Marco Polo - Laurence Bergreen [18]
At last, Niccolò and Maffeo decided that the moment had come to return to Acre to await the election of the next pope. This time, they would take the seventeen-year-old Marco with them. And once the new pope was elected, they would arrange to bring documents from him to Kublai Khan. No mention was made of the one hundred wise men they had promised, or of the oil from the Holy Sepulcher. They had only young Marco to offer to Kublai Khan.
If the first journey into the Mongol Empire had come about through a series of mishaps, as chance carried Niccolò and Maffeo Polo from one trading center to the next, the second, undertaken in fulfillment of a vow, promised to be far more purposeful. They would go not as emissaries of the Republic of Venice, or of the pope, but of the Mongol Empire, and this time they would be far surer of themselves. They had their paiza to guarantee them safe passage across the hazardous stretches of Asia, and they had their knowledge of the Mongol tongue.
MARCO LEFT VENICE in the spring of 1271 with Niccolò and Maffeo to begin the long and uncertain pilgrimage to a distant capital to meet an unimaginably powerful leader in the company of his father and uncle, whom he had met for the first time only two years before.
The Polos joined a flotilla of Venetian ships known as a muda, which slowly made its way along the eastern coast of the Adriatic, hugging the shore, stopping at familiar ports to take on supplies. As it proceeded in a generally southeasterly course, the muda split into five convoys, each bound for a different destination.
The convoy bearing the Polo company headed for Acre. The passengers consisted primarily of pilgrims on their way to the Holy Land and Jerusalem, along with the Polo company, two seasoned travelers on a mission to fulfill a vow and an impressionable lad coming of age far from home.
THE FORTRESS known as Acre stood as a poignant reminder of the former Kingdom of Jerusalem, held in the thirteenth century by Muslims and other groups. Acre itself was subdivided into quarters, each housing representatives of rival states such as Venice and Genoa. The tiny port was so crowded that many ships were forced to anchor far offshore. Christian pilgrims streamed through on their way to Jerusalem.
Despite its cramped dimensions, Acre claimed two important personages at the time. Accompanied by a retinue of English knights, Prince Edward of England could be found there, allied with the Mongols in his own private crusade against Muslims. The other notable was the papal legate Teobaldo of Piacenza. In the small world of Acre, Edward and Teobaldo were acquainted, and it is possible that Edward also knew of the Polos.
On returning to Acre, the Polos made straight for their old friend to renew their acquaintance after a two-year lapse. When they met, the elder Polos expressed their wish to obtain oil from the Holy Sepulcher to fulfill their vow to Kublai Khan. Teobaldo gave them permission to proceed to Jerusalem to negotiate for the valuable substance.
It was here that King Solomon had caused the Temple to be built, and here that Jesus was crucified. And it was from here that the prophet Muhammad ascended to Heaven. (Muslims refer to Jerusalem as al-Quds, “The Holy.”) By the time the Polo company arrived, the city had been under siege for two thousand years, as one conquering army succeeded another, from Romans to Muslims. Each faith—and each army—claimed the city as its own. In Jerusalem, strife and prayer were constants; uncertainty was a way of life.
All the while, pilgrims led by guides swarmed from one holy shrine to another, as Muslims and Christians competed for ownership of and access to sacred locations and relics. The Polos were only three more pilgrims amid the crowd, but they were on a most unusual mission. To obtain the oil they had promised Kublai Khan, they went to the Holy Sepulcher at the base of the Mount of