Cameron Devries

Blog Post #1

September 17, 2025

The Travels of Marco Polo: Persia

            Going from the prologue into the main readings of Marco Polo, it makes sense why Kublai Khan appointed Marco Polo as his emissary, with the straightforward yet broadly ranging accounts of the lands he traveled through. It seems that Polo took a great interest in trying to analyze many different pieces of the lands he encountered, while also trying to remain objective – this shows that in addition to his own interest, he was clearly trying to please the Khan and keep him accurately informed as part of his role. It is hard to get a picture of the journey’s practical aspects, as it is less of a narrative that tells how long he stayed in a place or which route he took to get there, but it often just says something like “now let us leave this kingdom and go to this one.” In his beginning journeys through the Middle East, the largest passage recounted thus far is the one regarding Persia, and I am able to get a sense of this objective writing style through Polo’s talk on religion, political organization, nature, wildlife, people, possessions, and more. One of Polo’s greater interests seems to be in religion, and here I can also note that he also is fond of inserting stories in the narrative in order to explain or expand upon certain things he encounters.

            He generally talks about people by first noting which religion or which division of a religion they follow, this section on Persia gives an interesting account of why the people are “fire-worshippers”, retelling the story of the three king. This story seemed almost like an interpretation of Jesus’s birth story with the wise men and their gifts, but now with the addition of a magical stone being tossed into a well and bringing fire down from above, which the people in Persia now worship. Still, Marco Polo simply says “for the men of this town do worship fire. And I will tell you why they worship it” (pp. 58-59). He remains objective and does not question or act appalled when confronted with different beliefs.

            The one point where Marco Polo may insert some of his own judgment is when he labels some of the people with the Persian kingdoms as “brutal and bloodthirsty” (p. 61). I am not really aware of Persia’s complete history, but even in this case it seems possible that Polo’s interpretation may be founded on evidence, because Persia at this time seems to have been attacked and ravaged by the Tartars, and there are many groups of fighting people and robbers across the land killing each other. Tying this to the religion aspect, there was one line in this reading that did make me question Polo’s objectivity so far. Following the account of the “bloodthirsty” people who “slay and harry them [merchants] unsparingly”, the final line of the paragraph reads, “And I can assure you that they all observe the law of Mahomet their prophet” (p. 61). This does seem to be a sort of backhanded comment about Islam and the beliefs of those that follow Mahomet, if those beliefs have led them to committing such violent actions.

            There are a few other things to be noted, such as how Marco Polo is generally good at including the current political organization of the place he is travelling through. He includes the current lineup of the 8 kingdoms making up Persia, these organizations likely being some of the more important information to bring back to Kublai Khan. Descriptions of the landscape are intertwined with this, as Polo recalls the borders and which nations are bordering Persia, as well as the traveling conditions such as the climate and the presence of geographical points of interest such as deserts, mountains, narrow valleys, bodies of water, etc. Finally, he is interested in the goods and commodities of an area, noting the types of crops, fruits, riches, and animals maintained throughout Persia. There seems to be a specific attraction to the lavish signs of wealth he encounters, as he often makes note of silk and embroideries and talks about how beautiful they are.

            It is clear that Marco Polo seems intent on providing an extensive and truthful interpretation of his travels, and that he is good at providing some information on all aspects of the lands he travels through. As he gets further from home there may be more religious tension or surprising opinions, but I suppose that will come in later blogs. As I finished this post, I was thinking about the fact that the actual book did not seem to be written by Marco Polo, but from the prologue it is someone else recounting the recounting of Marco Polo’s travels, which I am confused about. But I have just been assuming it to be truthful as if they are writing exactly what Marco Polo said.