of the countries from which it had come nor of the countries that had passed through Christian merchants took the risk of trading with Moslems whom they considered infidels but they seldom traveled beyond the sea ports of the Mediterranean or the Black Sea east and west were two different worlds Marco Polo became a window through which one civilization took its first tentative peek at another these civilizations were vastly different on the surface they had almost nothing in common the Westerners view of the East was filled with prejudice ignorance and condescension any civilization that was not European or Christian was backwards in barbarian the people in the East likewise had little knowledge of the West but they were interested Kublai Khan and others were delighted with Marco Polo and loved to hear about life in this strange distant world to the West but Khan made polo his official ambassador in his travels and sent him on many special missions Marco Polo became a living link between two cultures that had never before felt any connection or had any reliable information on each other he opened the eyes and broadened the horizons of both populations and he paved the way for trade and commerce between the two lands this was one of his goals in writing his travels for he was careful to map out and describe trade routes and to enumerate the valuables that could be found along the way he focused chiefly on the most profitable of these goods such as jewels silks and spices because the journey itself was so expensive in hazardous only luxury items brought a return on the merchants investment but the travels of Marco Polo became far more than a guidebook for the daring and ambitious merchant and it's more than an adventure tale or a lively autobiography although it is those things - most importantly it is a priceless piece of history a one-of-a-kind documentation of life in the Far East during the 13th century it also offers by nature of its author an insightful glimpse into the European mind of the 13th century for although Marco Polo was unusually worldly and more tolerant than most he also reflects some of the biases and opinions of his European contemporaries his descriptions and judgments are coloured simply by who he is and from them we gain perspective on what a typical Western point of view was over the centuries there have been numerous translations of the travels of Marco Polo in many languages it has been popular ever since its publication and it served as a guide to various explorers and adventurers Christopher Columbus who sailed to the new world two centuries later was well acquainted with the texts he treasured a well-thumbed manuscript of the book and scribbled notes in the margin in Marco Polo's own days descriptive tales such as his were immensely popular but no matter how objective they were they were always regarded as fiction people simply couldn't accept that such fantastic places and people's with customs and beliefs so different from theirs could really exist ironically although there are exaggerations in polos writing the most incredible stories are indeed based on fact on his deathbed polo was pressured to admit he'd made up some of the stories but instead he replied I have not told the half of it and has traveled to the east increased more and more of his stories were verified today we accept as matter of fact some of the descriptions his contemporaries found most incredible and unbelievable in spite of its journalistic merits the style of the book in keeping with the times is romanticized it often has the tone of fiction whether or not it is there are many versions of the book available each editor is chosen to delete different sections that seem repetitive but the excitement and adventure of the story never vary and to this day the name Marco Polo is synonymous with adventure travel to exotic oriental lands and fabulous discoveries polos sense of adventure and passion for travel was inherited his father Nicola polo and his uncle mafia polo were also merchants in 1254 the two wealthy gentlemen set out from Venice leaving Marco who was an infant in the care of his aunt they journey to the court of Kublai Khan where they became highly favored when the Khan heard of this unusual Christian religion practiced in the West he sent the polos back to Italy with his own envoys whom he hoped would meet with the Pope his wish was that the Pope would send a hundred scholars to his court to prove that the law of Christ in the words the book was most agreeable if they succeeded at this task the con valid that he and all his subjects would become Christians the polos sailed back into Italy in 1269 only to discover that the pope had died they decided to wait until a new pope was selected but after three years when this still hadn't been accomplished they decided to make their way back to Kublai Khan's court this time taking young Marco with them before the three could set out on their journey Pope Gregory was anointed and so they approached him with Kublai Khan's request the new pope reluctantly agreed but instead of one hundred scholars he sent only two priests to accompany them both priests soon became discouraged with the hardships and privations of the journey and turned back the three explorers Marco Polo his father Nicola polo and his uncle mafia polo forged ahead we know very little of Marco Polo's life before and after his travels and there are no detailed descriptions of him as a man he was born in the year 1250 for in Venice two years before the beginning of the famous Hundred Years War between Venice and Genoa Marco Polo's involvement in this war would later result in his imprisonment a lucky event as it turned out because this is where he wrote his travels Marco Polo's times were the times of st. Thomas Aquinas of Dante author of the Divine Comedy and the great Persian poets roomy and Hafiz it was a period that saw the end of the Crusades the