Marco Polo vs Ibn Battuta

Who were Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta?

Marco Polo was born in Venice around 1254 into a merchant family. His father Niccolò and uncle Maffeo had already reached the court of the Mongol ruler Kublai Khan in the 1260s. In 1271 they set out again, taking 17-year-old Marco, and reached Kublai's summer capital Shangdu (Xanadu) around 1275. Marco says he served the Khan for about 17 years. The Polos left around 1291, escorting a Mongol princess by sea to Persia, and were home in 1295. Soon after, Marco was a prisoner of war in Genoa, where he dictated his story to a writer of romances, Rustichello da Pisa, around 1298. He died in Venice in January 1324.

Ibn Battuta was born in Tangier, Morocco, in February 1304, into a family of Islamic legal scholars. In June 1325, aged 21, he left on pilgrimage to Mecca and kept going. He crossed Egypt, Syria, Arabia, Iraq and Persia, sailed down the East African coast to Kilwa, travelled through Anatolia and the steppe of the Golden Horde, reached Delhi in 1334 and served the Sultan Muhammad bin Tughluq as a judge for about seven years. Sent as an envoy to China, he lost his ships off India, worked as a judge in the Maldives, and then went on through Sri Lanka, Bengal and Sumatra, apparently reaching China around 1345. Home by 1349, he then crossed the Sahara to Mali in 1352 and 1353. The Sultan of Morocco had his travels written down by the scholar Ibn Juzayy, finished in 1355. He died around 1368 or 1369.

Marco Polo vs Ibn Battuta: comparison table

Did Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta meet?

No. Marco Polo died in Venice in January 1324. Ibn Battuta left Tangier in June 1325. Neither mentions the other. They are linked because they travelled the same Asian world within fifty years, both visiting the great Chinese port of Quanzhou, which both call Zaytun.

They saw that world from different sides. Polo looked at China as a foreigner employed by its Mongol rulers and was dazzled by its scale: paper money accepted everywhere, and the city of Hangzhou (Kinsay), which he called the finest and noblest in the world. Ibn Battuta found China rich and well ordered but felt uncomfortable there, as a Muslim judge surrounded by customs he disliked, and mostly stayed among Muslim merchant communities.

How their books were made, and why both are questioned

Neither man wrote his own book. Rustichello was a writer of Arthurian romance, and some of the battle scenes in Polo's book read like his other work. The text survives in about 150 manuscripts that differ a great deal, in French, Italian, Latin and other languages.

Doubts about Polo grew in the 20th century. In Did Marco Polo Go to China? (1995) the historian Frances Wood pointed out that he never mentions the Great Wall, tea, chopsticks or foot-binding, and that no Chinese record names him. Others answer that the Ming wall did not yet exist, that he moved in Mongol and foreign circles, and that his details of salt production, currency and taxes match Chinese sources closely (Hans Ulrich Vogel, Marco Polo Was in China, 2013). A Chinese document names the three envoys who escorted the princess to Persia, matching the names in Polo's book. Most historians today think he did go. Our article did Marco Polo go to China sets out the evidence.

Ibn Juzayy shaped the Rihla too. He copied some descriptions, for example of Damascus and Mecca, from the 12th century traveller Ibn Jubayr, and he added poetry. Historians such as Ross Dunn accept most of the journey but question parts, especially the trip far north to the Volga and some of the China section, where details are thin.

Where they were alike and where they differed

Alike: both travelled because large empires and trade networks made long journeys possible. Polo used the Mongol peace across Asia; Ibn Battuta used the network of Muslim states, mosques, law schools and merchant communities. Both depended on rulers' gifts and favour. Both noticed money, food, marriage customs and the habits of kings, and both judged other peoples by their own standards. Both mention slavery as an ordinary part of the world they saw; Ibn Battuta bought and was given enslaved people during his travels, which a fair account should state.

Different: Polo was mainly an observer of one great empire and its neighbours, and his book reads like a guide to places and products. Ibn Battuta was a participant: he married several times, took paid office, nearly lost his life in Delhi when the Sultan turned against him, and fought pirates. His book is much more personal. Polo's book was read widely in Europe; Christopher Columbus owned and annotated a printed copy. The Rihla was little known in Europe until 19th century translations.

Questions to ask Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta

1. Marco Polo: what was Kublai Khan like to work for?
2. Marco Polo: why do you never mention tea or the Great Wall?
3. Marco Polo: how much of your book did Rustichello write?
4. Marco Polo: what did you think of paper money?
5. Ibn Battuta: why did you keep travelling after Mecca?
6. Ibn Battuta: what was it like to work for the Sultan of Delhi?
7. Ibn Battuta: what did you admire in Mali, and what did you criticise?
8. Both: what was the port of Zaytun like when you saw it?

You can ask both by voice on Yuga: Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta are AI recreations built from their books and the historical record. They can be wrong, and their own books are disputed in places, so a good answer should admit doubt. For school work, cite the Travels and the Rihla by chapter and translation.

Which one for your project?

Choose Marco Polo for a project on the Mongol empire, the Silk Road, Europe's early picture of China, or how historians test a disputed source.

Choose Ibn Battuta for a project on the medieval Islamic world, Africa (Mali under Mansa Musa's successor, the Swahili coast), Delhi under the Tughluqs, or the Indian Ocean trade. He covers more ground and more cultures than any other traveller of his age.

Choose both for a map project: plot each route and compare what protected each traveller. See greatest explorers in history for more, including Zheng He, whose fleets sailed the same seas a century later.