tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/marco-polo-14021/articlesMarco Polo – The Conversation2022-05-12T20:04:36Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1821402022-05-12T20:04:36Z2022-05-12T20:04:36ZFriday essay: how the West discovered the Buddha<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460884/original/file-20220502-24-bg7hxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=116%2C53%2C5874%2C3916&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Buddhism is the third largest (and fastest growing) religion in Australia with approximately <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/2071.0%7E2016%7EMain%20Features%7EReligion%20Data%20Summary%7E70">half a million adherents</a>.</p>
<p>The celebration of the Buddha’s birthday here (on or around May 15) has become a major cultural event and the Buddhist doctrine of “mindfulness” is now a part of <a href="https://www.pbs.org/show/mindfulness-goes-mainstream/">mainstream culture</a>. But how and when did the West discover the Buddha?</p>
<p>The facts about the Buddha’s life are opaque but we can assume he was born no earlier than 500 BCE and died no later than 400 BCE. He was <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lalitavistara">said to be</a> the son of an Indian king, so distressed by the sight of suffering that he spent years searching for the answer to it, finally attaining enlightenment while sitting under a bodhi (sacred fig) tree.</p>
<p>The Buddha’s family name was Gotama (in the<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pali"> Pali</a> language) or Gautama (in Sanskrit). Although it does not appear in the earliest traditions, his personal name was later said to be Siddhartha, which means “one who has achieved his purpose”. (This name was retrofitted by later believers.)</p>
<p>According to Buddhist tradition, the Buddha spent 45 years teaching the path to enlightenment, gathering followers, and creating the Buddhist monastic community. According to the legend, upon his death at the age of 80, he entered Nirvana. </p>
<p>In India during the 3rd century BCE, the emperor Ashoka first promoted Buddhism. From this time on, it spread south, flourishing in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia, then moving through Central Asia including Tibet, and on to China, Korea, and Japan. Ironically, the appeal of Buddhism declined in India in succeeding centuries. It was virtually extinct there by the 13th century. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461166/original/file-20220504-12-1lonty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461166/original/file-20220504-12-1lonty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461166/original/file-20220504-12-1lonty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461166/original/file-20220504-12-1lonty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461166/original/file-20220504-12-1lonty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461166/original/file-20220504-12-1lonty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461166/original/file-20220504-12-1lonty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461166/original/file-20220504-12-1lonty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Buddha preaches Abhidhamma to his Mother in Heaven, Chedi Traiphop Traimongkhon Temple, Hatyai. Thailand.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In that same century, the Venetian merchant Marco Polo gave the West its first account of Buddha’s life. Between 1292 and 1295, journeying home from China, Marco Polo arrived in Sri Lanka. There he heard the story of the life of Sergamoni Borcan whom we now know as the Buddha.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461129/original/file-20220504-17-li3i3m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461129/original/file-20220504-17-li3i3m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461129/original/file-20220504-17-li3i3m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=866&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461129/original/file-20220504-17-li3i3m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=866&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461129/original/file-20220504-17-li3i3m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=866&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461129/original/file-20220504-17-li3i3m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1088&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461129/original/file-20220504-17-li3i3m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1088&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461129/original/file-20220504-17-li3i3m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1088&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>Marco wrote about Sergamoni Borcan, a name he had heard at the court of Kublai Khan, in his book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Description-World-Marco-Polo/dp/1624664369">The Description of the World</a>. This was the Mongolian name for the Buddha: Sergamoni for Shakyamuni – the sage of the Shakya clan, and Borcan for Buddha – the “divine” one. (He was also known as Bhagavan – the Blessed One, or Lord.)</p>
<p>According to Marco, Sergamoni Borcan was the son of a great king who wished to renounce the world. The king moved Sergamoni into a palace, tempting him with the sensual delights of 30,000 maidens.</p>
<p>But Sergamoni was unmoved in his resolve. When his father allowed him to leave the palace for the first time, he encountered a dead man, and an infirm old man. He returned to the palace <a href="https://www.amazon.in/Description-World-Marco-Polo/dp/1624664369">frightened and astonished</a>, “saying to himself that he would not remain in this bad world but would go seeking the one who had made it and did not die.” </p>
<p>Sergamoni then left the palace permanently and lived the abstinent life of a celibate recluse. “Certainly,” <a href="https://www.amazon.in/Description-World-Marco-Polo/dp/1624664369">Marco declared</a>, “had he been Christian, he would have been a great saint with our Lord Jesus Christ”. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-buddha-became-a-christian-saint-142285">How the Buddha became a Christian saint</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Jesuits and authors</h2>
