Invisible Cities

This character is based on the historic figure of Kublai Khan (c. 1215-1294). Khan ruled the Mongol Empire between 1260 and 1294 and founded the Yuan dynasty in China. Khan’s empire was vast, spanning the width of Asia and encompassing parts of the Middle East, Russia, and the entirety of modern-day China.

In Polo’s text, Khan bears the entitlement complex that befits a man who believes he has the right to rule the lands he has conquered. At the same time, he worries that his lack of knowledge about his empire makes him unfit to rule. He attempts to assuage this insecurity by employing ambassadors who give him information about the resources and military of the lands he is unable to visit. Still, Khan feels a “sense of emptiness” and “melancholy” at his detachment from these lands, as they are distant enough to feel unreal to him (5). Moreover, Khan does not believe himself immune to the corruption and decline that ailed the rulers of the lands he conquered and can imagine himself becoming defeated like them. By the end of the narrative, Khan accepts that the colonial project is meaningless and that all civilizations contain within them the seeds of decline.