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The Life and Travels of Ibn Battuta, World Explorer and Writer

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Ibn Battuta (1304–1368) was a scholar, theologian, adventurer, and traveler who, like Marco Polo fifty years earlier, wandered the world and wrote about it. Battuta sailed, rode camels and horses, and walked his way to 44 different modern countries, traveling an estimated 75,000 miles during a 29 year period. He journeyed from North Africa to the Middle East and Western Asia, Africa, India and Southeast Asia.

Fast Facts: Ibn Battuta

• Name : Ibn Battuta
• Known For : His travel writing, which described the 75,000-mile journey he took during his rilha.
• Born : February 24, 1304, Tangier, Morocco
• Died : 1368 in Morocco 
• Education : Schooled in the Maliki tradition of Islamic law
• Published Works : A Gift to Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Travelling or The Travels (1368

Early Years 

Ibn Battuta (sometimes spelled Batuta, Batouta, or Battutah) was born in Tangier, Morocco on February 24, 1304. He was from a fairly well-to-do family of Islamic legal scholars descended from Berbers, an ethnic group indigenous to Morocco. A Sunni Muslim trained in the Maliki tradition of Islamic law, Ibn Battuta left his home at the age of 22 to begin his rihla , or voyage.

Rihla is one of four forms of travel encouraged by Islam, the best known of which is Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina. The term rihla refers to both the travel and the genre of literature that describes the journey. The purpose of rihla is to enlighten and entertain readers with detailed descriptions of pious institutions, public monuments and religious personalities of Islam. Ibn Battuta's travelogue was written after he returned, and in it he stretched the conventions of the genre, including autobiography as well as some fictional elements from the 'adja'ib or "marvels" traditions of Islamic literature. 

Setting Off 

Ibn Battuta's journey began from Tangier on June 14, 1325. Originally intending to make a pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina, by the time he reached Alexandria in Egypt, where the lighthouse was still standing, he found himself entranced by the people and cultures of Islam. 

He headed for Iraq, Western Persia, then Yemen and the Swahili coast of East Africa. By 1332 he reached Syria and Asia Minor, crossed the Black Sea and reached the territory of the Golden Horde. He visited the steppe region along the Silk Road and arrived at the oasis of Khwarizm in western central Asia. 

Then he traveled through Transoxania and Afghanistan, arriving in the Indus Valley by 1335. He stayed in Delhi until 1342 and then visited Sumatra and (perhaps—the record is unclear) China before heading home. His return trip took him back through Sumatra, the Persian Gulf, Baghdad, Syria, Egypt, and Tunis. He reached Damascus in 1348, just in time for the arrival of the plague, and returned home to Tangier safe and sound in 1349. Afterwards, he made minor excursions to Granada and the Sahara, as well as to the West African kingdom of Mali.

A Few Adventures

Ibn Battuta was mostly interested in people. He met and talked with pearl divers and camel drivers and brigands. His traveling companions were pilgrims, merchants, and ambassadors. He visited countless courts.

Ibn Battuta lived on donations from his patrons, mostly elite members of Muslim society he met along the way. But he was not just a traveler—he was an active participant, often employed as a judge (qadi), administrator, and/or ambassador during his stops. Battuta took a number of well-placed wives, generally daughters and sisters of the sultans, none of whom are named in the text. 

Visiting Royalty

Battuta met countless royals and elites. He was in Cairo during the reign of the Mamluk Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad ibn Qalawun. He visited Shiraz when it was an intellectual haven for Iranians fleeing the Mongol invasion. He stayed in the Armenian capital of Staryj Krym with his host, the governor Tuluktumur. He detoured to Constantinople to visit Andronicus III in the company of the Byzantine emperor Ozbek Khan's daughter. He visited the Yuan emperor in China, and he visited Mansa Musa (r. 1307–1337) in West Africa. 

He spent eight years in India as a qadi in the court of Muhammad Tughluq, the Sultan of Delhi. In 1341, Tughluq appointed him to lead a diplomatic mission to the Mongol emperor of China. The expedition was shipwrecked off the coast of India leaving him with neither employment nor resources, so he traveled around southern India, Ceylon and the Maldive islands, where he served as qadi under the local Muslim government.

History of the Literary Rilha 

In 1536, after Ibn Battuta returned home, the Marinid ruler of Morocco Sultan Abu 'Ina commissioned a young literary scholar of Andalusian origins named Ibn Juzayy (or Ibn Djuzzayy) to record Ibn Battuta's experiences and observations. Over the next two years together, the men wove what would become the Book of Travels , based primarily on Ibn Battuta's memories, but also interweaving descriptions from earlier writers. 

