Maffeo Polo

Maffeo Polo (c. 1230 - unknown) was a Venetian merchant and explorer, the brother of Niccolò Polo, and the uncle of Marco Polo. Through their travels, Maffeo and his brother became influential members of the Assassin Order, who founded several Assassin branches, such as in the Byzantine Empire and Italy.

Biography

Maffeo traveled extensively between 1252 and 1294, but it was in the year of 1257 that Maffeo and his brother ventured to the aged fortress of Masyaf to meet with Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, the Mentor of the Levantine Assassins. Together, the two spent six months in Masyaf, and while his brother was by Altaïr's side frequently, Maffeo grew restless, longing to set sail and leave the Assassin fortress behind. To counter his brother's boredom, Niccolò told him about the fortress' Assassin heritage.
During the preliminary Mongol attacks on the Masyaf castle in 1257, the Mentor gave the Polo brothers his Codex, and guided them out of the fortress with the help of an Apple of Eden, an advanced technological device created by the First Civilization, in order to fend off Mongol invaders.

At the bottom of Masyaf, Altaïr bequeathed five keys to Maffeo's brother, asking him to keep them safe. Although the two safely carried the keys in their travels, the Codex was lost two days later during an attack by a Mongol scouting party. Following these events, the Polos, then honorary members of the Assassin Order, returned to Constantinople; their mission being to set up a trading post and found the Turkish Assassin branch.

Niccolò and Maffeo Polo

Niccolò (fl. 1252 - 1294) and Maffeo Polo (fl. 1252 - 1309) were the father and uncle respectively of Marco Polo, the Venetian explorer. Before the birth of Marco, the two became merchants, and established trading posts in Constantinople, Sudak in the Crimea, and in a western part of the Mongol Empire. As a duo they reached modern-day China before temporarily returning to Europe to deliver a message to the Pope. Taking Niccolò's son Marco with them, the Polos then made another journey to the Orient, as recorded in Marco's book The Travels of Marco Polo.

First voyage

Leaving Niccolò's infant son Marco behind, Niccolò and Maffeo left Venice for Constantinople, where they resided for several years. The two brothers lived in the Venetian quarter of Constantinople, where they enjoyed political chances and tax relief because of their country's role in establishing the Latin Empire in the Fourth Crusade of 1204. However, the family judged the political situation of the city precarious, so they decided to transfer their business northeast to Soldaia, a city in Crimea, and left Constantinople in 1259 or 1260. Their decision proved wise. Constantinople was recaptured in 1261 by Michael Palaeologus, the ruler of the Empire of Nicaea, who promptly burned the Venetian quarter. Captured Venetian citizens were blinded, while many of those who managed to escape perished aboard overloaded refugee ships fleeing to other Venetian colonies in the Aegean Sea.

As their new home on the north rim of the Black Sea, Soldaia had been frequented by Venetian traders since the 12th century. When the Polos reached it, it was part of the newly formed Mongol state known as the Golden Horde. Searching for better profits, the Polos continued their journey to Sarai, where the court of Berke Khan, the ruler of the Golden Horde, was located. At that time, the city of Sarai was no more than a huge encampment, and the Polos stayed for about a year. Finally, they decided to avoid Crimea, because of a civil war between Berke and his cousin Hulagu or perhaps because of the bad relationship between Berke Khan and the Byzantine Empire. Instead, they moved further east to Bukhara, in modern day Uzbekistan, where the family lived and traded for three years.

In 1264, Niccolò and Maffeo joined up with an embassy sent by the Ilkhanate ruler Hulagu to his brother Kublai Khan. In 1266, they reached the seat of the Kublai Khan at Dadu, present day Beijing, China. In his book, The Travels of Marco Polo, Marco explains how Kublai Khan officially received the Polos and sent them back with a Mongol named Koeketei as an ambassador to the Pope. They brought with them a letter from the Khan requesting 100 educated people to come and teach Christianity and Western customs to his people and oil from the lamp of the Holy Sepulcher. The letter also contained the paiza, a golden tablet a foot long and 3 inches (7.6 cm) wide, authorizing the holder to require and obtain lodging, horses and food throughout the Kublai Khan's dominion. Koeketei left in the middle of the journey, leaving the Polos to travel alone to Ayas in the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia. From that port city, they sailed to Saint Jean d'Acre, capital of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

The long sede vacante between the death of Pope Clement IV, in 1268, and the election of the new pope in 1271 delayed the Polos attempts to fulfil Kublai's request. As suggested by Theobald Visconti, then papal legate for the realm of Egypt, in Acre for the Ninth Crusade, the two brothers returned to Venice in 1269 or 1270, waiting for the nomination of the new Pope. Here Niccolò met up once again with his son Marco, now fifteen or sixteen, who had been living with his aunt and another uncle in Venice since the death of his mother at a young age.

Second voyage

As soon as he was elected in 1271, Pope Gregory X (the former Theobald Visconti) received the letter from Kublai Khan, remitted by Niccòlo and Matteo. Kublai Khan was asking for the dispatch of a hundred missionaries, and some oil from the lamp of Jerusalem. The two Polos (this time accompanied by the 17 year-old Marco Polo) returned to Mongolia, accompanied by two Dominican monks, Niccolò de Vicence and Guillaume de Tripoli. The two friars did not finish the voyage due to fear, but the Polos reached Kanbaliq and remitted the presents from the Pope to Kublai in 1274. It is usually said that the Polos used the Northern Silk Road although the possibility of a southern route has been advanced. The Polos spent the next 17 years in China. Kublai Khan took a liking to Marco, who was an engaging storyteller. He was sent on many diplomatic missions throughout his empire. Marco carried out diplomatic assignments but also entertained the khan with interesting stories and observations about the lands he traveled. According to Marco's travel account, the Polos asked several times for permission to return to Europe but the Khan appreciated the visitors so much that he would not agree to their departure.
Only in 1291 did Kublai entrust Marco with his last duty, to escort the Mongol princess Koekecin (Cocacin in Il Milione) to her betrothed, the Ilkhan Arghun. The party traveled by sea, departing from the southern port city of Quanzhou and sailing to Sumatra, and then to Persia, via Sri Lanka and India (where his visits included Mylapore, Madurai and Alleppey, which he nicknamed Venice of the East). In 1293 or 1294 the Polos reached the Ilkhanate, ruled by Gaykhatu after the death of Arghun, and left Koekecin with the new Ilkhan. Then they moved to Trebizond and from that city sailed to Venice.

Popular culture

Niccolò and Maffeo Polo are featured in the Assassin's Creed series, having become key figures in the history of the Assassin Order. In 1257, the Polo brothers traveled to the headquarters of the Assassins in Masyaf and met with the Order's Mentor, Altaïr ibn La-Ahad, from whom they received personal training. When the Mongols attacked Masyaf in August 1257, Niccolò Polo was given Altaïr's personal Codex and the Masyaf Keys needed to unlock his personal library, which would come to contain a powerful secret—the Apple of Eden. Niccolò and Maffeo returned to their home in Constantinople and founded an Assassins' Guild there on Altaïr's request, though they lost the Codex to the Mongols along the way. A year later, they traveled to the Mongol Empire in hopes of retrieving the Codex, with no success. They sailed to Italy and founded another Assassins' Guild in their hometown of Venice, and trained Marco Polo into the Assassin Order as well. Together with Marco, they went on another journey to the Mongol Empire, this time successful in retrieving the Codex from Kublai Khan.

• https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matteo_Polo