120 chapter three
onwards,264 and indeed the many shipwrights who worked in Baghdad in
the winter of 1289/90. more detail comes from a document dated to June
1292, which mentions by name three genoese residents of tabriz.265 they
were certainly part of the colony which, one or two years later, marco polo
found dominant among the Western merchants in the ilkhanid city.266
tabriz was not just a destination in its own right for genoese mer-
chants, but the entry point to a region which had been an all-consuming
goal throughout the thirteenth century, the indian ocean, where spices
could be bought directly at source. after all attempts to break the mam-
luk blockade had failed, in the first half of the century and onwards, it
became a viable alternative simply to circumvent this barrier by going
through the Black sea and then taking the trebizond-tabriz route onward
to ormuz.267
the earliest Western european travellers in the indian ocean are John
of montecorvino and pietro de lucalongo, already mentioned, the former a
franciscan missionary who describes the latter, his travelling companion,
as “a pious christian and a great merchant.” they left tabriz in 1291 and
took ship at ormuz.268 it should be emphasised that this pioneer voyage269
took place only a year after the Baghdad-aden project had collapsed, and
should therefore be considered essentially a necessarily peaceful sequel to
the military project which had met such a sudden end. another six geno-
ese intended to travel by the same route in 1293, and drew up a contract
of association mentioning tabriz and the island of Kish near ormuz.270
marco polo took this route in the opposite direction when he returned
264 the first was tommaso degli anfusi, called “the banker,” followed by Buscarello
de’ghizolfi, already mentioned (cf. soranzo, Papato, pp. 256–259, petech, “marchands,”
p. 565, papacostea, “gênes,” p. 216).
265 Brătianu, Recherches, p. 321.
266 polo/Benedetto, p. 22; cf. heyd, Histoire, ii, p. 111, Brătianu, Recherches, p. 187, Balard,
Romanie, i, p. 140, petech, “marchands,” p. 565, papacostea, “gênes,” p. 225.
267 the success of this venture was so great and it was remembered so well that a strat-
egist of the later crusades, Beltramo di mignanelli, believed even a century after the route
had fallen out of use that he could revive it, and to this end proposed his ideas to various
high-placed churchmen in 1442–1443 (mignanelli/hofmann, pp. 83, 85–86); cf. papacostea,
“gênes,” p. 226, Karpov, Impero, p. 34.
268 once they arrived in the capital of china, Khanbalïq [= Beijing], the two stayed in
touch; the friar became a bishop, while the merchant donated a considerable sum to the
upkeep of the local church in 1305 (Wyngaert, Sinica Franciscana, i, pp. 352–353; cf. heyd,
Histoire, ii, p. 132, Brătianu, Recherches, p. 187, petech, “marchands,” p. 553).
269 richard, “navigations,” p. 355, draws attention to this aspect of the voyage.
270 Balard, Romanie, i, p. 139; on the route connecting tabriz to the gulf of persia and
the goods transported along it, cf. heyd, Histoire, ii, pp. 108 ff., 221.