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www.tehrantimes.com A Persian translation of Mary Hull’s book “Travels of Marco Polo”, which is based on Marco Polo’s account of his travels, is now available in bookstores in Iran. It was translated into Persian by Farid Javaher-Kalam and published by Qoqnus Publications.
When Marco Polo returned home, the youth of Venice flocked to his home to hear his stories about the lands he had visited. Marco himself became known as il milione (“the man with a million stories”) and Marco milione (“Marco Millions”), and the courtyard of his home became known as the corte del milione (“court of il milione”).
Marco Polo’s book is the primary source of information about the travels of Marco’s father and uncle, Niccolٍ and Maffeo Polo, who were jewel merchants. They left Venice in 1260 on a commercial venture to the Black Sea ports of Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey) and Soldaia (now Sudak, Ukraine).
Marco’s account of his travels recorded many aspects of Mongol and Chinese society in convincing detail. These features include the Mongols’ road and postal system, the careers of Mongol administrators in China, Kublai Khan’s personality, Mongol court life, and descriptions of important cities such as Shangdu, Khanbaliq, Hangzhou, and Quanzhou. Marco Polo’s account exercised deep influence on European readers. Cartographers looked to it for information about Asian lands, and merchants drew inspiration from it when they planned commercial ventures. Portuguese mariners studied it when they decided to seek a sea route to India in the 15th century
Genoese navigator Christopher Columbus also owned a Latin translation of the work, which he read carefully. His copy still survives, along with his handwritten annotations in the margins. Columbus relied heavily on Marco Polo’s geography when planning his own voyage to reach Asian markets by sailing west from Europe.
Mary Hull holds a B.A. in history from Brown University. She is a freelance writer and the author of several histories for young adult readers. In recent years she has received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, written about the travels of Marco Polo, and studied with the School for International Training in Kenya. | 