founding of the Ottoman Empire and intensification of the Inquisition including the use of torture most importantly to Marco Polo it was also the age of the Mongol conquerors in 1206 48 years before polo was born the Mongol tribes gathered at their holy place in the plane of Karakoram and elected a ruler or Khan under his rule they conquered the northern region of China known as cafe and then decided to conquer the world within two generations they succeeded in conquering almost the entire land mass of Eurasia excluding only India Arabia Western Europe and parts of Indochina this stupendous empire was unequaled either before or since in terms of sheer size and the entire eastern part of it was under the rule of the Kahn and his successors the rest was divided up between three Lords who were members of the khan's family the passage of the Mongol army left devastation and death in its path to Christians it seemed the legions of Satan were on the march Christians refer to the Mongols as Tartars because it reminded them of the word Tartarus a mythological term for Hell still Christians were not terribly upset because the only Christian victims of the Mongols were the Russians who were rebel followers of the Greek Church the victims who really suffered under the mongols were the Moslems who had long been enemies of the Christians it was in this setting that Marco Polo's father and uncle set out for the East in spite of their friends warning against it in the year 1260 when Marco Polo was only six years old they were seeking a more profitable market for their wares but when asked by a Mongol Lord to take a message for him to Kublai Khan's court they couldn't resist at that point they became the first Europeans to penetrate China and when they marched their little Caravan into cafe they also marched right into the history books Kublai Khan was a very different man from his more savage ancestors he had absorbed something of Chinese culture including the humanitarian spirit of Buddhism in many ways he was a simple vigorous common nomad but he was also a visionary and a remarkably efficient ruler it was at this time that Kubla Khan sent the polos back to Italy to recruit Christian missionaries they returned instead with the seventeen-year-old Marco and remained in the East for over twenty years what the polos did during these 20 years is largely unknown the book doesn't detail all those years and only describe certain events from the period or general situations what is obvious is that they enjoyed the freedom of travel throughout the Empire although where they exactly went is still a matter of debate it's generally believed that they were cut off from all communication with the West although even this isn't certain in 1292 the polos began their journey back to the West taking the long sea route through the mêlée straits after their arrival in Venice in 1295 there are almost no accounts of their lives one story has it that their families and friends fail to recognize them and that the polos dramatically tore open their shabby travel garments and let fall a stream of rubies diamonds and emeralds in 1298 at the age of 44 Marco Polo was a prisoner of war at Genoa he had been captured while serving as the commander of a Venetian galley in the long war between Genoa and Venice who were competitors in sea trade he was probably released under the terms of a peace treaty signed in 1299 during his imprisonment he entertained fellow prisoners with the stories of his travels and one of them a writer and professional storyteller named Rustichello recognized the potential of an epic narrative he convinced marco polo to send to his father in venice for his notes on his travels this was the start of a literary partnership that would produce an enduring classic it is Rustichello who gave the book it's romantic flourish and perhaps also some of its fable and fiction marco polo dictated four books to him which were later published as one volume it remained the only source of information about the Far East until the late 19th century Marco Polo died 26 years after its release in 1324 at the age of 70 he left a detailed will in which he freed his tartar slave and left the bounty of his travels to his three daughters although history has left us no descriptions of marco polo we can determine a lot about him just by reading his book obviously he had great Enterprise resourcefulness stamina and fortunately for his readers an amazingly retentive memory he noticed things with the eyes of a practical merchants and traveler which is why there are so many references to food and water along the routes means of transport and the marketable products in every district he's true to his age in that he classifies people mainly on the basis of religion rather than race or culture they are either Christians Jews Saracens or idolaters he's hostile towards Moslems whom he refers to as worshippers of Mohammed but he's mortal toward idolaters who include basically Buddhists and Hindus he had a special respect for their holy men and even compared the Buddha to a Christian Saint quite a leap of faith for a man of his time the outstanding feature of Marco Polo's book is its description of the people he encounters he provides abundant and picturesque details of the Persians Turks Tartars Chinese Tibetans and Indians including all the particulars of their dress physical features customs and mannerisms he fully met the goal he set for himself in the introduction to his book when he threw the voice of co-writer Rustichello said here you will find all the great wonders and curiosities of Greater Armenia and Persia of the Tartars and of India and of many other territories for I would have you know that from the time when our Lord God formed Adam there has been no man who has known or explored so many various parts of the world and of its great wonders as Marco Polo for this reason he made up his mind that it would be