Marco Polo: Factotum, Auditor. Language and Political Culture in the Mongol World Empire

Abstract

AbstractFrom its earliest reception, Marco Polo's “Description of the World” has been read as the record of a Venetian traveler's adventure in Asia, despite its author's claim to have spent two decades as an official of the Mongol state. This article provides a fresh assessment of Marco's narrative by placing his assertions in the context of recent scholarship on the political and cultural structures of the Mongol world empire. Where once the Mongols were only appreciated as military actors, who destroyed or crudely manipulated civil societies, a new picture has emerged of a polyglot, multiethnic system run in considerable part by outsiders like Marco. Viewing his work as part of a project of Mongol governance, we see better how cultural diversity and the exchange of information and skilled individuals was a major strength of the Mongol world system.