The manuscript was circulated around different Islamic countries, but not much cited by Muslim scholars. It eventually came to the attention of the west by way of two adventurers of the 18th and 19th centuries, Ulrich Jasper Seetzen (1767–1811) and Johan Ludwig Burckhardt (1784–1817). They had separately purchased abridged copies during their travels throughout the Mideast. The first English language translation of those copies was published in 1829 by Samuel Lee.

Five manuscripts were found by the French when they conquered Algeria in 1830. The most complete copy recovered in Algiers was made in 1776, but the oldest fragment was dated 1356. That fragment had the title "Gift to Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Traveling," and is believed to have been a very early copy indeed if not an original fragment. 

The complete text of the travels, with parallel Arabic and a French translation, first appeared in four volumes between 1853–1858 by Dufrémery and Sanguinetti. The full text was translated first into English by Hamilton A.R. Gibb in 1929. Several subsequent translations are available today. 

Criticism of the Travelogue

Ibn Battuta recounted tales of his travels throughout his voyage and when he returned home, but it was not until his association with Ibn Jazayy that the stories were committed to formal writing. Battuta took notes during the journey but admitted that he lost some of them along the way. He was accused of lying by some contemporaries, though the veracity of those claims is widely disputed. Modern critics have noted several textual discrepancies which hint at substantial borrowing from older tales. 

Much of the criticism of Battuta's writing is aimed at the sometimes confusing chronology and plausibility of certain parts of the itinerary. Some critics suggest he may have never reached mainland China, but did get as far as Vietnam and Cambodia. Parts of the story were borrowed from earlier writers, some attributed, others not, such as Ibn Jubary and Abu al-Baqa Khalid al-Balawi. Those borrowed parts include descriptions of Alexandria, Cairo, Medina, and Mecca. Ibn Battuta and Ibn Juzayy acknowledge Ibn Jubayr in the descriptions of Aleppo and Damascus. 

He also relied on original sources, relating historical events told to him in the courts of the world, such as the capture of Delhi and the devastations of Genghis Khan.

Death and Legacy 

After his collaboration with Ibn Jazayy ended, Ibn Batuta retired to a judicial post in a small Moroccan provincial town, where he died in 1368.

Ibn Battuta has been called the greatest of all travel writers, having traveled farther than Marco Polo. In his work, he provided priceless glimpses of the various people, courts and religious monuments around the world. His travelogue has been the source of countless research projects and historical investigations.

Even if some of the stories were borrowed, and some of the tales a bit too marvelous to be believed, Ibn Battuta's rilha remains an enlightening and influential work of travel literature to this day.

• Battuta, Ibn, Ibn Juzayy, and Hamilton A.R. Gibb. Ibn Battuta, Travels in Asia and Africa 1325-1354 . London: Broadway House, 1929. Print.
• Berman, Nina. " Questions of Context: Ibn Battuta and E. W. Bovill on Africa ." Research in African Literatures 34.2 (2003): 199-205. Print.
• Gulati, G. D. " Ibn Battuta in Transoxiana. " Proceedings of the Indian History Congress 58 (1997): 772-78. Print.
• Lee, Samuel. "The Travels of Ibn Batuta Translated from the Abridged Arabic Manuscript Copies " . London: Oriental Translation Committee, 1829. Print.
• Morgan, D. O. " Battuta and the Mongols ." Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 11.1 (2001): 1-11. Print.
• Norris, Harry. " Ibn Battuta on Muslims and Christians in the Crimean Peninsula ." Iran & the Caucasus 8.1 (2004): 7-14. Print.
• Waines, David. " The Odyssey of Ibn Battuta: Uncommon Tales of a Medieval Adventurer." London: I.B. Tauris & Cp, Ltd, 2010. Print.
• Zimonyi, István. " Ibn Battuta on the First Wife of Özbek Khan ." Central Asiatic Journal 49.2 (2005): 303-09. Print.
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Muslim Traveling Judge

The abode of islam.

I set out alone, having neither fellow-traveler in whose companionship I might find cheer, nor caravan whose party I might join, but swayed by an overmastering impulse within me and a desire long-cherished in my bosom to visit these illustrious sanctuaries. So I braced my resolution to quit all my dear ones, female and male, and forsook my home as birds forsake their nests. My parents being yet in the bonds of life, it weighed sorely upon me to part from them, and both they and I were afflicted with sorrow at this separation. — from The Travels of Ibn Battutah

It is easy to marry in these islands because of the smallness of the dowries and the pleasures of society which the women offer... When the ships put in, the crew marry; when they intend to leave they divorce their wives. This is a kind of temporary marriage. The women of these islands never leave their country.

China was beautiful, but it did not please me. On the contrary, I was greatly troubled thinking about the way paganism dominated this country. Whenever I went out of my lodging, I saw many blameworthy things. That disturbed me so much that I stayed indoors most of the time and only went out when necessary. During my stay in China, whenever I saw any Muslims I always felt as though I were meeting my own family and close kinsmen.