<p>Little more was known about the Buddha for the next 300 years in the West. Nevertheless, from the mid-16th century, information accumulated, primarily as a result of the Jesuit missions to Japan and China.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461140/original/file-20220504-11-yc2dkd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461140/original/file-20220504-11-yc2dkd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461140/original/file-20220504-11-yc2dkd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=607&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461140/original/file-20220504-11-yc2dkd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=607&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461140/original/file-20220504-11-yc2dkd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=607&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461140/original/file-20220504-11-yc2dkd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=763&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461140/original/file-20220504-11-yc2dkd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=763&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461140/original/file-20220504-11-yc2dkd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=763&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Great Buddha of Kamakura, in Japan, located in the Buddhist temple of Kōtoku-in and dating from approximately 1252.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By 1700, it was increasingly assumed by those familiar with the Jesuit missions that the Buddha was the common link in an array of religious practitioners they were encountering. </p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_le_Comte">Louis le Comte</a> (1655-1728), writing his <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Nouveaux_m%C3%A9moires_sur_l_%C3%A9tat_pr%C3%A9sent.html?id=51sPAAAAQAAJ&redir_esc=y">memoir of his travels</a> through China on a mission inspired by the Sun King Louis XIV declared, “all the Indies have been poisoned with his pernicious Doctrine. Those of Siam call them Talapoins, the Tartars call them Lamas or Lama sem, the Japoners Bonzes, and the Chinese Hocham.”</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461142/original/file-20220504-16-lp1ch7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461142/original/file-20220504-16-lp1ch7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461142/original/file-20220504-16-lp1ch7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461142/original/file-20220504-16-lp1ch7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461142/original/file-20220504-16-lp1ch7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461142/original/file-20220504-16-lp1ch7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=699&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461142/original/file-20220504-16-lp1ch7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=699&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461142/original/file-20220504-16-lp1ch7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=699&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Portrait of Daniel Defoe in the National Maritime Museum, London.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The writings of the English author <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Daniel-Defoe">Daniel Defoe </a>(c.1660-1731) show what the educated English reader might have known of the Buddha in the early 18th century. </p>
<p>In his <a href="https://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/3216942">Dictionary of all Religions</a> (1704), Defoe tells us of an idol of Fe (the Buddha) on an island near the Red Sea, said to represent an atheistic philosopher who lived 500 years before Confucius, that is, around 1,000 BCE. </p>
<p>This idol was carried to China </p>
<blockquote>
<p>with Instructions concerning the Worship paid to it, and so introduced a Superstition, that in several things abolish’d the Maxims of Confucius, who always condemned Atheism and idolatry.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Confusion</h2>
<p>A quite different Buddha was to be encountered by the British in the later 1700s as they achieved economic, military, and political dominance in India. Initially, the British were reliant on their Hindu informants. They told them the Buddha was an incarnation of their god Vishnu who had come to lead the people astray with false teaching.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461162/original/file-20220504-11-psa928.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461162/original/file-20220504-11-psa928.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461162/original/file-20220504-11-psa928.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461162/original/file-20220504-11-psa928.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461162/original/file-20220504-11-psa928.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461162/original/file-20220504-11-psa928.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461162/original/file-20220504-11-psa928.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461162/original/file-20220504-11-psa928.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Face of Lord Buddha, head of curly hair, lips, almond shaped eyes, Pakistan or Afghanistan, Gandharan region, 1st–2nd century, stucco with traces of pigment.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>More confusion reigned. It was often argued in the West that there were two Buddhas – one whom Hindus believed to be the ninth incarnation of Vishnu (appearing around 1000 BCE), the other (Gautama) appearing around 1000 years later. </p>
<p>And yet more confusion. For there was a tradition in the West since the mid-17th century that the Buddha came from Africa.</p>
<p>Well into the 19th century, it was thought that representations of the Buddha, particularly in India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, depicted with woolly hair and thick “Ethiopian lips” (as <a href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/ew5vgkp3">one writer put it</a>) were evidence of his African origins. </p>
<p>Such observers were mistaking traditional representations of the Buddha with his hair tightly coiled into tiny cones as a sign of his African origins. </p>
