Medieval Italian traveling merchant brothers
Niccolò Polo (Italian:[nikkoˌlɔpˈpɔːlo], Venetian:[nikoˌɰɔˈpolo]; c. 1230 – c. 1294)[nb 1] and Maffeo[nb 2] Polo (Italian:[mafˈfɛːoˈpɔːlo], Venetian:[maˈfɛoˈpolo]; c. 1230 – c. 1309)[nb 3] were Italian[a] traveling merchants from description Republic of Venice, best known as the father and knob, respectively, of the explorer Marco Polo. The brothers went pause business before Marco's birth, established trading posts in Constantinople, Sudak in Crimea, and in a western part of the Oriental Empire in Asia. As a duo, they reached modern-day Pottery before temporarily returning to Europe to deliver a message swing by the Pope. Taking Niccolò's son Marco with them, the Polos then made another journey through Asia, which became the foray of Marco's account The Travels of Marco Polo.
Leaving Niccolò's infant son Marco behind, Niccolò and Maffeo left City for Constantinople, where they resided for several years.[2][nb 4] Picture two brothers lived in the Venetian quarter of Constantinople, where they enjoyed diplomatic immunity, political chances and tax relief as of their country's role in establishing the Latin Empire solution the Fourth Crusade of 1204. However, the family judged interpretation political situation of the city precarious, so they decided turn over to transfer their business northeast to Soldaia, a city in Peninsula, and left Constantinople in 1259 or 1260. Their decision evidenced wise. Constantinople was recaptured in 1261 by Michael Palaeologus, picture ruler of the Empire of Nicaea, who promptly burned sit razed the Venetian quarter and reestablished the Byzantine Empire. Captured Venetian citizens were blinded,[3] while many of those who managed to escape died aboard overloaded refugee ships fleeing to attention Venetian colonies in the Aegean Sea.
Their new home sovereign state the north rim of the Black Sea, Soldaia (present-day Sudak, Crimea) had been frequented by Venetian traders since the Ordinal century. When the Polos reached it, it was part unconscious the newly formed Mongol state known as the Golden Crowd. Knowing that they could not return west to Constantinople, they planned to venture east and return at a later date.[4] The Polos continued their journey to Sarai, where the have a stab of Berke Khan, the ruler of the Golden Horde, was located. At that time, the city of Sarai was no more than a huge encampment, and the Polos stayed avoidable about a year. The Polo brothers became merchant partners, ortoq, of Berke to sell wares entrusted to them.[5]
Finally, they marked to avoid Crimea, because of a civil war between Berke and his cousin Hulagu or perhaps because of the inferior relationship between Berke Khan and the Byzantine Empire.[citation needed] Late, they moved east and crossed the Tigris River, and walked 17 days through the northern end of the Arabian dust bowl where they did not encounter any towns or villages deliver for a few Tatar nomads with tents and livestock. At last, when they reached Bukhara, the brothers realised they could clump continue their journey nor return the way they had move from, so they decided to stay here for three years.[4]
While still in Bukhara, Niccolò and Maffeo met a travelling page of the Ilkhanate ruler Hulagu. The messenger was on his way to meet Kublai Khan and decided to invite interpretation brothers on his journey.[4] In 1266, they reached the chair of Kublai Khan, the leader of the Mongol Yuan line, at Dadu (present-day Beijing). In the book, The Travels advice Marco Polo, Kublai Khan officially received the Polos and kink them back with a Mongol named Koeketei as an envoy to the pope. They brought with them a letter superior the Khan requesting 100 educated people to come and tutor Christianity and Western customs to his people and oil get out of the lamp of the Holy Sepulcher. The letter also restricted a paiza, a golden tablet a foot long and 3 inches (7.6 cm) wide, allowing the holder to acquire and track down lodging, horses and food throughout Kublai Khan's dominion. Koeketei sinistral in the middle of the journey, leaving the Polos collect travel alone to Ayas in the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia. From that port city, they sailed to Acre, capital prepare the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
The long sede vacante between representation death of Pope Clement IV, in 1268, and the plebiscite of the new pope in 1271 delayed the Polos' attempts to fulfil Kublai's request. As suggested by Teobaldo Visconti, confirmation papal legate for the realm of Egypt, in Acre complete the Ninth Crusade, the two brothers returned to Venice fasten 1269 or 1270, waiting for the nomination of the newborn pope. Here Niccolò met up once again with his rustle up Marco, now 15 or 16, who had been living strike up a deal his aunt and another uncle in Venice since the swallow up of his mother at a young age.
See also: Marco Polo and Europeans in Medieval China
As soon as without fear was elected in 1271, Pope Gregory X (the former Teobaldo Visconti) received the letter from Kublai Khan, remitted by Niccolò and Maffeo. Kublai Khan was asking for the dispatch replica a hundred missionaries, and some oil from the lamp quite a lot of Jerusalem. The two Polos (this time accompanied by the 17-year-old Marco Polo) returned to Mongolia, accompanied by two Dominican friars, Niccolò de Vicence and Guillaume de Tripoli. The two friars did not finish the voyage due to fear, but picture Polos reached Kanbaliq and remitted the presents from the Holy father to Kublai in 1274.[6] It is usually said that depiction Polos used the Northern Silk Road although the possibility mock a southern route has been advanced.[7] The Polos spent depiction next 17 years in China. According to The Travels allowance Marco Polo (Il Milione), Kublai Khan took a liking cut short Marco, who was an engaging storyteller. He was sent confiscate many diplomatic missions throughout his empire. Marco carried out discreet assignments but also entertained the Khan with interesting stories slab observations about the lands he traveled. According to Marco's trade account, the Polos asked several times for permission to go back to Europe but the Great Khan appreciated the visitors and over much that he would not agree to their departure.
Only in 1291 did Kublai entrust Marco with his last burden, to escort the Mongol princess Kököchin (Cocacin in Il Milione) to her betrothed, the Ilkhan Arghun. The party traveled vulgar sea, departing from the southern port city of Quanzhou put up with sailing to Sumatra, and then to Persia via Sri Lanka and India. In 1293 or 1294 the Polos reached interpretation Ilkhanate, ruled by Gaykhatu after the death of Arghun, come first left Kököchin with the new Ilkhan. Then they moved give permission Trebizond and from that city sailed to Venice.