His writing and his last years

The legacy of ibn battuta’s travels, for further discussion, want to join the conversation.

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The Ages of Exploration

Ibn battuta.

Quick Facts:

He was a Muslim explorer who made a series of journeys that spanned nearly three decades. He traveled throughout almost the entire Islamic world, and went as far as India and China.

Name : Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn Battuta [ah-boo] [ahb-doo-luh] [moo-hah-muhd ] [ib-uhn] [buh-too-tuh]

Birth/Death : 1304 CE - 1368 CE

Nationality : Moroccan

Birthplace : Tangier

Ibn Battuta Portrait

Portrait of Ibn Battuta on an interactive display in Ibn Battuta Mall in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (Credit: Imre Solt)

Introduction Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn Battuta, better known by his surname Ibn Battuta, was a great Medieval traveler and explorer. He is often compared to Marco Polo, who died a year before Ibn Battuta left home. But unlike Polo, Ibn Battuta traveled mostly to and within Muslim regions. This network of Muslim kingdoms is called the Dar al-Islam, or “Abode of Islam.” His book, or rihla in Arabic, helped shed light on many aspects of the social, cultural, and political history of a great part of the Muslim world.

Biography Early Life Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn Battuta was born on February 25, 1304 in the city of Tangier, Morocco in Northern Africa. Little is known about his early childhood. But we know much about his travels because he had them written. Several members of his family were legal scholars and judges. Ibn Battuta received a good education because he came from an elite family. Most boys of this time and place would have received a basic education of writing, grammar, and basic math until the age of twelve. Because Ibn Battuta’s family had status, he would also have had an advanced study of the Koran (also spelled Qur’an): the Sacred Book of the Islamic religion. 1 Ibn Battuta went on to study law to become a qadi . Qadi are the judges in Islamic society who have control over matters of religion. This is an important area within Islam.

In 1325, at the age of 21, he left his home to make the traditional pilgrimage, or hajj , to the sacred Muslim city of Mecca in Arabia (today called Saudi Arabia). He joined a caravan with about 20,000 other travelers. 2 The hajj would expand Ibn Battuta’s education for his office as qadi . During his year and a half journey, he traveled by sea and over land, often through rough deserts and mountains. He visited North Africa, Egypt, Palestine, and Syria. He wrote how the great port in Alexandria Egypt had two harbors – one for Christian merchant ships and one for Muslim ships. 3 He met many people along the way and studied with famous scholars from all over the Islamic world. He became a well liked man. He completed his pilgrimage in 1326, and studied in Mecca for many months. But Ibn Battuta had gained a love for travel. In late 1326, he joined a caravan of travelers heading for Mesopotamia (modern Iraq). 4 He would spend the next thirty years exploring the lands of Islamic culture.

Voyages Principal Voyage Much of Ibn Battuta’s journeys would take him in part by land, but mostly by water. He first left Mecca in in November 1326 and headed toward Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq). The new Mongol ruler declared that instead of Christianity, Islam would be the main religion of the area. The fact that Ibn Battuta could read and speak Arabic quickly made him a popular visitor among the leaders. His first journey took him to Baghdad in Iraq; Persia (modern Iran); and to Tabriz in Azerbaijan. He completed his journey by boat up the Tigris River to Mosul, Iraq, and then went back to Mecca in 1327. 5 His entire journey covered more than 4000 miles. Along the way, he mentions the merchants he met, the gardens in Iraq, and riches such as gold and silver offered to him. He did not stay in Mecca long. In 1328, he took a sea voyage down the eastern coast of Africa to Tanzania; then visited Oman and the Persian Gulf before once more returning to Mecca. 6

In 1330, Ibn Battuta left Mecca to head to Yemen and then India. His plan was to go to India, and work for the Sultan of Delhi and Indian government. 7 The areas traveled would have had him sailing on the Persian Gulf, Arabian Peninsula and the Red Sea. He would also travel by land through Egypt, Syria and to Asia Minor (part of modern day Turkey). From here he crossed the Black Sea to West Central Asia, and then to the Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire. Today, Constantinople is named Istanbul and is the capital city of Turkey. He continued east, until reaching India in September 1333. 8 He spent about eight years as qadi for the ruler of India and wrote about his time there. He mentioned that Indians mostly ate rice and green vegetables, that they were religious people, and even how a thief would be put to death for stealing a single nut. 9 In 1345, he decided to travel to China. He sailed along the coast of Burma, to the island of Sumatra, and then Guangzhou, China. He then returned to Mecca once more in 1346.