a great pity if he did not have a written record made of all the things he had seen and had heard by true report so that others who have not seen and do not know them may learn them from this book polos claim that he had travelled more extensively than any man since the creation may be boastful but it really is a statement of fact or at least it's a fact as near as we can judge since there are no other written records of any one having travelled so far when the book was first released it was called a description of the world and although we know today that the world is much bigger than 13th century humankind imagined it it's still a description of a surprisingly large part of that world from the Polar Sea to Java from Zanzibar to Japan Polo had no rival in the field of travel until two generations later and some of the trails he blazed were not traveled again by a European for 600 years still others may have remained unexplored until the opening of the Burma Road in World War two the task of mapping out Marco Polo's travels in detail has yet to be completed and probably never will be since parts of his journeys are unaccounted for the parts of the journey that are accounted for make up one of the most stirring and inspiring true life adventures in the history of literature the first part of the book contains polos descriptions of his three and a half year journey to Kublai Khan's Court it's a fascinating narrative with vivid renditions not only of geography and traveling distances and conditions but of specifics like food preparation and production trade religious practices and customs and oral traditions among the many tribes and civilizations he encountered he passes through the area we now know as Turkey and offers a description of what we call today Mount Ararat in the heart of Greater Armenia is a very high mountain shaped like a cube on which Noah's Ark is said to have rested whence it is called the mountain of Noah's Ark it is so broad and long that it takes more than two days to go around it on the summit the snow lies so deep all the year round that no one can ever climb it this snow never entirely melts but new snow is forever falling on the old so that the level rises but on the lower slopes thanks to the moisture that flows down from the melting snow the herbage is so lush and luxuriant that in summer all the beasts from near and far resort here to batten on it and yet the supply never fails this flow of moisture also has the effect of making the hillsides very boggy in some versions of the book Marco Polo also says that the Ark is actually visible as a black patch among the snow on the Mount although it cannot be seen at close quarters the natives seldom mention it but on being questioned they answered it is said that the black patch is the ship of the world Polo continues through the Middle East providing descriptions of many villages and peoples along the way he's particularly impressed by Baghdad and says in Baghdad which is a very large city the Khalif of all the Saracens in the world has his seat just as the head of all Christians in the world has his seat in Rome through the midst of the city flows a very large river by which travelers may go to the Indian Sea by this route merchants come and go with their merchandise you should know that from Baghdad to the sea is a journey of fully 18 days merchants traveling to India follow this river to a city called case where they enter the Indian Sea on the river between Baghdad and Kyi's there is a large city named Basra and in groves all around Basra grow the best dates in the world it is in Baghdad that most of the pearls are pierced that are imported from India into Christendom here two are woven many fabrics of cloth of gold and silk very richly decorated with beasts and birds it is a great Center for the study of the law of Muhammad and of necromancy natural science astronomy geomancy and physiognomies it is the largest and most splendid city in all these parts in his description of Baghdad polo presents an Arab city that can easily rival the greatest cities of Europe he points out its cultural scientific and commercial achievements and of course recognizes its importance to the merchants not only through its strategic location but in the many exquisite wares to be found there in the 13th century baghdad was an important crossroads and the religious spiritual center of the world his reference to muhammad is a reference to muhammad he refers to the prophet of islam by the name muhammad throughout the book he also uses the term Saracens interchangeably with Moslems polo travels on and offers a description of another important Arab city Tabriz which he says is the most splendid city in a province called Iraq today of course Tabriz is in Iran his description of Tabriz is notable not just because it demonstrates his consistent awareness of merchandise and trade but because it also reflects the Christian bias he carried with him while traveling through Islamic territories the people of Tabriz live by trade and industry for cloth of gold silk is woven here in great quantity and a great value the city is so favorably situated that it's a market for merchandise from India and Baghdad from Mosul and Hormuz and from many other places and many Latin merchants come here to buy precious stones which are found here in great abundance it's a city where good profits are made by traveling merchants the inhabitants are a mixed lot and good for very little there are Armenians and Nestorians Jakob whites and Georgians and Persians and there are also worshipers of Mohammed who are the natives of the city and are called to Breezies the city is entirely surrounded by attractive orchards full of excellent fruit the Saracens of Tabriz are wicked and treacherous the law which their prophet mohammed has given them lays down that any harm they may do to one who does not accept their law and any appropriation of goods is no