Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta

I do not think that Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta were people typical of their time period. The map shows that they traveled throughout almost all of Eurasia and into parts of Africa. This amount of travel was probably uncommon for a typical person in their time period. Long-distance travel certainly increased during this time period but I do not think that everyone was travelling all over the world. Travel increased because nomadic empires such as the Mongols created safe roads and merchants and missionaries utilized these roads to spread trade and religion widely. Marco Polo traveled more than the average person because he was sent on diplomatic missions by Khubilai Khan. Ibn Battuta was a Muslim traveler who found Islamic government positions in many of the places he traveled to. Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta traveled more than is typical of our time period as well. Very few people can say they have traveled all the way from Western Europe to Eastern China and certainly not in with the methods that Marco and Ibn used for travel.