PRESENTATION OUTLINE
It took me 3 years to get there but in 1274 I finally made it to China. I met Kublai Kahn and learned to speak the Chinese Language.
I started my first mission in 1275. I traveled across China for about 5 years. I did the mission so well that Kahn wanted me to work for him.
In 1280 I was so close with Kahn that he made me one the rulers of his cities.
After celebrating Kublai Khan's daughter's wedding in Persia in 1295, me and my family returned to Venice. We found it was at war with Genoa.
In 1325, when I was 21, i left my parents to go on a hajj. This was a pilgrimage to Mecca, the holy city of Islam. After traveling across North Africa to Egypt, I took a detour through Palestine and Syria.
I left in 1328 to make my way down the Red Sea. I boarded a trading ship and sailed halfway down the east coast of Africa. Muslim merchants had established trading ports in East Africa, mainly to trade for African gold.
I reached India in 1333. Muslim kings ruled most of India. By now, many had heard of me and my travels. The sultan of Delhi welcomed me with gifts and money, a form of hospitality that I had come to expect from the rulers I visited. My fame had earned me wealth. I no longer traveled alone, but with servants and a harem.
When I had returned from China by way of India and the Middle East, I encountered the first outbreak of the bubonic plague, the Black Death, in 1348. Surviving the plague, I made another pilgrimage to Mecca and then headed for home.