sin at all and if they suffer death or injury at the hands of Christians they are accounted martyrs for this reason they would be wrongdoers if it were not for the government and all the other Saracens in the world act on the same principle when they are on the point of death up comes their priest and asks whether they believe that Muhammad was the true Messenger of God if they answer yes then he tells them they are saved that is why they are converting the Tartars and many other nations to their law because they are allowed great license to sin and according to their law no sin is forbidden throughout the book polo measures distance in terms of days of travel a day's ride or 10 days ride or 40 days ride is the only means for measuring distance he had but it was also more relevant to the merchants of the time who rode from place to place and would have had little use for measurements in miles or kilometers after several days polo reaches the Persian Gulf and stops at a city on the coast called Hormuz he's mostly concerned about the torrid hot and unhealthy climate here and tells a gruesome story to make his point in some of the people do not stay in the cities or they would all die of the heat but they go out to their gardens where there are rivers and sheets of water it is a fact that several times in the summer there comes a wind from the direction of the sandy wastes that lie around this plane a win so overpoweringly hot that it would be deadly if it did not happen that as soon as men are aware of its approach they plunge neck deep into the water and so escape its heat to show just how hot this wind can be here is an account of something that happened when Messer Marco was in these parts a king resolved to seize the opportunity when the men of Hormuz were living outside the city in the open he mustered 1,600 horses and 5000 foot soldiers and sent them across the plain to make a surprise attack one day having failed through faulty guidance to reach the place appointed for the Knights halt they bivouacked in a wood not far from Hormuz next morning when they were on the point of setting out the hot wind came down on them and stifled them all so that not one survived to carry back the news to their Lord the men of Hormuz hearing of this went out to bury the corpses so they would not infect the air when they gripped them by the arms to drag them to the graves they were so parched by the tremendous heat that the arms came loose from the trunk so that there was nothing for it but to dig the graves beside the corpses and heave them in polo often includes sensational stories like these in his narrative and apparently afraid people wouldn't believe him adds post scripts assuring the reader that what he says is true he also reports superstitions miracles magic and occult events and beliefs such as this story about a great desert he encountered in Turkestan the truth is this when a man is writing by night through this desert and something happens to make him loiter and lose touch with his companions by dropping asleep or for some other reason and afterwards he wants to rejoin them then he is spirits talking in such a way that they seemed to be his companions sometimes indeed they even hail him by name often these voices make him stray from the path so that he never finds it again and in this way many travelers have been lost and it perished and sometimes in the night they are conscious of a noise like the clatter of a great cavalcade of writers away from the road and believing that these are some of their own company they go where they hear the noise and when day breaks find they are victims of an illusion and in an awkward plight and there are some who in crossing this desert have seen a host of men coming towards the men suspecting that they were robbers have taken flight so having left the beaten track and not knowing how to return to it they have gone hopelessly astray yes and even by daylight men hear these spirit voices and often you fancy you are listening to the strains of many instruments especially drums and the clash of arms for this reason bands of travelers make a point of keeping very close together before they go to sleep they set up a sign pointing in the direction in which they have to travel and round the necks of all their beasts they fasten little bells so that by listening to the sound they may prevent them from straying off the path polo proceeds on the road to cafe towards the court of Kublai Khan and takes this opportunity to talk about the historic lineage of Khan historians have found many errors in polos account of the rise and fall of Mongol rulers but his descriptions of their customs are a treasury of information previously unknown to the world and unknown to us today if not for his book here's part of his description of the funeral rituals when one of the cons has died you should know that all the great lords who are the lineage of the Khan are conveyed for burial to a great mountain called al T when one of them dies even if it be at a distance of a hundred days journey from this mountain he must be brought here for burial and here is a remarkable fact when the body of a Great Khan is being carried to this mountain be it forty days journey or more or less all those who are encountered along the route by which the body is being conveyed are put to the sword by the attendants who are escorting it go they cry and serve your lord in the next world for they truly believe that all of those whom they put to death must go and serve the Khan in the next world and they do the same thing with horses when the Khan dies they kill all his best horses so that he may have them in the next world it is a fact that when Khan died more than 20,000 men were put to death having encountered his body on the way to burial the second section of the travels of Marco Polo tells of life in the court of Kublai Khan polo had extreme admiration for the ruler and never