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Marco Polo's Place of Birth: Venice, Italy

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Marco Polo's Place of Birth: Venice, Italy

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Marco Polo is a famous Christian trader from Venice. Born in 1254 CE. Being in the large trading city of Venice with a father who was a trader. Marco Polo was inspired to be an explorer and trader when he became older after a trip to Mongolia with his father.

Marco Polo  was raised as a Christian and was very vocal about his opinions especially of Muslim people. This matters because when reading Polo's accounts we must take into consideration the accuracy of how he speaks about people of the Muslim faith. Marco Polo show this bias against the Islam faith in many of the passages by calling them worshipers of Mohamed and in his recount of Turkey refers to them as primitive and says they speak a "Rough, uncouth language. The cause of his animosity is most likely due to the crusades being fought at the time between the people of Christen faith and people of the Muslim faith. Marco Polo was a wealthy trader while on his journey across the sea. Marco Polo for this reason highlights individuals important to his trading, one example of this is when he is in Badakhshan Marco Polo mentions the king and how he is the only person who is allowed to mine rubies and a whole section about how this impacts the trade of rubies.

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The mongols had a religion which was Mongolian Buddhism and Mongolian shamanism, but they also had religions that they don't accept that religion was Catholic Christianity. in Macro Polo's writings you would never see him speak well of the mongols. Why? the reason he will never do so is because he is a christian, at this time they were made to hate each other. because the mongols were able to invade so many places they started to tax people for crossing their land. the mongols traded high valve goods like horses, porcelain, jewels, silk, paper, and gun powder.
The mongols have invaded many places but the place to focus on is china. the countries that the mongols invaded were Russia, China, Korea, southeast Asia, Persia, India, the Middle East and eastern Europe. so there are too many places to focus on but to understand what it was like for war back then. the way that the mongols have be successful in there invasions is the way they break down power, Marco polo says "If a Tartar leader goes to war with, say, 100,000 men and horses — he nominates a commander for every 10,000 men, another for every 1,000, yet another for every 100, and a last one for every ten." and breaking down the power like that can help a lot more get done within the war. for the actually fighting part they don't go head on into the other place, no, they trap them.

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Tabriz is this very beautiful city. the fruits are rich and the and trees are full. but here is where the trading thrives. traders from many other places come together and trade all types of things like fabrics, leathers, coopers, and other goods. so many people came through Tabriz to buy and sell stuff that they have from their culture, this was able to push other people to see what other culture had.
this passage that macro polo wrote starts off very nice and but then he starts talking about the people that live in Tabriz, he first stats off light by saying " The citizens of Tabriz are not very well considered" Ok yes its not a good thing but he stated off by talking about the as a whole. then he goes in more detail. "The Saracens there." Saracens are a derogatory  word for Muslim people and he use that all through his writing. also he states "the Prophet Mohammed has taught them that they may maltreat as they please men of other religions; they may assault and rob them with impunity,"
Most of his works are like that, they will first start out with what the city is like then he will talk about all the different races which are just religions. intended for people back home and he also wanted to spread the word of Christianity. but he also did this to make trading with china much easier, china used to be in isolation and would not trade with any other place because of this rule. so when the Ming dynasty took over the Tang dynasty they ended isolationism.

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the religion that is mostly practiced here is Islam. Badakshan has rich mines and they have many rubies, sliver, sapphire  and other stones. the people here take there stone very seriously and if you take one of the stones you can be killed very quickly. but if you manage to get it out of the place and get caught your life and everything you love could be lost. the stones were almost seen as money, the more that were out in the world the less that they are valued. they do this to protect what they mine. the king will use these stones to give gifts or to just give these for powerful people.
the best trading wheat is grown here, it was in high demand for traders. they also used strong horses to get around and trade with people. Badakhshan was also a key point in transportation for traders. it was the most important trade route in the southeast. the mines have the most gold bearing in the region, so when people came to get gold they knew that they would come to the tight place. so if these stones were to go down in price then those gifts that the kings was giving would be nothing. he would also sell them for gold and sliver.