Subsequent Voyages Ibn Battuta soon headed for home, and arrived in the Moroccan capital of Fez in 1349. The next year he made a brief trip across the Strait of Gibraltar to Granada. His final journey came in 1353 when he traveled by land across the Sahara Desert to the Kingdom of Mali in the West African Sudan. 10 He returned to Morocco in 1355 where he would remain. During his thirty years of travel, he explored much of the eastern hemisphere and almost all of the Islamic world. From each place he visited, Ibn Battuta tells of his experiences. He wrote about the people, places, animals, and treasures he saw or was given. Overall, he traveled about 73,000 miles total, and visited about 40 countries. 11

Later Years and Death Ibn Battuta made many journeys in his life. In 1356, the ruler of Morocco asked a young scholar named Ibn Juzayy to write down Ibn Battuta’s explorations. They would work for two years. This book of travel is called a rihla . It means “journey” in Arabic. After completing the book, Ibn Battuta continued his role as judge in a small Moroccan town. He died around 1368 or 1369. His incredible story became very popular, especially among the Islamic world.

Legacy Ibn Battuta is celebrated as one one of the most famous Muslim explorers in history, and one of the great travelers of all time. His sea voyages and references to shipping show that the Muslims were very much involved in trading, commerce, and maritime activity of the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea, and Indian Ocean. Almost everything we know of his travels is known because he told his story and had it written down later in his life. His rihla offers a unique account on Islamic and medieval history.

• Ross E. Dunn, The Adventures of Ibn Battuta: A Muslim Traveler of the Fourteenth Century (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012), 19-20.
• Dunn, The Adventures of Ibn Battuta , 65.
• Fergus Fleming, Off the Map: Tales of Endurance and Exploration (New York: Grove Press, 2004), 19.
• Fleming, Off the Map, 19 .
• Fleming, Off the Map , 21
• Dunn, The Adventures of Ibn Battuta , 1.
• Fleming, Off the Map , 24
• Ibn Batuta and Oriental Translation Fund, The Travels of Ibn Batūta, trans. Samuel Lee (London: Oriental Translation Committee, 1829), 165.
• Dunn, The Adventures of Ibn Battuta , 3.

Bibliography

Dunn, Ross E. The Adventures of Ibn Battuta: A Muslim Traveler of the Fourteenth Century . Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012.

Fleming, Fergus. Off the Map: Tales of Endurance and Exploration. New York: Grove Press, 2004.

Batuta, Ibn, and Oriental Translation Fund. The Travels of Ibn Batuta . Translated by Samuel Lee. London: Oriental Translation Committee, 1829.

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Voyages of Ibn Battuta

• 1 Understand
• 2.1 Across North Africa
• 2.2 Cairo to Mecca
• 2.3 Mesopotamia and Persia
• 2.4 East Africa
• 2.5 Anatolia
• 2.6 The Mongol lands
• 2.8 The Maldives and Sri Lanka
• 2.9 Toward China
• 2.11 Homeward bound
• 2.12 Iberia and West Africa
• 3 The Rihla

Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Battutah , commonly known as Ibn Battuta (1304–1368/1369) was a Berber explorer and scholar, and among the most well-travelled people of his time, reaching further than Marco Polo had a few decades earlier. His journeys were a showcase of the Islamic Golden Age .

Understand [ edit ]

Ibn Battuta came from a family of legal scholars, and he was trained in that field. At age 21, he set out from Tangier for his hajj , the pilgrimage to Mecca , and continued travelling until his forties, mostly in the Islamic world, India and imperial China .

He documented his journeys in the Rihla – always with the definite article, because rihla is a generic Arabic word for a travelogue. However, many scholars are uncertain if he visited all of the places mentioned in the Rihla or whether he based some of his descriptions on hearsay, and whether he visited them in the order provided in the book.

The University of California Berkeley has a good online account of Ibn Battuta's travels. Our text below is based on that.

Destinations [ edit ]

The Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca was Ibn Battuta's first long journey, starting in 1325. He travelled overland, at first alone but later joining various pilgrim caravans.

Across North Africa [ edit ]

Cairo to Mecca [ edit ]

There were several routes from Cairo to Mecca, and he chose what was then usually the safest — south along the Nile in territory controlled by the Mamluk rulers of Egypt, then across the Red Sea to Jeddah . However, as he approached the Red Sea port involved, he found out that its ruler was in revolt against the Mamluks and there was fighting nearby, so he turned back to Cairo.

From there he took another route to Mecca, first going to Damascus via Gaza , Hebron and Jerusalem .

Mesopotamia and Persia [ edit ]

After his year in Mecca, he visited what are now Iraq and Iran , which were then parts of the Mongol-ruled Ilkhanate .

