I hate to reveal my ignorance in this seventy-eighth year of life, but I had NEVER read or studied the life of a man named Marco Polo. My daughter found a book "The Travels Of Marco Polo" among some books being given away. I started reading it casually, and since have been captivated by this man and his incredible journeys of almost a thousand years ago.
Marco Polo was a Christian merchant and trader from Venice. With his father he traveled through the Middle East and much of Asia.He was only seventeen when he began. He became fluent in four languages. It was estimated he traveled some 15,000 miles in 24 years, returning to Venice in 1295 a very wealthy man.
In his travels one powerful man took a liking to Marco Polo. He made Polo a part of his court and relied on him in many ways, never wanting him to return home. That man was Kublai Khan. This powerful ruler never claimed Christianity. He did want to know more about it. He asked for 100 Christians to come from Rome and teach the Seven Arts. He also wanted oil from the lamp in Jerusalem. Marco Polo helped fill that request of Rome but it took years! In his incredible journeys he kept mentioning from country to country the religion of the people of that area. It was almost always Mahomet (This was Mohammedanism1)
Khan honored the festivals of Christmas and Easter with great pomp. He would ask for a Book of the Four Gospels to be brought to him and devoutly kissed it, demanding his nobles to do the same. When asked his motive for this it is said his reply was: "There are four great Prophets who are reverenced and worshipped by the different classes of mankind. The Christians regard Jesus Christ as their divinity; the Saracens, Mahomet; the Jews, Moses; and the idolaters, Sogomombar-kan, the most eminent among their idols. I do honor and show respect to all the four, and invoke to my aid whichever amongst them is in truth supreme in heaven."
The world really hasn't changed all that much in these nine-hundred plus years. These four "religions" still vie for followship. Mahomet seems to be forging ahead, while Christianity wanes. Judaism is terribly weak, and idolatry in newer forms, is prominent.
Khan wanted them all. That is NOT possible. Not then, and not now. "Choose you this day whom you shall serve...."
