The Travels of Marco Polo

Title: The Travels of Marco Polo

Author: Aldo Ricci

Publisher: Rupa and Co, 2003 (First published 1931)

ISBN: 9788171678122

Pages: 440

In this age of information revolution, we can hardly appreciate the state of things a thousand years ago, when people in each country or kingdom were practically unaware of what happens across their borders. Whatever information available was collated by traders who travelled across countries in search of profit. The data was often exaggerated and embellished with frills and fantasies so as to endear them to the listeners and also to enhance the self-importance of the storyteller. Distant lands were the substance of legendary tales about demons and strange beings. The most famous among the medieval anthologies that dealt with travel is that of Marco Polo in the thirteenth century. Polo was born in 1254 in Venice and started on a journey to Asia with his father and uncle. They reached the palace of Kublai Khan, which was the richest and most magnificent in the whole world at that time. The Mongols, racing out of the barren wastes of Mongolia a generation before – under the leadership of Chengiz Khan – had run over all the empires that stood in their way, and was at the pinnacle of their glory. The Polos travelled by land to Khan’s capital at Cambaluc (modern Beijing) and travelled along the length and breadth of China and Central Asia. On the return journey, he sailed through Southeast Asia, India, the east coast of Africa and Arabia. Marco compiled his adventures into a nice collection that continues to amaze readers on account of the outlandish fables interlaced with accurate descriptions of the lands through which he traversed and the people who inhabited them. This book is based on one of the authentic texts by L F Bendetto in Italian and is translated into English by Aldo Ricci.

Polo describes the magnificence and technological superiority of China in the thirteenth century. They used paper currency and coal on a large scale. Coal was such a novelty to Polo that he describes it as ‘a kind of black stone, which is dug out of the mountains like any other kind of stone and burns like wood’. The social life in Chinese cities was very advanced than that of Europe or any other part of Asia itself. The author tells of the city of Kinsai (modern Hangchow) where the municipal authorities had built fabulous city halls where the public could throw sumptuous wedding feasts or other banquets. People of the city went on picnics in carriages to gardens for the day and returned to their homes when it was dark. Boating for pure pleasure was done in the lake in the centre of Kinsai. This book is really a tribute to the glory of China at that time, even though they didn’t enjoy political freedom. The Mongols had firmly put China under their hegemony nearly seventy years before Polo had visited them.

The religious policy of barbarians and Semitic religions can be understood from the narrative. The Mongols were a culturally primitive people who were practicing ancestral worship and shamanism. By a stroke of extreme luck, they found themselves masters of the great civilizations of China and Islam. Both Beijing and Baghdad lay under their yoke. The refreshing part of the ruthless occupation was the syncretism of the nomad emperors as compared to the bitter rivalry between the civilized religions. They equally respected the superior religions of Buddhism, Islam, Christianity and Judaism with which they came into contact. Kublai Khan is quoted to have opined that “there are four prophets who are adored and worshipped by the entire world. The Christians say their god was Jesus Christ, the Saracens Mahomet, the Jews Moses and the idolaters Sagamuni Borcan (Buddha), the first man of whom an idol was made. I honour and revere all four, and thereby also the one who is the Most Powerful in Heaven and the most true, and I pray him to aid me” (p.110). Semitic religions couldn’t even dream about the enlightened secularism practiced by the Mongols. Gradually, the rulers accepted the religion of the people over which they ruled, and soon they turned bigots and thirsted for the blood of the non-believers as evidenced in the case of Timur, who was a descendant of them. In fact, the Polos and European traders could make an undisturbed journey through Central Asia only because the Muslim warlords were firmly under the leash of Pax Mongolica. The Khans intervened in the case of some barbarous custom followed by his subjects, particularly a case of people prostituting their own womenfolk in favour of itinerant traders and travelers. Kublai Khan forbade this practice, but when the people appealed to him to allow this custom handed over to them by their ancestors, he relented and resigned himself to permit those people on their request.

On the other hand, Christians and Muslims were at each other’s throats most of the time. Polo remarks that the Saracens (Muslims) were most evil and treacherous and believed that there is no sin in doing any amount of evil to all those who are not of their faith. Absolution of sins among Muslims is said to be very easy because all they had to profess was belief in the prophet. Polo ruefully alleges that because of the ease with which they grant absolution, they had converted many Mongols. He quotes another incident of the Bishop of Abash forcibly circumcised at Aden (p.349). The author himself is not above religious bigotry as he refers to the enemies of his faith as ‘Saracen dogs’. So much for his objectivity! We find the legend of a Christian king called Prestor John in the narrative, but there is no clear historical personage answering to that name. His legend had so widely circulated in Europe that one of Vasco da Gama’s purposes of his mission was to make an embassy to the court of Prestor John.

Polo’s account is greatly exaggerated. So fantasized in fact that he describes about a group of people having tails! Regarding the hyper-inflated descriptions of civilized cities and people, we can pardon him if you stop and reminisce for a moment the gibberish we hear from tourist guides and such people. Polo had no way of ascertaining the truth of what he had heard, because Google was not available to him just yet. So he copied most of that was recounted to him and added something out of his own volition in the bargain. The book could have included the modern names of the cities and kings Polo mentions in the narrative. We can discern patterns from the tales of Sinbad the Sailor in some of the descriptions. Polo was very appreciative of women in general and presents several lewd accounts of them. His depiction of Zanghibar’s women is truly atrocious and that of Russian women is scandalous. It is not proper to reproduce the comments here, but interested readers can find them on pages 345 and 391. The book is provided with a very fine Index. The maps reproduced are not very legible.

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 4 Star