Status Updates From The Travels of Marco Polo: ...

(Cestami Ázie až za severný pól - cestopis, ktorý na goodreads vôbec nie je ako kniha (čo je škoda), ale má to približne rovnaký počet strán a teraz ho čítam. A je to celkom fajn pohodové čítanie, rozširujúce obzory aj z pohodlia domova.. zatiaľ.. no jedného dňa sa takto možno sama niekam vyberiem. Uvidíme...)

So many digressions…

I'm in the section where "They are idolaters and use paper money and are subject to the Great Khan" is stated in one form or another of seemingly endless provinces. Should have counted. It's one of my new quotations.

Mi fa paura il fatto che siano contenti di ciò

60

This has been a really interesting read so far. Loving it so far :)

I'm not reading this word for word because most of it is descriptions of economic and government systems. But on every page, these give you intrinsic details and curious anecdotes on how the world worked and people lived their lives.

Did not read entirely. Just got into other things

Ok, la manera de escritura es aburrida . Pero saben es bizarro. MUY BIZARRO

Outstanding!

So I recently discovered that this book is required reading for a class I want to take next quarter...

*sadly shelves Marco Polo*

I'm strangely fond of this bizarre book, but I have no desire to read it twice in a row (plus it'll be so much easier to read a hard copy)

F I N A L L Y WE GET TO THE PART ABOUT THE MONGOLS

Hate to break it to you Marco, but that cool "fireproof cloth" you heard of was indeed asbestos.

Ignoring the danger though, I do think it's pretty cool that people actually wove cloth out of an earth mineral. You could even clean it by tossing it in the fire, since it wouldn't burn! It's actually described elsewhere too, so it's not just a Marco Polo-ism.

Chagatai Khan most definitely converted to Christianity (????????) when his dad Genghis was *checks date* nine years old

.............

These academic notes are surprisingly entertaining at times

The Mongols used sesame oil, at least according to Marco Polo *files information away for TBoT*

Marco Polo: "God used the Mongol sack of Baghdad to avenge the persecution the Christians suffered under the Caliph, who had a very poetic execution that represented his greed and avarice
Also Marco Polo: The Caliph was secretly a Christian
B R U H

Stroef boekje 😅🥲

I read this book before going to sleep because it’s so calming.

Yalvarırım bit artık

İkinci kitap bitti, üç ve dört daha kısa. Çok sıkıldım, sonsuza kadar bu kitabı okuyacakmışım gibi geliyor

Bu kitabın uzun süreceğini biliyordum ama bu kadar da değil 🥱

Birinci kitap bitti

Only just finishing book 1 and it is astonishing on how many places Marco Polo visited. I enjoy the different writing approach it has, more factual, less storytelling.

Tun-Qaen lies on the northern border of Persia and encompasses a vast plain in which stands the Solitary Tree, which the Christians call the Dry Tree. It was here, the people of this country say, that the battle was fought between Alexander and Darius.
The people all worship Muhammad. They are a handsome race, and the women in particular are inestimably beautiful.

The people of this country (Hormuz) are black and worship Muhammad.

Kerman is a kingdom of Persia that lies on its eastern border.
And the gentlewomen and their daughters are superb needleworkers, embroidering animals and birds and many other figures on silks of every hue. The curtains they embroider for nobles and great men are so finely and intricately worked that they make a spectacular sight. And they also make exquisite quilts, cushions and pillows.

These kingdoms [of Persia] are full of brutal and bloodthirsty people. They are forever slaughtering one another, and if they were not checked by fear of the authorities, which is to say the Tartar lord of the Levant, they would do great harm to travelling merchants.

In Persia is the city called Saveh from which the three Magi set out when they went to worship Jesus Christ.
I can also tell you that one of the three Magi came from Saveh, one from Hawah, and the third from Kashan.

It is a plain fact that all the Saracens in the world wish great ill to all the Christians in the world.

There is also a race of people who observe the law of Christ but not the rule of the Roman Church, for they are misguided in many points. They are called Nestorians and Jacobites. They have a patriarch whom they call Catholicus; and this patriarch makes archbishops, bishops, abbots and prelates of every degree and sends them in all directions – to India and Cathay and Baghdad – just like the Roman pope.
👇