He would sail westward to the court of the Grand Khan of the East, convince him to join forces with Christian Europe against the Ottomans, and together they would retake Jerusalem in an epic battle that would destroy Islam forever. He set out his belief that such an apocalyptic war was the only way to ensure the triumph of Christianity over Islam. He vouched that he had both the experience and the knowledge to guarantee this outcome. He buttressed his credentials by explaining that he had studied Marco Polo, Pliny’s Natural History, and Ptolemy’s Geography, and had pored over every map he
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