<h2>First use of the term ‘Buddhism’</h2>
<p>Two major turning points eventually sorted out these confusions. The first was the invention of the term “Buddhism”. </p>
<p>Its first use in English was in 1800 in a translation of a work entitled <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Lectures_on_History_Translated_from_the.html?id=rxZXAAAAcAAJ&redir_esc=y">Lectures on History by Count Constantine de Volney</a>. A politician and orientalist, de Volney coined the term “Buddhism” to identify the pan-Asian religion that he believed was based on a mythical figure called “Buddha”. </p>
<p>Only then did Buddhism begin to emerge from the array of “heathen idolatries” with which it had been identified, becoming identified as a religion, alongside Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.</p>
<p>The second turning point was the arrival in the West of Buddhist texts. The decade from 1824 was decisive. For centuries, not a single original document of the Buddhist religion had been accessible to the scholars of Europe. </p>
<p>But in the space of ten years, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhist_texts">four complete Buddhist literatures</a> were discovered – in Sanskrit, Tibetan, Mongolian, and Pāli. Collections from Japan and China were to follow. </p>
<p>With the Buddhist texts in front of them, Western scholars were able to determine Buddhism was a tradition that had arisen in India around 400-500 years BCE.</p>
<p>And among these texts was the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lalitavistara">Lalitavistara</a> (written around the 4th century CE), which contained a biography of the Buddha. For the first time Westerners came to read an account of his life. </p>
<p>The Lalitavistara and other biographies depicted a highly magical and enchanted world – of the Buddha’s heavenly life before his birth, of his conception via an elephant, of his mother’s transparent womb, of his miraculous powers at his birth, of the many miracles he performed, of gods, demons, and water spirits.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461137/original/file-20220504-25-psa928.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461137/original/file-20220504-25-psa928.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461137/original/file-20220504-25-psa928.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461137/original/file-20220504-25-psa928.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461137/original/file-20220504-25-psa928.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461137/original/file-20220504-25-psa928.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=620&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461137/original/file-20220504-25-psa928.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=620&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461137/original/file-20220504-25-psa928.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=620&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A 19th century painting of the birth of the Buddha: scene with Queen Maya.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But within these enchanted texts, there remained the story of the life of the Buddha with which we are familiar. Of the Indian King <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%9Auddhodana">Shuddhodana</a> who, fearing Gautama would reject the world, keeps his son sheltered from any sights of suffering. When Gautama finally leaves the palace he encounters an old man, a diseased man, and a dead man. He then decides to search for the answer to suffering. </p>
<p>For the Buddha, the cause of suffering lies in attachment to the things of the world. The path to liberation from it thus lies in the rejection of attachment. </p>
<p>The Buddha’s way to the cessation of attachment was eventually summarised in the Holy Eightfold Path – right views, right resolve, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right meditation. The outcome of this path was the attainment of Nirvana when the self at the time of death escaped from rebirth and was extinguished like the flame of a candle. </p>
<p>This selfless Buddha, who was said to have died in the groves of trees near the Indian town of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kushinagar">Kusinagara</a>, was the one the West soon came to admire. As the Unitarian minister Richard Armstrong, put it in 1870, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>his personality has endured for centuries, and is as fresh and beautiful as now when displayed to European eyes, as when Siddharta [sic] himself breathed his dying breath in the shades of (the forest of) Kusinagara.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>History versus legend</h2>
<p>But is the Buddha of the legend also the Buddha of history? That the tradition we call Buddhism was founded by an Indian sage named Gautama around the 5th century BCE is very likely. </p>
<p>That he preached a middle way to liberation between worldly indulgence and extreme asceticism is highly probable. That he cultivated practices of mindfulness and meditation, which led to peace and serenity, is almost certain. </p>
<p>That said, the earliest Buddhist traditions showed little interest in the details of the life of the Buddha. It was, after all, his teachings – the Dharma as Buddhists call it – rather than his person that mattered. </p>
<p>But we can discern a growing interest in the life of the Buddha from the first century BCE until the second or third centuries of the common era as the Buddha transitions within Buddhism from a teacher to a saviour, from human to divine.</p>
<p>It was from the first to the fifth centuries CE that there developed a number of Buddhist texts giving full accounts of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Buddha-founder-of-Buddhism">the life of the Buddha</a>, from his birth (and before) to his renunciation of the world, his enlightenment, his teachings, and finally to his death. </p>
