Marco Polo travelled with his father Niccolò and uncle Maffeo from Venice through the eastern Mediterranean, Iran, Central Asia, and the Mongol-ruled Silk Road networks to Kublai Khan’s court. Years later, the Polos accompanied Kököchin’s maritime escort from China toward Persia and continued home to Venice.
The Moroccan jurist Ibn Battuta left Tangier for the pilgrimage to Mecca and continued through interconnected scholarly, courtly, pilgrimage, and commercial networks across Africa and Eurasia. His journeys took him through the Middle East, East Africa, Central and South Asia, the Maldives, Southeast Asia, and China before later travels in al-Andalus and the Mali Empire.
Sources and further reading
Polo, Marco, Encyclopaedia Iranica. Scholarly biography, textual history, Iranian itinerary, Kököchin mission, departure from Quanzhou, and return through the Persian Gulf and Tabriz.
Polo, Marco, Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Treccani. Detailed critical biography supporting the maritime return through Champa, Malacca, Sumatra, Sri Lanka, India, Hormuz, Trebizond, and Constantinople.
The Travels of Ibn Battutah, UNESCO Silk Roads Programme. Overview of the journey’s scale and geographic reach from Tangier through Africa and Asia to China.
Ebn Battuta, Encyclopaedia Iranica. Critical biography and itinerary analysis identifying inconsistent dates, borrowed material, disputed movements, Iranian journeys, Central Asian route, India, and the contested China narrative.