East Africa [ edit ]

He returned to Mecca, then travelled by sea along the coast of East Africa , visiting Aden , Mogadishu , Malindi , Mombasa and Zanzibar .

After returning to Yemen, he went east on foot to Oman (which proved to be a difficult journey), by boat up the Persian Gulf , then overland back to Mecca.

After some time recovering in Mecca, he was ready to continue his journey east. In nearby Jeddah , he spent several months while looking for a ship that would take him to India, but to no avail.

Anatolia [ edit ]

He figured he might be able to join a Turkish trade caravan heading east, so he set off north toward Anatolia , travelling via Egypt and Damascus. He left Syria on a Genoese galley which took 10 days to cross the Mediterranean to arrive at Alanya, on the southern coast of Anatolia.

Ibn Battuta praised "the land of the Turks" for its beauty, delicious cuisine, and its people's hospitality, but was surprised by the Turks' less than perfect compliance with Islamic norms.

Ibn Battuta extensively travelled the land, and was hosted by an Islamic fraternity in most towns. He eventually made his way to Konya, the capital of the Mevlevi Sufi order.

At the time of Ibn Battuta's visit, there was no central authority in Anatolia, as the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum collapsed following the Mongol invasion, and numerous petty kingdoms known as beylik s had emerged in the power vacuum left behind. Ibn Battuta visited several of the local rulers, including Orhan, the chief of the nascent statelet that was to become the Ottoman Empire .

In November 1331, he started his trek north, which proved to be full of trouble. His progress was cut off by a raging river, then a guide got them lost (apparently on purpose as the guide later demanded a ransom ), and as the winter approached he almost froze to death, but he eventually managed to get to Sinop on the Black Sea coast.

The Mongol lands [ edit ]

From there he went into Mongol territory, first that of the Golden Horde . His boat struggled through the severe storms common in the Black Sea , and finally reached Caffa, present-day Feodosiya in Crimea, several days later.

He visited many Black Sea ports, inhabited by a multinational merchant population and receiving the rich produce of the steppe as well as that brought over via the Silk Road. He departed from Azov to catch up with the travelling court of Uzbeg Khan of the Golden Horde, whom he learned was a few days ahead.

At the time, the area was inhabited by Turkic and Mongolian nomads. He described their cuisine based on horse meat (still a delicacy in some of the modern nations in the wider region such as Kazakhstan ) and how they let their horses and other livestock free range on the open steppe. He also mentioned the nomad drinks of kumis, fermented mare's milk still popular in Turkic Central Asia and in Mongolia , and boza, a thick malt drink now common in Turkey and the Balkans .

Ibn Battuta met the khan's court, which he likened to an entire city on the move, near Beshtau, in what is now Stavropol Krai north of the Caucasus Mountains. From there, he went north to Bolghar, although some modern historians dispute this. If it's true that he had been there, that was the northernmost point he ever set foot in — indeed he noted that the summer nights that far north were unusually short to him.

While in Bolghar, Ibn Battuta thought about venturing further north into the "land of darkness", likely somewhere deep inside Siberia , which could only be reached by a dog sled and was said to be inhabited by a mysterious group of people. But such a trip never materialized.

From Bolghar, he returned to the khan's court, and they moved to Astrakhan together.

At Astrakhan, he heard the khan's wife, a Byzantine princess by birth, was about to leave for her father's realm to give birth to her baby there. So in July 1332 Ibn Battuta joined her party for a 75-day trip back along the Black Sea to Constantinople, where he stayed for more than a month.

As he went back to Astrakhan, it was already winter, brutal in the Eurasian steppe. He approached Sarai on the frozen Volga River.

From Sarai, his route trended south, into the Chagatai Khanate .

India [ edit ]

Leaving Mongol lands, he continued to the Indian subcontinent .

Eventually, the Sultan decided to use him as an envoy to China and put him in command of an expedition that included 15 Chinese envoys returning home. They went off toward the coast with a rich and well-guarded caravan, but had some serious trouble with rebels and bandits; at one point Ibn Battuta became separated from the caravan and was robbed of everything but his trousers. However, they did make it to the fortress of Daulatabad where they rested up for a few days before continuing to Cambay , then along the coast to Gandhar where they boarded four ships.

A severe storm came up, the junks put to sea (without Ibn Battuta) to ride it out, and two of them were sunk. The third ship set off for China, without Ibn Battuta; he pursued briefly, but gave up. That ship made it as far as Sumatra , but then was seized by a local king.

Left penniless, and afraid of what the Sultan might do if he returned to Delhi a failure, he found employment with one of the southern Muslin sultans for a while, then did some more travelling.

The Maldives and Sri Lanka [ edit ]

Leaving Sri Lanka, he had more bad luck. One ship was sunk by a storm, but he was rescued and boarded another ship; that one was taken by pirates and again he was robbed of everything except his trousers. However, the pirates put the passengers ashore unharmed and they made their way back to Calicut.