<p>Thus, there is a long period of at least 500-900 years between the death of the Buddha and these biographies of him. Can we rely upon these very late lives of the Buddha for accurate information about the events of his life? Probably not. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, the legend of his life and teachings still provide an answer to the meaning of human life for some 500 million followers in the modern world.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/182140/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Philip C. Almond does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>From talk of a ‘poisonous doctrine’ to mistaken beliefs that he hailed from Africa, Western thinkers got Buddhism wrong for a long time.Philip C. Almond, Emeritus Professor in the History of Religious Thought, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/538732016-02-21T19:03:36Z2016-02-21T19:03:36ZIslamic State and the Assassins: reviving fanciful tales of the medieval Orient<p><em>How do we account for forces and events that paved the way for the emergence of Islamic State? <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/understanding-islamic-state">Our series on the jihadist group’s origins</a> tries to address this question by looking at the interplay of historical and social forces that led to its advent.</em></p>
<p><em>Today, historian Farhad Daftary debunks the idea that Islamic State is based on the so-called Assassins or hashishin, the fighting corps of the fledgling medieval Nizari Ismaili state.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Many Western commentators have tried to trace the ideological roots of Islamic State (IS) to earlier Islamic movements. Occasionally, they’ve <a href="http://atheistpapers.com/2015/08/06/sicarii-assassins-and-the-islamic-state-a-pattern-emerges/">associated them with the medieval Ismailis</a>, a Shiʿite Muslim community made famous in Europe by returning Crusaders as the Assassins. </p>
<p>But any serious inquiry shows the teachings and practices of medieval Ismailis, who had a state of their own in parts of Iran from 1090 to 1256, had nothing in common with the senseless terrorist ideology and ruthless destruction of IS and its supporters. </p>
<p>Attacks on civilians, including women and children, and engaging in the mass destruction of property are forbidden both by Prophet Muhammad and in the tenets of Islamic law. Needless to say, the Ismailis never descended to such terrorist activities, even under highly adversarial circumstances. </p>
<p>Significant discordance exists between the medieval Ismailis and contemporary terrorists, who – quite inappropriately – identify themselves as members of an Islamic polity. </p>
<h2>Fanciful Oriental tales</h2>
<p>The Ismailis, or more specifically the Nizari Ismailis, founded a precarious state in 1090 under the leadership of Hasan-i Sabbah. As a minority Shi'ite Muslim community, they faced hostility from the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbasid_Caliphate">Sunni-Abbasid establishment</a> (the third caliphate after the death of the Prophet Muhammed) and their political overlords, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seljuq_dynasty">Seljuq Turks</a>, from very early on. </p>
<p>Struggling to survive in their network of defensive mountain fortresses remained the primary objective of the Ismaili leadership, centred on the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alamut_Castle">castle of Alamut</a> (in the north of modern-day Iran). Their state survived against all odds until it was destroyed by the all-conquering Mongols in 1256.</p>
<p>During the course of the 12th century, the Ismailis were incessantly attacked by the armies of the Sunni Seljuq sultans, who were intensely anti-Shiʿite. As they couldn’t match their enemies’ superior military power, the Ismailis resorted to the warfare tactic of selectively removing Seljuq military commanders and other prominent adversaries who posed serious existential threats to them in particular localities. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/110922/original/image-20160210-3283-jkrcvn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/110922/original/image-20160210-3283-jkrcvn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110922/original/image-20160210-3283-jkrcvn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110922/original/image-20160210-3283-jkrcvn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110922/original/image-20160210-3283-jkrcvn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110922/original/image-20160210-3283-jkrcvn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110922/original/image-20160210-3283-jkrcvn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An agent (fida’i) of the Ismailis (left, in white turban) fatally stabs Nizam al-Mulk, a Seljuk vizier, in 1092.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AAssassination_of_Nizam_al-Mulk.jpg">Public domain via Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These daring missions were carried out by the Ismaili fidaʾis, who were deeply devoted to their community. The fidaʾis comprised the fighting corps of the Ismaili state. </p>
<p>But the Ismailis didn’t invent the policy of assassinating enemies. It was a practice employed by many Muslim groups at the time, as well as by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crusades">the Crusaders</a> and many others throughout history. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, almost all assassinations of any significance occurring in the central lands of Islam became automatically attributed to the Ismaili fidaʾis. And a series of fanciful tales were fabricated around their recruitment and training. </p>
<p>These tales, rooted in the “imaginative ignorance” of the Crusaders, were concocted and put into circulation by them and their occidental observers; they’re not found in contemporary Muslim sources. </p>
<p>The so-called Assassin legends, which culminated in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marco_Polo">Marco Polo’s synthesis</a>, were meant to provide satisfactory explanations for the fearless behaviour of the fidaʾis, which seemed otherwise irrational to medieval Europeans. </p>
<p>The very term Assassin, which appears in medieval European literature in a variety of forms, such as Assassini, was based on variants of the Arabic word hashish (plural, hashishin) and applied to the Nizari Ismailis of Syria and Iran by other Muslims. </p>
<p>In all the Muslim sources where the Ismailis are referred to as hashishis, the term is used in its pejorative sense of “people of lax morality”. There’s no suggestion that they were actually using hashish. There’s no evidence that hashish, or any other drug, was administered to the fida’is, as alleged by Marco Polo. </p>
