Venetian traveler and
author, whose account of his travels and experiences in China
offered Europeans a firsthand view of Asian lands and stimulated interest in
Asian trade.Marco Polo was born in Venice, one of the most prominent centers of trade in
medieval Europe, into a merchant family.Little is known about Marco Polo’s early life, because his own account of his
travels, published later in his life.Marco Polo’s account is also the primary source of information about the travels
of his father and uncle, Niccolò and Maffeo Polo, who were jewel merchants. They
left Venice in 1260 on a commercial venture to the Black Sea ports of
Constantinople (now İstanbul, Turkey) and Soldaia (now Sudak, Ukraine). From
Soldaia they continued farther east to trading cities on the Volga River in
present-day Russia. In 1262 a war broke out behind them and prevented them from
returning home, so they proceeded farther east to the great Central Asian
trading city of Bukhara (in present-day Uzbekistan). After three
years there they joined a diplomatic mission going to the court of Kublai
Khan, the Mongol ruler of China. The khan received them
warmly and expressed a desire to learn more about Christianity. He asked the
Polo brothers to return to Europe and persuade the pope to send Christian
scholars who could explain the religion to him. Niccolò and Maffeo journeyed
back to Europe in 1269 to satisfy the khan’s request.
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