Toward China [ edit ]

From Calicut he decided to continue toward China; he returned to Malé and got on an eastbound ship.

The Sultan owned ships which traded with China, and sent Ibn Battuta off on one.

China [ edit ]

He landed in China at Quanzhou, then travelled by land to other cities.

Homeward bound [ edit ]

Returning to Quanzhou, he found a junk owned by the Sultan of Samudra in port, and boarded it to begin his three-year journey home. After a stop in Samudra he sailed to India, landing at Quilon then returning to Calicut where he boarded a westbound ship.

When Ibn Battuta had visited 11 years before, the Ilkhanate had been peaceful under a strong sultan. However, that sultan had died and the region was now chaotic as various generals and nobles vied for power. Ibn Battuta left Persia quickly, going west via Baghdad and Damascus.

He went back to Palestine , Cairo, Jeddah and Mecca, then returned to Egypt to take a ship west.

Iberia and West Africa [ edit ]

By now, Ibn Battuta had visited most of the Muslim world ( dar al Islam ), as well as areas beyond it. His last major journey was to Islamic kingdoms he had not yet seen.

The Rihla [ edit ]

After the West African journey, he settled in Tangier, worked as a judge, and wrote a book:

The work became well-known in the Muslim world, but was not much known in the West until the early 1800s.

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Why Moroccan Scholar Ibn Battuta May Be the Greatest Explorer of all Time

By: Evan Andrews

Updated: September 11, 2023 | Original: July 20, 2017

The title of “history’s most famous traveler” usually goes to Marco Polo, the great Venetian wayfarer who visited China in the 13th century. For sheer distance covered, however, Polo trails far behind the Muslim scholar Ibn Battuta. Though little known outside the Islamic world, Battuta spent half his life tramping across vast swaths of the Eastern Hemisphere.

Moving by sea, by camel caravan and on foot, he ventured into over 40 modern day nations, often putting himself in extreme danger just to satisfy his wanderlust. When he finally returned home after 29 years, he recorded his escapades in a hulking travelogue known as the Rihla . Though modern scholars often question the veracity of Battuta's writings—he may never have visited China, for example, and many of his accounts of foreign lands appear to have been plagiarized from other authors' works—the Rihla is a fascinating look into the world of a 14th-century vagabond.

Born in Tangier, Morocco, Ibn Battuta came of age in a family of Islamic judges. In 1325, at age 21, he left his homeland for the Middle East. He intended to complete his hajj—the Muslim pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca—but he also wished to study Islamic law along the way. “I set out alone,” he later remembered, “having neither fellow-traveler in whose companionship I might find cheer, nor caravan whose party I might join, but swayed by an overmastering impulse within me and a desire long-cherished in my bosom to visit these illustrious sanctuaries.”

Battuta began his journey riding solo on a donkey, but soon linked up with a pilgrim caravan as it snaked its way east across North Africa. The route was rugged and bandit infested, and the young traveler soon developed a fever so severe that he was forced to tie himself to his saddle to avoid collapsing. Nevertheless, he still found time during one stopover to wed a young woman—the first of some 10 wives he would eventually marry and then divorce during his travels.

In Egypt, Battuta studied Islamic law and toured Alexandria and the metropolis of Cairo, which he called “peerless in beauty and splendor.” He then continued on to Mecca, where he took part in the hajj. His travels might have ended there, but having completed his pilgrimage, he decided to continue wandering the Muslim world, or “Dar al-Islam.” Battuta claimed to be driven by a dream in which a large bird took him on its wing and “made a long flight towards the east…and left me there.” A holy man had interpreted the dream to mean that Battuta would roam across the earth, and the young Moroccan intended to fulfill the prophecy.

Battuta’s next few years were a whirlwind of travel. He joined a caravan and toured Persia and Iraq, and later ventured north to what is now Azerbaijan. Following a sojourn in Mecca, he trekked across Yemen and made a sea voyage to the Horn of Africa. From there, he visited the Somali city of Mogadishu before dipping below the equator and exploring the coasts of Kenya and Tanzania.

Upon leaving Africa, Battuta hatched a plan to travel to India, where he hoped to secure a lucrative post as a “qadi,” or Islamic judge. He followed a winding route east, first cutting through Egypt and Syria before sailing for Turkey. As he always did in Muslim-controlled lands, he relied on his status as an Islamic scholar to win hospitality from locals. At many points in his travels, he was showered with gifts of fine clothes, horses and even concubines and slaves.