<p>The literal interpretation of the term for the Ismailis as an “order of crazed hashish-using Assassins” is rooted entirely in the fantasies of medieval Europeans. </p>
<p>Modern scholarship in Ismaili studies, based on the recovery and study of numerous Ismaili textual sources, has now begun to dispel many misconceptions regarding the Ismailis, including the myths surrounding their cadre of fidaʾis. </p>
<p>And the medieval Assassin legends, arising from the hostility of the Sunni Muslims to the Shiʿite Ismailis as well as the medieval Europeans’ fanciful impressions of the Orient, have been <a href="http://www.ibtauris.com/Books/Humanities/History/Regional%20%20national%20history/Asian%20history/Middle%20Eastern%20history/The%20Assassin%20Legends%20Myths%20of%20the%20Ismailis.aspx?menuitem=%7BC90B73C8-B253-4CB4-A19B-025245A9366A%7D">recounted and deconstructed</a>.</p>
<h2>A culture of learning and tolerance</h2>
<p>Living in adverse circumstances, the Ismailis of Iran and Syria were heirs to the Fatimid dynasty that founded the city of Cairo and established al-Azhar, perhaps the earliest university of the world. Although preoccupied with survival, the Ismailis of the Alamut period maintained a sophisticated outlook and a literary tradition, elaborating their teachings within a Shiʿite theological framework. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/110928/original/image-20160210-12161-md8bzw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/110928/original/image-20160210-12161-md8bzw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=317&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110928/original/image-20160210-12161-md8bzw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=317&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110928/original/image-20160210-12161-md8bzw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=317&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110928/original/image-20160210-12161-md8bzw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110928/original/image-20160210-12161-md8bzw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110928/original/image-20160210-12161-md8bzw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An entirely fictional illustration from The Travels of Marco Polo showing the Nizari imam Alâ al Dîn Muhammad (1221-1255) drugging his disciples.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AAl%C3%A2_al_D%C3%AEn_Muhammad_droguant_ses_disciples.jpeg">Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Their leader, Hasan-i Sabbah, was a learned theologian. And the <a href="http://www.ibtauris.com/Books/Humanities/History/Regional%20%20national%20history/Asian%20history/Middle%20Eastern%20history/The%20Eagles%20Nest%20Ismaili%20Castles%20in%20Iran%20and%20Syria.aspx?menuitem=%7B84F7D96C-8E66-483F-AD63-DB241E9659C6%7D">Ismaili fortresses of the period</a>, displaying magnificent military architecture and irrigation skills, were equipped with libraries holding significant collections of manuscripts, documents and scientific instruments. </p>
<p>The Ismailis also extended their patronage of learning to outside scholars, including Sunnis, and even non-Muslims. They were very tolerant towards other religious communities. </p>
<p>In the last decades of their state, in the 13th century, even waves of Sunni Muslims found refuge in the Ismaili fortress communities of eastern Iran. These refugees were running from the Mongol hordes who were then establishing their hegemony over Central Asia. </p>
<p>All this stands in sharp contrast to the destructive policies of IS, which persecutes religious and ethnic minorities and enslaves women.</p>
<p>The medieval Ismailis embodied qualities of piety, learning and community life in line with established Islamic teachings. These traditions continue in the modern-day Ismaili ethos. And the present-day global Ismaili community represents one of the most progressive and enlightened communities of the Muslim world. </p>
<p>The Ismailis have never had anything in common with the terrorists of IS, who murder innocent civilians at random and en masse, and destroy monuments of humankind’s shared cultural heritage. </p>
<p>Global terrorism in any form under the banner of Islam is a new phenomenon without historical antecedents in either classical Islamic or any other tradition. IS’s ideology reflects a crude version of the intolerant Wahhabi theology expounded by the Sunni religious establishment of Saudi Arabia, which is itself a narrow perspective that fails to recognise any pluralism or diversity of interpretations in Islam.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This is the fifth article in our series on the <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/understanding-islamic-state">historical roots of Islamic State</a>. <a href="http://bit.ly/UnderstandingIS">Download our special report</a> collating the whole the series.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/53873/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Farhad Daftary does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In seeking to link IS to earlier Islamic movements, Western commentators have associated the jihadist group with the medieval Ismailis, made famous in Europe by returning Crusaders as the Assassins.Farhad Daftary, Co-Director & Head of the Department of Academic Research and Publications, The Institute of Ismaili StudiesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/355752014-12-17T06:13:46Z2014-12-17T06:13:46ZMarco Polo: Netflix may as well have filmed a backpacker on a gap year<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/67362/original/image-20141216-14132-u4r8tb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">All the Eastern stereotypes are here.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Phil Bray for Netflix</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The first series of <a href="http://www.netflix.com/WiMovie/70305883">Marco Polo</a>, released by Netflix, comes hot on the heels of the likes of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1856010/">House of Cards</a> and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2372162/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Orange is the New Black</a>. It’s the <a href="https://theconversation.com/netflix-chinese-game-of-thrones-charts-the-life-of-marco-polo-so-who-was-he-35337">second most expensive television series ever made</a>. Expectations were high. </p>
