Marco
Polo, the Venetian merchant and traveler, was most famous for his
travel through Asia in the thirteenth century, including his description
of the mysterious and impenetrable China. He first visited Cilicia and
Greater Armenia, about which he left some very interesting pages.
His
date of birth and place are disputed, but conventionally it is
considered that Polo was born in Venice on September 15, 1254. His
father and brother were merchants who traded with the Near East and
acquired great prestige and wealth. In 1260 they foresaw a forthcoming
political change and timely left Constantinople, capital of the
short-lived Latin Empire, established by the Fourth Crusade in 1204. A
year later, Michael VIII Paleologos, occupied the city and
re-established the Eastern Roman Empire, with the Venetian quarter
burned and captured Venetian citizens blinded in revenge.
Marco
spent part of his childhood in Venice, where he was raised by an aunt
and uncle, since his mother had passed away early, and receive a good
education. In 1269 his father and uncle returned from a travel to China
and set off back in Asia with young Marco Polo, then seventeen, in 1271.
The story of their travels and deeds would be documented in his
Livres des merveilles du monde
(
Book of the Marvels of the World,
also known as
The Travels of Marco Polo
) three decades later.
They returned to Venice in 1295, after having traveled almost 15,000 mile and gathered many riches.
Polo
armed a galley to participate in the ongoing war of the republics of
Venice and Genoa. He was captured in a naval skirmish in 1296, and spent
several months of his imprisonment dictating a detailed account of his
travels to a fellow inmate. Rustichello da Pisa, a professional writer,
incorporated tales of his own and other collected stories. The book
depicted the three Polo travelers’ journeys throughout Asia, with a
first European comprehensive look into the Far East, including China
(Cathay) and Japan (Cipango). Marco Polo was released from captivity in
1299 and returned to Venice. The Polo family company continued its
activities, and Marco became a wealthy merchant. His father died in the
meantime, and he married the daughter of a fellow merchant. They had
three daughters.
The
famous traveler passed away on January 8 or 9, 1324, after a long
illness. He was buried in the Venetian convent of San Lorenzo. His work
would be widely read and translated in the following centuries. It would
inspire Christopher Colombus in his quest for going to Asia by the
west.
In
their travel to the east, the Polos sailed from Venice to Acre, in
Palestine, and then rode on camels to the Persian port of Hormuz, in the
Persian Gulf. In 1293, on their way of return, they would sail from
China to Hormuz, and then go overland to Trebizonda, on the Black Sea.
They crossed Armenia and Cilicia on their way both times. In one passage
of his book, Polo referred to Cilicia as “Lesser Hermenia” (Armenia
Minor), and to its famous port of “Layas” (Ayas), which was frequented
by Venetians, Genoese, and other merchants, as a crossroads of
international trade:
“There
are two Hermenias, the Greater and the Less. The Lesser Hermenia is
governed by a certain King, who maintains a just rule in his dominions,
but is himself subject to the Tartar. The country contains numerous
towns and villages, and has everything in plenty; moreover, it is a
great country for sport in the chase of all manner of beasts and birds.
It is, however, by no means a healthy region, but grievously the
reverse. In days of old the nobles there were valiant men, and did
doughty deeds of arms; but nowadays they are poor creatures, and good at
nought, unless it be at boozing; they are great at that. Howbeit, they
have a city upon the sea, which is called LAYAS, at which there is a
great trade. For you must know that all the spicery, and the cloths of
silk and gold, and the other valuable wares that come from the interior,
are brought to that city. And the merchants of Venice and Genoa, and
other countries, come thither to sell their goods, and to buy what they
lack. And whatsoever persons would travel to the interior (of the East),
merchants or others, they take their way by this city of Layas.”
In another passage, he referred to Greater Armenia, then under Mongol domination:
“This
is a great country. It begins at a city called Arzinga [Erzinga], at
which they weave the best buckrams in the world. It possesses also the
best baths from natural springs that are anywhere to be found. The
people of the country are Armenians. There are many towns and villages
in the country, but the noblest of their cities is Arzinga, which is the
See of an Archbishop, and then Arziron [Erzerum] and Arzizi [Arjesh].
The country is indeed a passing great one… At a castle called Paipurth
[Papert], that you pass in going from Trebizond to Tauris [Tabriz],
there is a very good silver mine.
“And
you must know that it is in this country of Armenia that the Ark of
Noah exists on the top of a certain great mountain on the summit of
which snow is so constant that no one can ascend; for the snow never
melts, and is constantly added to by new falls. Below, however, the snow
does melt, and runs down, producing such rich and abundant herbage that
in summer cattle are sent to pasture from a long way round about, and
it never fails them. The melting snow also causes a great amount of mud
on the mountain.”