Marco Polo
c. 1254 CE–c. 1324 CE · Explorer · Venice
Marco Polo was a Venetian merchant and traveler. Around 1271 he set out overland toward Asia with his father Niccolò and uncle Maffeo, reaching the court of Kublai Khan, ruler of the Mongol Yuan dynasty in China. By his account he remained in the Khan's service for some seventeen years, undertaking missions across the realm, before returning to Venice by sea around 1295. Captured in conflict between Venice and Genoa, he dictated an account of his travels to the writer Rustichello da Pisa around 1298–1299. The resulting book, known as The Travels or Il Milione, became one of medieval Europe's most widely read descriptions of Asia.
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Venice
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In Venice at the same time
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers, teachers, and rulers whose lives overlapped with Marco Polo’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
Luminaries & Explorers world
Christian world
Jewish world
Islamic world
Hindu world
Rulers world
- Osman I· 1254 CE–1324 CE
- Ghiyath al-Din Tughlaq· –1325 CE
- Qutbuddin Mubarak Shah· –1320 CE
- Alauddin Khalji· –1316 CE
- Robert the Bruce· 1274 CE–1329 CE
- Mansa Musa· –1337 CE
- Raden Wijaya· –1309 CE
- Amda Seyon I· –1344 CE
- Al-Adil Kitbugha· –1303 CE
- Al-Nasir Muhammad· 1285 CE–1341 CE
- Emperor Go-Daigo· 1288 CE–1339 CE
- Ivan I Kalita· 1288 CE–1340 CE
- Lajin· –1299 CE
- Ramkhamhaeng the Great· –1298 CE
Works
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