<p>Adapting the <a href="https://theconversation.com/netflix-chinese-game-of-thrones-charts-the-life-of-marco-polo-so-who-was-he-35337">13th-century traveller’s account of his travels</a>, the series tries to turn the adventurous trader’s service at the court of the Great Khan Qubilai (1260-1294) into a grand epic of medieval Asia. And the results are very impressive – visually. The photography and costumes are beautiful. </p>
<p>But that’s about it. The producers claim to have consulted Persian and Chinese sources in pursuing Polo’s experience. This is visible in nice details such as the <a href="http://www.omniglot.com/writing/phagspa.htm">‘Phags-pa script</a>, a new way of writing Mongolian developed under Qubilai’s rule, which is incorporated into some of the gateways. Early scenes show some of the complexity of Mongol Eurasia; several languages are spoken, and Mongolian terms are used throughout. So at least there was some effort. </p>
<p>A discussion between Qubilai and his brother Arigh Böke on rulership and their parents Tolui and Sorghaqtani Beki also reflects the claim to historical authenticity. These are important figures in the early empire, but hardly household names. But this is where the influence of history stops. It soon becomes clear that this detail is simply a veneer, which has little impact on a narrative that relies on spectacle and stereotype.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/67364/original/image-20141216-14150-130chnm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/67364/original/image-20141216-14150-130chnm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67364/original/image-20141216-14150-130chnm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67364/original/image-20141216-14150-130chnm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67364/original/image-20141216-14150-130chnm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67364/original/image-20141216-14150-130chnm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67364/original/image-20141216-14150-130chnm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pretty scenery, but that’s about it.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Phil Bray for Netflix</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And so despite creator <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0299301/">John Fusco</a>’s claim that Polo’s original story is “much more compelling and exciting than the mythology,” huge changes are made to <a href="https://theconversation.com/netflix-chinese-game-of-thrones-charts-the-life-of-marco-polo-so-who-was-he-35337">the record</a>. This Marco Polo takes his place as a hero at the centre of conflict throughout Qubilai’s three decades of rule. Such adjustments for effect are understandable; <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/10636/pg10636.html">the Travels</a> are descriptive and often dull. </p>
<h2>Simply stereotype</h2>
<p>The result, however, is a glossy but confused presentation of outright Orientalism, which is only topped off by making a white European male the solution to Asia’s challenges. This is the central problem – Polo’s Asia is not an alien land. We find ourselves in territory all too recognisable from martial arts films and colonial imagery. All the Eastern stereotypes are here, from endless kung fu to writhing naked courtesans and horrific cruelty.</p>
<p>The reliance on stereotype is reflected in the costumes – Qubilai’s hair and clothes are impressive, but many characters are assigned unchanging uniform combinations. This probably reflects a lack of investment in exploring their motivations and in the viewer’s difficulty in telling them apart. Perhaps it also draws on anime and gaming images. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/67366/original/image-20141216-14125-17e7gef.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/67366/original/image-20141216-14125-17e7gef.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67366/original/image-20141216-14125-17e7gef.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67366/original/image-20141216-14125-17e7gef.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67366/original/image-20141216-14125-17e7gef.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67366/original/image-20141216-14125-17e7gef.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67366/original/image-20141216-14125-17e7gef.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Benedict Wong as Qubilai is one of the only characters with a hint of depth.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Phil Bray for Netflix</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Rather than drawing on political and cultural concerns of the period, which would have given the show a bit of originality, the series rejects Polo’s account. For example, the division of northern and southern East Asia into Cathay and Manji is ignored. Instead, artificial differences between “China” and “Mongolia” are reinforced. A cultured, subtle and cruel “Chinese” Song Dynasty is lined up against the brutal and clumsy “Mongols”. Qubilai’s rule, governing millions, is thus made trivial and simple. </p>
<p>Little administration is evident, only incidents to shock Polo and the viewer and move the plot along. Where is the theatre of rule? Where are the feasts and hunts, court ritual and offerings, factions of advisers, envoys from Ilkhanate Iran, other Christians, Buddhists, Daoists and Confucian scholars? This exaggerated simplicity is prominent in the few Mongol military operations we see, where a tiny army gallops at random – ignoring the empire’s huge and complex use of non-Mongol civil and military machinery. </p>
<p>And religion is apparently non-existent in this 13th century. Beyond the Polo family’s failed attempt to bring priests to court (and a psychedelic experience among the <a href="http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/ismailism-1">Ismailis</a> which is best forgotten), the only religious activity we see are the prayers of Qubilai’s military adviser Yusuf and occasional references to the Turco-Mongol concept of <a href="http://extremeorient.revues.org/290?lang=en">Eternal Blue Heaven</a>. </p>
