Editing Marco Polo (section)

=== Authenticity and veracity ===
[[File:BNF Fr2810 f136v Frontispice Grant Kaan de Cathay.jpeg|thumb|upright|Kublai Khan's court, from the French "Livre des merveilles"]]
Since its publication, some have viewed the book with skepticism.<ref name="chang" /> Some in the Middle Ages regarded the book simply as a romance or fable, due largely to the sharp difference of its descriptions of a sophisticated civilisation in China to other early accounts by [[Giovanni da Pian del Carpine]] and [[William of Rubruck]], who portrayed the Mongols as '[[barbarian]]s' who appeared to belong to 'some other world'.<ref name="chang">{{cite web |url= http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/1667#f2 |title=Marco Polo Was in China: New Evidence from Currencies, Salts and Revenues |author=Na Chang |work=Reviews in History }}</ref> Doubts have also been raised in later centuries about Marco Polo's narrative of his travels in China, for example for his failure to mention the [[Great Wall of China]], and in particular the difficulties in identifying many of the place names he used<ref name="haw1">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DSfvfr8VQSEC&pg=PA1 |title=Marco Polo's China: A Venetian in the Realm of Khubilai Khan |first= Stephen G. |last=Haw |page=1 |publisher=Routledge| isbn=978-1-134-27542-7|year=2006 }}</ref> (the great majority, however, have since been identified).<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DSfvfr8VQSEC&pg=PA123 |title=Marco Polo's China: A Venetian in the Realm of Khubilai Khan |first= Stephen G. |last=Haw |pages=83–123 |publisher=Routledge| isbn=978-1-134-27542-7|year=2006 }}</ref> Many have questioned whether he had visited the places he mentioned in his itinerary, whether he had appropriated the accounts of his father and uncle or other travellers, and some doubted whether he even reached China, or that if he did, perhaps never went beyond [[Khanbaliq]] (Beijing).<ref name="haw1" /><ref name="haeger" />

It has been pointed out that Polo's accounts of China are more accurate and detailed than other travellers' accounts of the period. Polo had at times refuted the 'marvellous' fables and legends given in other European accounts, and despite some exaggerations and errors, Polo's accounts have relatively few of the descriptions of irrational marvels. In many cases of descriptions of events where he was not present (mostly given in the first part before he reached China, such as mentions of Christian miracles), he made a clear distinction that they are what he had heard rather than what he had seen.  It is also largely free of the gross errors found in other accounts such as those given by the Moroccan traveller [[Ibn Battuta]] who had confused the [[Yellow River]] with the [[Grand Canal (China)|Grand Canal]] and other waterways, and believed that [[porcelain]] was made from coal.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DSfvfr8VQSEC&pg=PA67 |title=Marco Polo's China: A Venetian in the Realm of Khubilai Khan |first= Stephen G. |last=Haw |pages=66–67 |publisher=Routledge| isbn=978-1-134-27542-7|year=2006 }}</ref>

Modern studies have further shown that details given in Marco Polo's book, such as the currencies used, salt productions and revenues, are accurate and unique. Such detailed descriptions are not found in other non-Chinese sources, and their accuracy is supported by archaeological evidence as well as Chinese records compiled after Polo had left China. His accounts are therefore unlikely to have been obtained second hand.<ref name="vogel" /> Other accounts have also been verified; for example, when visiting [[Zhenjiang]] in [[Jiangsu]], China, Marco Polo noted that a large number of [[Christian church]]es had been built there. His claim is confirmed by a Chinese text of the 14th century explaining how a [[Sogdia]]n named Mar-Sargis from [[Samarkand]] founded six [[Nestorianism|Nestorian Christian churches]] there in addition to one in [[Hangzhou]] during the second half of the 13th century.<ref>Emmerick, R.E. (2003) "Iranian Settlement East of the Pamirs", in Ehsan Yarshater, ''The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol III: The Seleucid, Parthian, and Sasanian Periods'', Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 275.</ref> His story of the princess [[Kököchin]] sent from China to Persia to marry the Īl-khān is also confirmed by independent sources in both Persia and China.<ref name="cleaves" />