Marco Polo ~ The Travels a book review

Polo, Marco (Translation: Latham) Marco Polo: The Travels. Penguin Classics. 1958.

The Travels showed that although the different places that Marco Polo visited had many different religions and beliefs, they were still civilized in their own way. He also showed a great open-mindedness to the different practices and beliefs of the different cultures he visited. Not only did he describe the religion and practices but he also gave a justification as to why they do it. Polo also described their many achievements, such as in architecture, trading, art, and etc. This, I believe, was to help show the people of the West, that the cultures of the East may seem to have “savage” practices, but that many are also advanced and have many different achievements that can be used to show that they are a civilized culture.

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I believe the most important information in the book, was the information that Polo provided on the different economic, political, and architectural achievements of the different cities and cultures he encountered. The reason showing their achievements is important, is because during this point in history, as it is described in the introduction of the book, the West saw there selves as the most civilized culture in the world, while the East and especially the far East were full of savages. So, when Polo provides information about the beautiful cities they can build and the organized trade they participate in, it shows how these “savages” are more civilized and organized then the people in the West believe them to be. Also, not only did Polo show these civilizations as more civilized then the West believed, he also showed many new products that were made and could be enjoyed by West.

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Throughout his travels, Polo encountered many civilizations that to a Christian at that time would look nothing above a savage, but Polo, as I stated above, tried to show these civilizations in a different light. For example, when Polo describes the various kingdoms from Pecking to Bengal he first describes their trade practices, resources, and most of the time their diets as well. Then after he shows the more civilized aspects of the society then he will move into different religious practices of the people that vary widely from Christian practices. Such as when Polo describes the enchantments and magicians that are used through these societies, he shows how although there are many civilized aspects of the society, their beliefs are still primitive. When Polo describes many of these practices I could tell that even though he was trying to be open-minded, there was still some bias.

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Although Polo does seem to have a sort of tolerance for the practices of these different religions, there are still many instances in the book where his Christian bias comes out. Such as when he describes the magicians I previously talked about as devil conjures and describes how the devil has entered their bodies when they collapse during one of their rituals, he describes these people and practices when he visits the provinces of Kara-jang, Vochan, and Yachi. I wasn’t that shocked when I could tell Polo hold some negative bias towards the different religions, especially when it came to Muslims. The bias towards Muslims wasn’t too much of a shock due to the longtime of resentment between Muslims and Christians.

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The most interesting information that I found in the book, was the tolerance that the Great Khan, during that time, had for the many different religions and cultures the people in the cities he had domain over. There were many different religions under his rule including: Christian, Muslim, Jewish, and idolaters. Although the Great Khan did not share the religious beliefs of many of his subjects, he still allowed them to practice their beliefs any way they choose. The only thing he did expect from them was payment for his protection and that they would never rise up against him.

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Also, what is interesting is that almost all of the land he rules over he conquered from other royal families, and although he conquered these lands and could have made the people of these different cities and provinces do as he wanted, and could probably have easily converted all of his new subjects to his beliefs, he instead allowed them to worship as they please. I believe this is how he was able to have such an expansive empire, because the people were allowed to practice their beliefs and also were able to rule the cities as they pleased, instead of in the case of many conquerors from the West, including Alexander the Great, who would conqueror different lands and then forcibly convert the people there into whatever their beliefs were, which would have led to much hostility from the people that they now conquer over. Not only does he allow the places he conquers to keep their religious beliefs, but in some instances he even allows the current rulers to continue ruling, under their same law, as long as they do not attack the Great Khan or any of his other provinces, and as long as they continue to pay tribute to him. I feel that this not only shows a high level of tolerance, but also a great knowledge of leadership and strategy, because he was able to hold onto his rule of a large empire up into his old age, by understanding a way to ensure peace in his empire by allowing the kingdoms he conquered to continue to rule as they always had.

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Now I want to talk more about these different religions, and the aspects of them that I learned about while reading this book. First, while I knew there were different branches of Christianity, as there are different branches now, I did not know that the different types of Christians were not accepted by the Pope in Rome and were actually still considered heretics, even though they practiced the same religion. It was also interesting to learn that Rome sent missionaries to teach these different Christians, which included Jacobites and Nestorians, to teach them the proper way to practice Christianity. I believe this shows a rather powerful intolerance even to people who say to share the same common language, and it also shows that Rome at that time, which was the center of Christianity, only saw their way of practicing religion as right.

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Another aspect that I learned about was how important astrology was too many civilizations. Even civilizations with different religions used astrology to determine many important aspects in life including: when they would marry, who they would marry, if they would travel to a certain place and at a certain time, and many other aspects of their lives. Also some of these cultures may not have been fully literate, but knowing how to document their child’s birthday and what astrological sign they were was of great importance. It was even more interesting to know that different religions practiced this and that it stemmed from what their ancestors practiced.

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While reading The Travels I learned a great deal of not only the culture of the different civilizations Polo visited, but also of the different animals and plants that were found there. Also I learned how these civilizations interacted with each other and how different religions lived with and around each other. Polo’s descriptions of the world not only allow for a comprehensive look at the many cultures of our world in the 13th century but it also gives much knowledge into how the empires of the Great Khan’s were able to grow so large and powerful, and remain so for a long time. Although there was some bias as Polo described the many different cultures and religions, I could also tell there was an open-mindedness that allowed him to see why they did certain practices, and to move passed what he found as barbaric or savage, and to see the many aspects that made civilizations great and powerful.

Artwork: Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, Book title: The Travels - Marco Polo, Author: Ronald Latham (translator), Publisher: Penguin Classics, 1958.