The resulting book, originally called Divisament dou Monde ("Description of the World") but soon known as Il milione or "The Travels of Marco Polo," was an instant success. He used the time to dictate his recollections of the countries he had seen to a fellow prisoner, a well-known writer of romances. Not long after, however, Marco Polo was taken prisoner in a skirmish with the rival city of Genoa and imprisoned. In 1295 the Polos returned home to Venice, where the arrival of faces long believed dead caused great surprise and celebration. When the party arrived in Khorasan (in today's Iran) Arghun Khan had died, so the princess was handed over to his son. A fleet of 14 ships with 600 passengers and sailors on board departed from Ch'uan-Chou on Taiwan Strait and sailed through Macassar Strait (between today's Malaysia and Indonesia) along the Indian coast to Hormuz. In 1290 or 1292 the Polos accompanied a Mongol princess, a future consort for the Persian emperor Arghun Khan, on her voyage to Persia. In 1274 or 1275 they arrived in the emperor's summer capital Shang-tu, followed him to his winter capital Ta-tu (today's Beijing) and lived in China in the emperor's service for 16 or 17 years.
In 1271 his father left to return to Mongolia, and Marco accompanied him.Īt the Strait of Hormuz the Polos decided against a risky sea voyage and began their long journey over land. The Mongol emperor Kublai Khan had given Marco's father letters for the pope, in which he asked for one hundred men "acquainted with the Seven Arts" to augment the cultural standing of his court. His grandfather and father had already travelled widely in pursuit of their business, and Marco Polo was already 15 when his father returned from Mongolia in 1269 and met his son for the first time. Marco Polo belonged to a merchant family of Venice who had gained wealth through trade with the Middle and Far East. Science, civilization and society Marco PoloĮuropean merchant and traveller, b.
0 kommentar(er)
