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A review by josh_paul
Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu by Laurence Bergreen
5.0
This is a super interesting book, at least if you're you're the sorta person who's interested in this sorta thing. Bergreen uses Polo's book as a jumping-off point but cross-references it with local sources and the work of modern historians.
The story itself reads like a novel. Or perhaps a sitcom. My favorite episode was the one where Kublai Kahn invited the pope to send 100 missionaries to spread the word of Christ in China.
This seems like it would be an attractive offer: to convert something like 1/3rd of the known world's population with the support of their ruler. It wasn't going to be easy, though. The theological armada would need to be prepared “to show plainly to him [Kublai] and to the idolaters and to the other classes of people submitted to his rule that all their religion was erroneous and all the idols that they keep in their houses are devilish things.” If that wasn't clear enough, he added, "The pope’s emissaries 'should know well how to show clearly by reason that the Christian faith and religion is better than theirs and more true than all the other religions.'"
Later in his list of stuff he wanted the Polos to bring him from the West, Kublai noted that he "believed Christ to be in the number of blessed Gods.” Bergreen interprets this to mean that he wasn't interested in becoming a Christian; he just wanted to add Jesus to the Mongol pantheon alongside Tengri and the rest of the heavy hitters. He's probably right about that, though I reckon even getting Jesus added to the pantheon would have been a coup.
In any event, now I need to go watch to the TV show.
The story itself reads like a novel. Or perhaps a sitcom. My favorite episode was the one where Kublai Kahn invited the pope to send 100 missionaries to spread the word of Christ in China.
This seems like it would be an attractive offer: to convert something like 1/3rd of the known world's population with the support of their ruler. It wasn't going to be easy, though. The theological armada would need to be prepared “to show plainly to him [Kublai] and to the idolaters and to the other classes of people submitted to his rule that all their religion was erroneous and all the idols that they keep in their houses are devilish things.” If that wasn't clear enough, he added, "The pope’s emissaries 'should know well how to show clearly by reason that the Christian faith and religion is better than theirs and more true than all the other religions.'"
Later in his list of stuff he wanted the Polos to bring him from the West, Kublai noted that he "believed Christ to be in the number of blessed Gods.” Bergreen interprets this to mean that he wasn't interested in becoming a Christian; he just wanted to add Jesus to the Mongol pantheon alongside Tengri and the rest of the heavy hitters. He's probably right about that, though I reckon even getting Jesus added to the pantheon would have been a coup.
In any event, now I need to go watch to the TV show.