Editing Marco Polo (section)

=== Appropriation ===
Historian [[Frances Wood]] accused Marco Polo of taking other people's accounts in his book, retelling other stories as his own, or basing his accounts on Persian guidebooks or other lost sources. For example, Sinologist [[Francis Woodman Cleaves]] noted that Polo's account of the voyage of the princess [[Kököchin]] from China to Persia to marry the Īl-khān in 1293 has been confirmed by a passage in the 15th-century Chinese work ''[[Yongle Encyclopedia]]'' and by the Persian historian [[Rashid-al-Din Hamadani]] in his work ''[[Jami' al-tawarikh]]''.  However, neither of these accounts mentions Polo or indeed any European as part of the bridal party,<ref name="cleaves">{{cite journal |jstor=2718743|author=Francis Woodman Cleaves|title=A Chinese Source Bearing on Marco Polo's Departure from China and a Persian Source on his Arrival in Persia|journal=Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies| volume=36|date= 1976|pages=181–203|doi=10.2307/2718743}}</ref> and Wood used the lack of mention of Polo in these works as an example of Polo's "retelling of a well-known tale".  [[David O. Morgan]], in Polo's defence, noted that even the princess herself was not mentioned in the Chinese source and that it would have been surprising if Polo had been mentioned by Rashid-al-Din.<ref name="Morgan, D page 224" /> Historian [[Igor de Rachewiltz]] strongly criticised Wood's arguments in his review of her book.<ref name="Rachewiltz 1997 pp. 34">Igor de Rachewiltz, "Marco Polo Went to China," ''Zentralasiatische Studien'' 27 (1997), pp. 34–92</ref> Rachewiltz argued that Marco Polo's account allows the Persian and Chinese sources to be reconciled – by relaying the information that two of the three envoys sent (mentioned in the Chinese source and whose names accord with those given by Polo) had died during the voyage, it explains why only the third who survived, Coja/Khoja, was mentioned by Rashìd al-Dìn. Polo had therefore completed the story by providing information not found in either source. He also noted that the only Persian source that mentions the princess was not completed until 1310–11, therefore Marco Polo could not have learned the information from any Persian book.  According to de Rachewiltz, the concordance of Polo's detailed account of the princess with other independent sources that gave only incomplete information is proof of the veracity of Polo's story and his presence in China.<ref name="Rachewiltz 1997 pp. 34" />