tires of pointing out his attributes he describes him physically as of good stature neither tall nor short but of a middle height he has a becoming amount of flesh and is very shapely in all his limbs his complexion is white and red the eyes black and fine the nose well formed and well set on he depicts the khan's palaces his vast court his government and armies he also gives an account of a battle led by the Great Khan himself he reports that when all were in battle array one could hear a sound a rise of many instruments of various music and of the voices of the whole of the two hosts loudly singing for this is the custom of the Tartars polo spends much time describing the women of the court the khan's wives and concubines he says he has four consorts who were all accounted his lawful wives and his eldest son by any of these four has a rightful claim to be emperor on the death of the present khan the wives are called Empress's each by her own name each of these ladies holds her own court none of them has less than 300 ladies-in-waiting all of great beauty and charm they have many eunuchs and other men and women in attendance so that each one of these ladies has in her court 10,000 persons polo then gives it a tailed account of how concubines are chosen for the Khan every two years the Khan sends his emissaries into the provinces to bring back the most beautiful maidens they are assessed further by noble women in the court when they arrive at the palace and only the very best are chosen for the con pollo makes a special point of saying that the men in the Provinces don't resent the taking of their women since it's an honor for a woman to be chosen to serve the Khan this section also includes eloquent descriptions of court affairs such as the marking of the calendar and the celebration of thousands of festivals and hunting trips record-keeping was very important to the Chinese each household kept near its front door a list of the names of all the homes inhabitants and innkeepers were required to record the names of all travelers and the dates of their visits certain chapters also tell about the marvelous inventions marco saw while serving the khan these include the use of paper money a system of Express messengers rather like the Pony Express and efficient highway systems some of the remains of these can still be seen today polo is very amazed when he discovers an unfamiliar source of fuel which we know by his description is coal let me tell you next of the stones that burn like logs it is a fact that throughout the province of cafe there is a sort of black stone which is dug out of veins in the hillsides and burns like logs these stones keep a fire burning better than wood I assure you that if you put them on the fire in the evening and see that they are well alight they will continue to burn all night so that you will still find them glowing in the morning they do not give off flames except a little when they are first kindled just as charcoal does and once they have caught fire they give out great heat for all the fantastic inventions he stumbles upon polo gives credit to Kubla Khan whom he sees as a man of wisdom and benevolence one of the delights of the travels of Marco Polo is to see how the 13th century traveler describes and interprets things which are completely new to him but which are very familiar to us today his description of coal is one example here's another this time a strange new animal he discovered on his way from Beijing to Bengal in this province live huge serpents of such a size that no one could help being amazed even to hear of them they are loathsome preachers to behold let me tell you just how big they are you may take it for a fact that there are some of them 10 paces in length that are as thick as a stout cask for their girth runs to about 10 palms these are the biggest they have to squat legs in front near the head which have no feet but simply three claws too small and one bigger like the claws of a falcon or lion they have enormous heads and eyes so bulging that they are bigger than lows their mouth is big enough to swallow a man at one gulp their teeth are huge all in all the monsters are of such inordinately and ferocity that there is neither man nor beast but goes in fear of them here the Explorer has obviously come across his first crocodile at the end of this section of the book in the Khans Court Marco Polo has become fluent in four different languages and is now a valuable ambassador for the Emperor he describes some of the different missions he sent on in the next section of the book Marco Polo recounts in detail the many travels he made on behalf of the Khan to places like Japan Indochina southern India and what he calls the coasts and islands of the Indian Sea including Ethiopia after 17 years at the court of the Khan the wealthy polos surrounded by envious princes decided that if they ever wanted to return to Venice they would most easily do so under the protection and safety of the Khan they resolved to go while the ruler already an old man was still alive they asked his permission to return home but at first he refused the Emperor enjoyed their company and services too much to let them go after a time however he was persuaded to let them leave 14 ships were prepared for the voyage home and during that voyage 600 crew members were lost in storms while still in route they heard news of Kublai Khan's death polo writes of the exotic regions they visited on their way back he talks of camel caravans gathered by Fountains of oil hauling off this strange black liquid which is an amazing source of heat and light he tells of the city of mean with its two great towers one of silver the other of pure gold he describes the utopian Chinese city of kin Tsai with 12 thousand bridges spanning its rivers and canals it's stone paved streets and it's hundreds of beautiful carvings he marvels over the magical lock province where people