From Turkey, Battuta crossed the Black Sea and entered the domain of a Golden Horde Khan known as Uzbeg. He was welcomed at Uzbeg’s court, and later accompanied one of the Khan’s wives to Constantinople. Battuta stayed in the Byzantine city for a month, visiting the Hagia Sophia and even receiving a brief audience with the emperor. Having never ventured to a large non-Muslim city, he was stunned by the “almost innumerable” collection of Christian churches within its walls.

Battuta next traveled east across the Eurasian steppe before entering India via Afghanistan and the Hindu Kush. Arriving in the city of Delhi in 1334, he won employment as a judge under Muhammad Tughluq, a powerful Islamic sultan. Battuta passed several years in the cushy job and even married and fathered children, but he eventually grew wary of the mercurial sultan, who was known to maim and kill his enemies—sometimes by tossing them to elephants with swords attached to their tusks. A chance to escape finally presented itself in 1341, when the sultan selected Battuta as his envoy to the Mongol court of China. Still thirsty for adventure, the Moroccan set out at the head of a large caravan brimming with gifts and slaves.

The trip to the Orient would prove to be the most harrowing chapter of Battuta’s odyssey. Hindu rebels harassed his group during their journey to the Indian coast, and Battuta was later kidnapped and robbed of everything but his pants. He managed to make it to the port of Calicut, but on the eve of an ocean voyage, his ships blew out to sea in a storm and sank, killing many in his party.

The string of disasters left Battuta stranded and disgraced. He was loath to return to Delhi and face the sultan, however, so he elected to make a sea voyage south to the Indian Ocean archipelago of the Maldives. He remained in the idyllic islands for the next year, gorging on coconuts, taking several wives and once again serving as an Islamic judge. Battuta might have stayed in the Maldives even longer, but following a falling out with its rulers, he resumed his journey to China. After making a stopover in Sri Lanka, he rode merchant vessels through Southeast Asia. In 1345, four years after first leaving India, he arrived at the bustling Chinese port of Quanzhou.

Battuta described Mongol China as “the safest and best country for the traveler” and praised its natural beauty, but he also branded its inhabitants “pagans” and “infidels.” Distressed by the unfamiliar customs on display, the pious traveler stuck close to the country’s Muslim communities and offered only vague accounts of metropolises such as Hangzhou, which he called “the biggest city I have seen on the face of the earth.” Historians still debate just how far he went, but he claimed to have roamed as far north as Beijing and crossed through the famous Grand Canal.

China marked the beginning of the end of Battuta’s travels. Having reached the edge of the known world, he finally turned around and journeyed home to Morocco, arriving back in Tangier in 1349. Both of Battuta’s parents had died by then, so he only remained for a short while before making a jaunt to Spain. He then embarked on a multi-year excursion across the Sahara to the Mali Empire, where he visited Timbuktu.

Battuta had never kept journals during his adventures, but when he returned to Morocco for good in 1354, the country’s sultan ordered him to compile a travelogue. He spent the next year dictating his story to a writer named Ibn Juzayy. The result was an oral history called A Gift to Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Traveling , better known as the Rihla  (or “travels”). Though not particularly popular in its day, the book now stands as one of the most vivid and wide-ranging accounts of the 14th century Islamic world.

Following the completion of the Rihla , Ibn Battuta all but vanished from the historical record. He is believed to have worked as a judge in Morocco and died sometime around 1368, but little else is known about him. It appears that after a lifetime spent on the road, the great wanderer was finally content to stay in one place.

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Ibn Battuta's Travels in Africa

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The introduction and notes have been prepared by John Terry (2021) and the translation is that of H.A.R. Gibb, Ibn Battuta: Travels in Asia and Africa, 1325-1354 (London: Broadway House, 1929). The full version of this translation can be found at https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/sour...ibnbattuta.asp .

Introduction

Born in Morocco in 1304, Abu ‘Abdullah ibn Battuta (also known as Shams al-Din, but most commonly known in English as Ibn Battuta) was the most prolific and famous travelers of the medieval world. For the better part of three decades he covered about 73,000 miles–– nearly three times the circumference of the Earth––visiting most of the predominantly Muslim statates of the world as well as many non-Muslim regions such as China and eastern Europe. He recorded his travels in the Rihlah (or “Travels”), excerpts of which are included below. 1

In his early 20s, after finishing his formal education as a scholar of Islamic law, he went on a pilgrimage (or hajj ) to Mecca, Islam’s holiest city. According to his own account, Ibn Battuta shifted gears during this trip and decided to travel as widely as possible instead of embarking on a legal career. It’s clear from his account that he traveled for pleasure and curiosity, living off of the generosity of monarchs and other dignitaries who sought to raise their status by patronizing a traveler whose notoriety was growing.

