Marko polo

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(1254-1324)

   In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, when every foreign tourist was viewed with great suspicion, it took great courage and ingenuity to come from Europe to Asia to master trade and even to enter the service of another king and become a consultant. Born on September 1254, 15, into a Venetian merchant family, Marco Polo was a courageous traveler who was able to acquaint Europeans with the life of medieval Asian countries.

   By the XNUMXth century, Venetian and Genoese merchants interested in opening new markets could not remain indifferent to the travels of many European tourists to Central Asia, India and China. Marco Polo's father, Niccolo Polo, and his uncle, the Maffeos, were skilled traders of jewelry and Oriental sweets in the newly opened parts of the world. Marco Polo's father and uncle decided to travel to East Asia in the second half of the XNUMXth century in order to explore new markets for European products.

  The two Venetian merchants set out for Crimea in 1260. During their journey, they traveled in the direction of the Flemish tourist Willem Rubruck, from the Crimea to the Caucasus, and then across the Caspian Sea to Bukhara. At that time, due to the warfare of Botukhan's brother Berkakhan in this region, the brothers could not return and stayed in Bukhara for three years. He then joined a caravan of Iranians on his way to Hanbalik (now the capital of China), and in 1266 reached Beijing - the palace of Kublai Khan.

  Marco Polo's father and uncle, who were soon received at the palace, were able to obtain a gold medal from the khan, which gave them the right to return, and in return undertook to deliver Kublai Khan's letter to the Pope.

  Marco Polo took his seventeen-year-old son Marco on his second voyage to East Asia in 1271. The expedition, led by Marco Polo, set out from Venice for Layatso (now Ceyhan, Turkey) and reached Iraq via Arzirum, then sailed from the confluence of the Frot River to the port of Hormuz (now Bandar Abbas) in the Persian Gulf.

  Marco Polo and his companions traveled from Hormuz on camels and horses to the Asian continent, passing through the Khorasan region and the Pamir Mountains to the city of Kashgar in East Turkestan (now the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China). The next part of the road was a bit difficult, and tourists had to cross the Tak-la-Makon desert and walk on the edge of the Gobi desert. Then they reached Beijing along the Yellow River.

  As soon as the wise Marco Polo arrived in Beijing, he introduced himself to Kublai Khan and, feeling his kindness, offered him his services. Given the need to develop relations with Europe, Kublai Khan accepted the offer of Marco Polo, and in this way the young Venetian tourist became Kublai Khan's adviser. This allowed Marco to travel around China and explore its lands more widely.

 Marco Polo writes that the khan gave him various assignments, did not allow him to return to Venice despite his pleas, and even appointed him mayor of Yanzhou for three years. Thus, Marco Polo remained in China from 1275 to 1291, for a total of more than 16 years.

  After obtaining permission from the khan to return to Europe in 1291, Marco Polo set out from the port of Zaysun (now Xiamen in Fujian Province, China), sailed around the Malacca Peninsula, and sailed through Sumatra, the Bay of Bengal, and the Indian subcontinent. Arrived at the Iranian port of Hormuz. From here it passed by land through Hamadan and Tabriz to the Turkish city of Trabzon on the Black Sea coast. Marco Polo returned from Trabzon to Constantinople (now Istanbul) without any obstacles and then to Venice via the Mediterranean. His trip to East Asia brought the Marco Polo family not only fame but also great wealth.

  Little is known about Marco Polo's life after his return to Europe from China. In 1298 he set out on a short voyage in his own small private ship. Marco Polo was captured by the Genoese because of the war between the Genoese and the Venetians at that time. Due to Marco Polo's fame, the Genoese were a little more lenient with him.

  During his imprisonment, Marco Polo wrote about his impressions of his travels to Rusticano, a native of Pisa, Italy, and the manuscript was later published as a book on the diversity of the world.

After being freed from captivity, the Genoese returned to Venice and did not travel long distances until the end of his life. The tourist died on January 1324, 24 in Venice at the age of 70.

  The Book on the Diversity of the World also contains interesting information about some cities in the territory of modern Uzbekistan. Marco Polo wrote that Bukhara was a large shopping center at that time, surrounded by high walls and the magnificent domes of the city's buildings shining in the sun. "… The city's stalls were filled with silk, porcelain, ivory and masterfully crafted metal items," says the traveler. The tourist described Samarkand as a "great and glorious city" and said that it had many gardens. The tourist left Samarkand for the city of Karkan, where the population is experienced in arts and crafts. According to experts, the tourist may be referring to the city of Kokand, Kokand or Fergana.

  Marco Polo was the first European tourist to travel to Southeast and East Asia for the first time and to describe the countries here. Despite some ambiguities in his writings, including The Book on the Diversity of the World, the geography of medieval Asian countries such as Iran, China, Mongolia, India, Indonesia, and Central Asia , is a very valuable historical source on ethnography and history. This work is truly the most popular historical source in Europe, with more than 2300 scientific papers in various European languages.

  The book "The diversity of the world" also had a great impact on the activities of seafarers, cartographers and writers who lived in the XIV-XV centuries. According to reports, the original purpose was to find a sea route to India, but during the expedition of Christopher Columbus, who discovered America, Marco Polo's book was on a famous tourist's ship.