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The Great Island of Java is 1,500 southwest of Champa, presumably where Champa rice was found at. It is claimed to be the largest island in the world, having a 3000 mile perimeter. It is said to be extremely rich. The island is best known for it's numerous and diverse amounts of spices. Merchants visit the island in hopes to make massive profit from the goods. Known sailors and merchants have been said to bring back great riches from the islands during the time of Marcos travels.

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Marco Polo once again, sees the Turkomans as primitive people that are faithful to Mohammed. Along with Turkomans, there are many Greeks and Armenians in Turkey. The Greeks and Armenians live together in cities and they create a living off of making crafts and trade. Turkey is known for their fine carpets. They are made from different types of silks that are colorful and delicate. They are ruled by the Mongol of the Levant.

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A major part of Madagascar is their resources and trade goods. Madagascar has a very large elephant population and ivory tusks are a big point of trade. There are  many whales which produce ambergris which is very very valuable. Marco Polo is very impressed by a griffin in Madagascar that is strong enough and big enough to drop an elephant from a very high height that it breaks. They have many red sandalwood trees which have very high value in most places but they grow everywhere in Madagascar. Marco Polo was a merchant so he was very interested by trade goods. Merchants traded Madagascars produce for many types of cloth made from gold.  Madagascar has many resources and goods that are valuable for trade.

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During the time that Marco Polo was many things were going on in the world. Empires such as the Mongolian empire were at there biggest and most powerful. Mongols were the strongest empire that existed in the world and controlled more then half of the world at the time. Along with that many new religions were on the rise such as Islam and Christianity. Along with the spread of new religions there were the holy wars (Crusades) to take control of their holy land. Crusades were fought between the Muslim and Christen people and created a big rift between the religions.

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The Caliph of all of the Sarcens lives in Baghdad, Marco Polo compares it to how "the head of the Christian world lives in Rome". The Caliph owns the most gold and silver ever to belong to one man. There is a big river that connects Baghdad to the Indian sea, it is a big help for trade because merchants can carry their goods. On the river there is a city called Basra. Baghdad has many trade goods like cloth of gold, silk, damask, brocade, and cramoisy. Cloth is embroidered with animal designs. Baghdad is known for the study of the laws of Mohammed. Necromancy, physics, geomancy, and physiognomy.

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Salt Mountains resides to the south of a town called Talikhan. It provides the town a nice landscape. This town is known to be a big grain market. Some of the mountains consist of nuts such as almonds and pistachios. Merchants and traders travel 30 days just to get a hold of these salt, which there is lots of. Is it said that there is enough for the whole word to be supplied forever. People can take a 3 day travel through a beautiful countryside, where things such as cereals and vines grow. The town holds evil and bloodthirsty people who are Islamic. The people drink a lot because they make very good boiled wine. The town also has good huntsman.

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Gujarat is a large kingdom, whose people are idolatrous and speak their own language. The kingdom is ruled by their king. It lies within the west. It lies about six cubits above seawater. It is said that the kingdom is infested with the "worst pirates in the world." The pirates use a certain torture method on merchants in order to try and find pearls or precious stones. Spices such as pepper, ginger, and indigo are found in this kingdom. Lots of cotton is also picked from the trees here. Many leathers can be found here, such as ox hide, unicom hides, and other skins for different animals. There is so much of it that ships take it and transport it to Arabia. Colored mats and cushions are made and are embroidered with metallic thread. The kingdom is said to have the best leather work in the entire world.

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Kashgar was an independent kingdom until Genghis Kahn Conquered it. People here practice Islam and depend on trade to live. People grow beautiful garden and vineyards and grow cotton, flax, and hemp. People who live here are mean and drink a lot. Samarkand is a large noble city with people who are Christens and Saracens. Genghis Kahn's nephew rules over this area and is not on good terms with his uncle. Languages and religions are so plentiful here that there are too many to count.