<h2>Cardboard characters</h2>
<p>The acting is simplistic, too. Only <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0938950/?ref_=tt_ov_st">Benedict Wong</a>’s Qubilai and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001040/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_t3">Joan Chen</a>’s Chabi show any depth. This is perhaps because only they are allowed any – heavy-handed plotting leaves much of the cast stuck in inflexible roles. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/67365/original/image-20141216-14144-1gecjn4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/67365/original/image-20141216-14144-1gecjn4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67365/original/image-20141216-14144-1gecjn4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67365/original/image-20141216-14144-1gecjn4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67365/original/image-20141216-14144-1gecjn4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67365/original/image-20141216-14144-1gecjn4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67365/original/image-20141216-14144-1gecjn4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lad on tour.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Phil Bray for Netflix</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So in this cliched world, it’s unsurprising that <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3080119/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_t1">Lorenzo Richelmy</a>’s Polo is more a 21st-century backpacker than a 13th-century traveller. Christian and medieval Venetian frames of reference that would have informed Polo’s life are almost entirely lacking. Polo doesn’t ask nearly enough questions, and seems neither to be surprised by his surroundings nor compare them to the world of his youth. The lack of such normal reactions in a central character is a failure on multiple levels – he neither acts as a guide for the viewer, or provides a point of human interest. </p>
<p>Two major characters seem especially symptomatic of the series’s lazy and troubling presentation of tired tropes. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1977856/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_t10">Chin Han</a>’s portrayal of the Southern Song chancellor Jia Sidao (a name never pronounced the same way twice) is cartoonishly chilling, the confusing glimpses we get of his childhood reinforcing a blame-the-weirdo narrative of deviance. The transformation of Mongol general and statesman Bayan of the Ba’arin (who Polo describes as “Hundred Eyes” via a Chinese misreading of his name) into a blind martial arts superhero is similarly bizarre. Both figures are robbed of agency and turned into ornamental pantomime. </p>
<p>Whether Marco Polo captures viewers’ imaginations in the same way as Game of Thrones, as Netflix certainly hopes it will, remains to be seen. But I doubt it, because the series has far more to do with a depressingly patronising assumption about the taste and attention-span of today’s market than the experiences of a 13th-century traveller.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/35575/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Geoff Humble receives funding from the AHRC Block Grant, and has previously received funding from the European Research Council and the government of Taiwan, ROC. </span></em></p>The first series of Marco Polo, released by Netflix, comes hot on the heels of the likes of House of Cards and Orange is the New Black. It’s the second most expensive television series ever made. Expectations…Geoff Humble, PhD Candidate in Medieval History, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/353372014-12-12T06:19:23Z2014-12-12T06:19:23ZNetflix ‘Chinese Game of Thrones’ charts the life of Marco Polo – so who was he?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/66986/original/image-20141211-6039-onw3nk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Marco Polo.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Netflix</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It is a name that most will have heard of, but few, perhaps, actually know much about. But <a href="http://www.netflix.com/WiMovie/70305883">Marco Polo</a>, an epic ten-episode programme hosted by Netflix, may change that. The show has already been dubbed the “<a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/features/the-chinese-game-of-thrones-marco-polo-sets-sail-for-netflix-9890764.html">Chinese Game of Thrones</a>” due to its massive budget – which stands at a staggering <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/ellenkilloran/2014/12/09/netflix-series-marco-polo-is-not-too-big-to-fail-its-just-too-big/">US$90m</a> (£58m). This makes it the second most expensive TV series ever, after (you guessed it) Game of Thrones.</p>
<p>There are more questions asked about Marco Polo than there are possible answers. Even the doubts about his presence in China have yet to silenced, despite most reputable experts accepting that his family of Venetian traders had gained access to the court of the Great Khan, Qubilai, in Khanbaliq or Dadu, as the Yuan capital – today’s Beijing – was known.</p>
<p>So before the misconceptions and stories start flowing, let’s set the record straight.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KWtv5Ht4YZE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<h2>The real Marco</h2>
<p>Marco Polo was born on September 15 1254 in Venice or as some maintain, on the Dalmatian island of Korčula, into a family of Venetian traders. A common misconception is that he was the first European to reach China. In fact, his father Niccolo and uncle Maffe had just arrived back from a long trip to the court of the Great Mongol Khan Qubilai when they decided to return with their young protégé. What makes Marco Polo so special is that he was the first European to record his travels in detail and so inspire others to venture into those previously unknown climes including cartographers and such giant figures as Christopher Columbus.</p>
<p>The Polos returned to Yuan China with Marco in 1271, when he was 16. They did so to fulfil a promise made to Qubilai Khan to present him with “oil from the lamp in Jerusalem” and letters from the Pope. They did not, however, bring him the “100 Christians acquainted with the Seven Arts (grammar, rhetoric, logic, geometry, arithmetic, music and astronomy)” that the Great khan had requested from the Vicar of Rome. </p>
