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The Travels and Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta provide us a wealth of information on the of societies in Asia, Europe and Africa in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. Explore their travels and insights through their own accounts, images, maps, and historical analyses. What do they reveal about the thirteenth century world? How closely connected were societies? How familiar were different societies with each others customs and manners? How did cross-cultural contacts shape the thirteenth century world?
Images
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See Image 1 for a map of Marco Polo's journeys and Image 2 for Ibn Battuta's. What cultural zones did each man visit? |
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Compare and contrast the maps of each mans journey with the depiction of the thirteenth century trading zones at Image 3. How did trade facilitate their travels? |
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For contemporary images of the scenes Marco Polo probably witnessed see Image 4, Image 5. |
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For historical depiction of Polo see Images 6. |
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For contemporary images of sites Ibn Battuta witnessed in Cairo see Image 7, and Image 8, |
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For scenes from the Haj which Ibn Battuta participated in several times, see Images 9. |
Documents
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Compare and contrast Polo and Battuta's description of China at Document 1, Document 2 and Document 3. What do they admire and/or criticize about this culture? What personal biases do these accounts reveal? |
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For Ibn Battuta's observations on of sub-Saharan Africa see Document 4, Document 5, Document 6, and Document 7. What do these accounts reveal about cultural interaction during this time? |
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For Marco Polo's travels through the Indian Ocean, see Document 8. Why were Europeans so ignorant of this part of the world? |
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