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Admin moved page Are the travels of Marco Polo fact or fiction? to Are the travels of Marco Polo fact or fiction
Marco was born in 1254 in the Republic of Venice, which was a great mercantile power in medieval Europe and had extensive trading contacts with the Muslim world. He was born into a successful family of merchants. We know little about his early life, but he appears to have been apprenticed to a merchant and received little formal education. At the age of seventeen, he accompanied his uncle and father on a trading expedition to Asia. They had already traded and traveled in Asia for many years.
The Polos left Venice and did not return home for 24 years. They had traveled the Silk Road and made their way to China and they appear to have been very successful. During his travels, Polo spent over 17 years in China. Marco apparently even served in the administration of the Emperor and had visited the Imperial court, many times.<ref> Burgan, Michael. [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0756501806/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0756501806&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=5045b633cd5e01f145efaf9aa79b4a1f Marco Polo: Marco Polo and the silk road to China ] (London, Capstone, 2002), p. 13</ref>
The Polos returned to Venice in 1295 with a great many gemstones and jewels. Marco was a wealthy man and married the daughter of a leading merchant. Venice was frequently at war with its great rival, the Italian city-state of Genoa. Marco was so wealthy that he fitted out a warship which he personally commanded. He was captured at the great Venetian defeat by Genoa at the battle of Curzola (1298) and was imprisoned by the Genoese and held for ransom.
Kublai Khan founded the Yuan Dynasty, that ruled all much of East Asia, for almost a century (1271-1368). He requested that the Polos secure him some holy oil and to bring a message of goodwill from him to the Pope. The two Venetians eventually made their way to Venice, and here Marco met his father for the first time in years. He accompanied the two older men back to Asia and traversed the Silk Road and he vividly describes the dangers on this route, including bandits, deserts and dust storms.
Upon his arrival in China, he met Kublai Khan and became a valued member of his court, partly because of his skill with languages.<ref> Tulk, John. [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0802099289/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0802099289&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=2867f650a800e40635bae06c68024ecd Marco Polo and the encounter of East and West]. (Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 2008), p 119</ref> Polo even carried out administrative duties for the Khan and as a result, he visited many areas of China. He traveled throughout the domains of the Mongols in East Asia. He also visited Tibet, Burma and even sailed on the South China Sea. Marco met many members of the Mongol and Chinese elite and visited many cities.
The Khan was reluctant to let the Venetians to return home, for reasons unknown. The Europeans knew that they needed the protection of the Khan and that if he suddenly died or was deposed they could be killed. Sometime in 1293, the Mongol ruler of the Ilkhanate Empire in Persia contracted a marriage alliance with Kublai Khan.
====Omissions and exaggerations====
[[File: Marco Polo three.jpg|200px|thumb|left|A portrait of Kublai Khan]]
The Travels of Marco Polo has always divided audiences. Many have treated the book as a work of fiction. There are those who believe that it does give a flawed account of East Asia. Those who are skeptical of the narrative point to the many omissions .<ref> Wood, Frances. "Did Marco Polo Go to China?." Asian Affairs 27, no. 3 (1996): 296-304 </ref>. This has led some to suggest that he only visited the Chinese capital, or only repeated stories he heard from others.
There is, in fact, no mention of the Great Wall of China, which traverses a large part of the north of that vast country. Then while he makes references to many place names, modern scholars have not been able to identify them. Then he failed to mention many customs of the Chinese and Mongols, that would have seemed novel and noteworthy to a European traveler, such as footbinding.<ref> Wood, p 298</ref>
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====Rustichello and the travels of Marco Polo====
Many believed that Rustichello embellished the travelogue of the Venetian and his adventures. He was a writer who specialized in Romances and fabulous tales and was best known for his popular stories on King Arthur and Camelot. The Travels of Marco Polo has many of the stylistic characteristics of the Pisan writer’s earlier works. There are some references to marvels and fabulous stories in the narrative of the Italian. There are notorious descriptions in the book of men with the heads of dogs.