<p>Their journey took them from Acre on the coast of Palestine across the Jordanian desert, Ilkhanid Iran and into the Hindu Kush where they threaded a dangerous path into the high Pamirs. They travelled from the friendly Ilkhanate, who were allies of Qubilai, then between the Chaghadaid Khans to the north and the sultans of Delhi to the south, both of whom were then hostile to the Great Khan in Khanbliq (Beijing). When the Venetian travellers arrived is not recorded, but they were safely in the Khan’s court by 1275. Marco would have been 21.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/67002/original/image-20141211-6057-1bn8n1v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/67002/original/image-20141211-6057-1bn8n1v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67002/original/image-20141211-6057-1bn8n1v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67002/original/image-20141211-6057-1bn8n1v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67002/original/image-20141211-6057-1bn8n1v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67002/original/image-20141211-6057-1bn8n1v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67002/original/image-20141211-6057-1bn8n1v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Kublai Khan.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Netflix</span></span>
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<h2>Court of the Khan</h2>
<p>Marco knew at least four languages and though young had accumulated a great deal of experience. He worked for the Khan as a government official (though he probably exaggerated the importance of the positions he occupied). He travelled and collected data and knowledge about many of the towns, cities and provinces of Qubilai’s southern and eastern regions, including Burma. </p>
<p>His knowledge of the country and of the history of the Mongols and their political conflicts is impressive. Some are sceptical of his account because of apparent gaps in his knowledge but it should be remembered that he was working for the Mongol ruling elite, who would have restricted his access to the ordinary Chinese. Other sceptics have wondered why he failed to refer to the Great Wall. But the Great Wall as we understand it today was constructed under the Ming Dynasty, which came later, so it would be downright remarkable if he had.</p>
<p>The Great Khan had so warmed to the Polo party that he was very reluctant to let them leave his service. But the Polos feared that should Qubilai die, their closeness to the ruler might work against them with his successors. And so when in 1292 a request arrived from the Ilkhan Arghun of Iran asking for a Chinese wife, the Polos persuaded Qubilai that they should accompany the princess on the perilous sea voyage westward. Almost 20 years after their arrival, a party of 14 ships left the port of Quanzhou for the long and perilous journey via the Malacca Straits across the Indian Ocean to the port of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf. Of the 600 passengers who had set out, only 18 including the Polos and the princess, survived to disembark on Iranian soil. The Polos would then wind their way home via Constantinople.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/67004/original/image-20141211-6054-1f2d17l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/67004/original/image-20141211-6054-1f2d17l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67004/original/image-20141211-6054-1f2d17l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67004/original/image-20141211-6054-1f2d17l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67004/original/image-20141211-6054-1f2d17l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67004/original/image-20141211-6054-1f2d17l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67004/original/image-20141211-6054-1f2d17l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A dangerous alliance.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Netflix</span></span>
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<h2>Return home</h2>
<p>Marco Polo returned to Venice in 1295 with a fortune converted into gemstones. But it was not long after this that he became embroiled in Italy’s endemic military conflicts. It was while he was held hostage during these skirmishes between Italy’s city states that his memoirs were written – but not by himself. He was not a writer nor a storyteller and so his writings were in fact penned by a chance acquaintance and professional wordsmith, the romance writer, Rustichello da Pisa, who was imprisoned with him. </p>
<p>In 1299 he was finally released from captivity and the account of his travels was released. It became an immediate success and was copied and translated into multiple editions. Rustichello was probably hoping to compile a guide for merchants and travellers but since no definitive text of the finished product exists the travelogue which is read today is an amalgamation of various texts and translations produced in the 14th century.</p>
<p>Marco married and fathered three daughters. He retired a rich and famous man. He never returned to China and Qubilai Khan died not long after the Polos’ departure. Today he is celebrated the world over and has lent his name to hotels, businesses, transport companies and franchises. He has inspired, entertained and encouraged generation upon generation of travellers, tourists and explorers. With or without Netflix’s help, he will no doubt continue to do so for many years to come.</p>
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<p><em>This article was amended on December 15 to highlight the contention surrounding Marco Polo’s birthplace.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/35337/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>George Lane does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It is a name that most will have heard of, but few, perhaps, actually know much about. But Marco Polo, an epic ten-episode programme hosted by Netflix, may change that. The show has already been dubbed…George Lane, Senior Teaching Fellow in the History of the Middle East and Central Asia, SOAS, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.