Friday, May 22, 2020
Marco Polo, the outsider; Ibn Battuta, the insider Essay
Nowadays the wide array of transportation means and infrastructures at our disposal has made it relatively easy for us to travel from one country to another; even when those countries are thousands of miles away from each other. However, during the 13th and 14th centuries, travelling was not that easy. Yet, two men, the Italian tradesman Marco Polo and the Moroccan Jurist Ibn Battuta became famous for having managed to perform extremely long distance journeys away from their home country. At the end of their long travels, both men shared their experiences with the world via the books, The Travels of Marco Polo and The Travels of Ibn Battuta. An analysis of those two texts reveals two things. On one hand, Marco Polo remained a culturalâ⬠¦show more contentâ⬠¦In 1271, Marco Poloââ¬â¢s father and uncle, both merchants from Europe, were requested to return to China for the second time by the Mongol Emperor, Kublai Khan. The purpose of the request made by the Great Khan (Kublai) was to bring back to the Mongol court some holy oil from Jerusalem and ââ¬Å"a hundred men of learning, thoroughly acquainted with the principles of the Christian religionâ⬠(Polo 7) to convince the Mongols to convert to Christianity. Marco Polo joined his father and uncle for this second journey to the East. As part of this journey, Polo traveled throughout regions of the Middle East and Central Asia before reaching the final destination. Further, while working for Kublai Khan in China, he was sent on many inspection tours which allowed him to explore most of the provinces of China. In all the regions that were visited along the way, and more so in the case of the Mongol Empire, there was a distinct disparity in the culture as compared to Poloââ¬â¢s native land. Moreover, Marco Poloââ¬â¢s religious disposition towards Christianity set him apart from the people of the region ââ¬âthe Tartarsââ¬âwho , according to the Kublai Khan, where worshippers of ââ¬Å"evil spiritsâ⬠(Polo 7). These factors placed Marco Polo in the position of an ââ¬Å"outsiderâ⬠as defined by Hage, i.e. ââ¬Å"someone who does not experience either socio-cultural or political belonging. It is someone whose mental and bodily dispositions have evolved somewhere else and thus feels culturally ââ¬Ëout of placeââ¬â¢.
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