commonly live to the age of 150 he also describes strange characters and mystical tribes a miserly ruler unwilling to provide for his kingdoms protection who was captured and locked in a tower where surrounded by piles of gold he starved to death a diabolical band of robbers which had the power to call down the powers of darkness upon the caravans they attacked tribes where fathers took care of newborn babies while the mother was allowed to move freely about an ancient drug dealer who used his trance indisposed occurs and various sorcerers and cannibals he includes fantastic tales of natives who made their living by selling pickled monkeys which they passed off as pygmies and sold to naive sailors as souvenirs there are also stories of men with tales and more believably brutal pirates on his way home Marco Polo also ran into tribes who used gold silver pearls diamonds and rubies as common barter and who wore rich silks and embroidery for work and play he saw as bestest musk scent and salt all used his money he became acquainted with exotic spices sugar strange drugs and pungent incense he discovered bizarre animals a bird with talons large enough to seize an elephant chickens covered with hair and unicorns which in his words have hair like that of water buffalo and feet like those of an elephant an ugly beast to behold he was in fact describing his first rhinoceros polo devotes a long section of this book to his travels in India where he found the customs and religious beliefs bizarre but fascinating he undoubtedly shocked the people back home with his stories like the following when a man is guilty of a capital offense and the King has decreed his death the offender declares that he wishes to kill himself out of respect to some particular Idol the king expresses his approval then all the offender's kin spoke and friends take him and set him on a chair and give him fully a dozen swords and carry him through the city proclaiming aloud this brave man is going to kill himself for love of such-and-such an idol in this way they carry him through the whole city when they have reached the place where justice is done then the offender takes a knife and cries in a loud voice I kill myself for love of such-and-such an idol having spoken these words he takes two swords and thrusts them into his thighs at one stroke then he thrusts to into his arms to into his belly to into his chest and so he thrusts them all in crying aloud at each stroke I kill myself for love of such-and-such an idol another custom is this when a man is dead and his body is being cremated his wife flings herself into the same fire and lets herself be burnt with her husband and I assure you that there are many who do as I have told you yet these stories of what Christians would consider pagan and barbaric customs are well balanced by polos tolerance for what he called the idolaters of India and by his respect for their sense of justice their great kingdoms and splendid cities their beautiful products their Yogi's and holy man and their deep faith even though it's a faith that defied Western understanding from India Marco Polo travels through Zanzibar where he's stunned by the size and strength of the natives on to Abyssinia where the citizens brand themselves with hot irons and back into Turkestan at which point he gives detailed accounts of the Tartar Wars sometimes accurate sometimes not he ends the book with battle stories of these wars but adds a postscript about his departure from the east that says for our part as to how we took leave of the Great Khan you have heard in the prologue of this book in the chapter that tells of the troubles encountered by Messer mafia oh and Messer niccolò and Messer Marko in getting his lead to depart and of the happy chance that led to our departure and you must know that but for this chance we might never have got away for all our pains so that there is little likelihood that we should ever have returned to our own country but I believe it was God's will that we should return so that men might know the things that are in the world since as we have said in the first chapter there was never man yet Christian or Saracen Tartar or pagan who explored so much of the world as Messer Marko son of Messer Nicola polo great and noble citizen of the city of Venice in this conclusion to his lengthy detailed narrative of his exotic travels in the Middle and Far East Marco Polo seems to have recognised his destiny his extensive and daring adventures didn't bring him great wealth for he died as wealthy as he'd begun life they didn't bring him great eminence or a position of power at home although his book did bring him popular Fame what those travels did bring him was a unique and priceless role in history for he became the communicator and the enlightening who was able to make two vastly different civilizations aware of each other he increased their mutual understanding and interest he inspired further trade and travel that eventually formed a solid link between East and West and he launched the Age of Exploration the past these future travelers and merchants would follow were first blazoned by Marco Polo himself but they are only the geographical paths the path that connected the Western mind with the Eastern mind and that led brave men and women into new uncharted territories was his greatest achievement of all this is the end of the session

Channel: Eric Masters

Views: 54,207

Keywords: Marco, Polo, Travels, Niccolò, Maffeo, Kublai, Khan, Genoa, Venetian, Republic, Rustichello, da, Pisa, Asia, Persia, China, Indonesia, Audio, Collection, Contain, Treasury, Hundred, Classic, Include, Info, Life, Time, Author, Theme, Characters, Story, Outline, Concise, Detailed, Abridgement, Discussion, Values, Great, Work, Literature, Bio, IntelliQuest, World, 100, Greatest, Books, #006

Id: Sj3MoiDwoTw

Length: 41min 42sec (2502 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 25 2012