Ibn Battuta writes as a genuinely curious student of the world and had no formal training in the rihla , or the genre of medieval Islamic travel literature in which he took part. One modern scholar of Ibn Battuta’s work declared him a “geographer in spite of himself” 2 and another makes some very important observations about the common comparisons with Marco Polo, the Venetian traveler to China who was about 50 years Ibn Battua’s senior:

"The Western world has conventionally celebrated Marco Polo, who died the year before Ibn Battuta first left him, as the “Greatest Traveler in History.” Ibn Battuta has inevitably been compared with him and has usually taken second prize as “the Marco Polo of the Muslim world” or “the Marco Polo of the tropics” . . . [T]here is no doubt that the Venetian’s work is the superior one in terms of the accurate, precise, practical information it contributes on medieval China and other Asian lands in the latter part of the thirteenth century . . . Yet Ibn Battuta traveled to, and reports on, a great many more places than Marco did, and his narrative offers details, sometimes incidental bits, sometimes in long disquisitions, on almost every conceivable aspect of human life in that age . . . [and] his story is far more personal and humanely engaging than Marco’s." 3

As we read Ibn Battuta, it’s important to continually wonder why he included the information he included. What was it about the ceremonies, farming practices, and strange habits of foreigners that merited his attention as a curious traveler? Where does he appear to have prejudices, and where does he see the familiar? Unlike Marco Polo, who traveled to a land mostly unknown to his audience, Ibn Battua mostly remained within the ambit of Dar al-Islam, or the “Abode of Islam”––that is, places with majority Muslim governments, the counterpart of “Christendom” in the Christian world.

Ibn Battuta’s vast narrative, probably written in installments later in life based on memories, notes, and earlier personal accounts, covers an even vaster territory across Africa, Asia, and Europe (the excerpts this module covers are in bold): 4

• 1325: Hajj (or pilgrimage) to Cairo
• 1326: Cairo to Jerusalem, Damascus, Medina, and Mecca
• 1327: Persia
• 1328-1330: the Red Sea and Arabian Sea, including coastal cities in East Africa and Arabia
• 1330-1331: Anatolia (in Turkey)
• 1332-1333: central Asia (in territories of the Golden Horde and Chagatai)
• 1334-1341: Delhi (ruled by the sultan Muhammad Tughluq, where Ibn Battuta served as a legal scholar and qadi , or judge)
• 1341-1344: Maldives and Sri Lanka
• 1345-1346: Bengal, Strait of Malacca, and to China
• 1346-1350: return to Morocco, to al-Andalus (in southern Spain)
• 1350-1351: Mali (in west Africa)
• 1350s: writes the Rihla

Questions for discussion:

1) Identify some moments Ibn Battuta comments upon global trade. How does he do so, and what seems to be his understanding of the world through which he's traveling?

2) Some of the middle sections of these excerpts focus on the Arabian Peninsula (Yemen, Oman) and Persian Gulf. Why might these be included in a set of excerpts about medieval Africa?

3) How does Ibn Battuta describe behaviors he considers strange, and why?

4) At what points does Ibn Battuta describe experiences that are familiar to you?

The town of Mogadishu in Somalia

On leaving Zayla 5 we sailed for fifteen days and came to Maqdasha [Mogadishu], which is an enormous town. Its inhabitants are merchants and have many camels, of which they slaughter hundreds every day [for food]. When a vessel reaches the port, it is met by sumbuqs, which are small boats, in each of which are a number of young men, each carrying a covered dish containing food. He presents this to one of the merchants on the ship saying "This is my guest," and all the others do the same. Each merchant on disembarking goes only to the house of the young man who is his host, except those who have made frequent journeys to the town and know its people well; these live where they please. The host then sells his goods for him and buys for him, and if anyone buys anything from him at too low a price, or sells to him in the absence of his host, the sale is regarded by them as invalid. This practice is of great advantage to them.

We stayed there [in Mogadishu] three days, food being brought to us three times a day, and on the fourth, a Friday, the qadi 6 and one of the wazirs 7 brought me a set of garments. We then went to the mosque and prayed behind the [sultan's] screen. When the Shaykh 8 came out I greeted him and he bade me welcome. He put on his sandals, ordering the qadi and myself to do the same, and set out for his palace on foot. All the other people walked barefooted. Over his head were carried four canopies of coloured silk, each surmounted by a golden bird. After the palace ceremonies were over, all those present saluted and retired.

I embarked at Maqdashaw [Mogadishu] for the Sawahil [Swahili] country, with the object of visiting the town of Kulwa [Kilwa, Quiloa] in the land of the Zanj.

We came to Mambasa [Mombasa], a large island two days' journey by sea from the Sawihil country. It possesses no territory on the mainland. They have fruit trees on the island, but no cereals, which have to be brought to them from the Sawahil. Their food consists chiefly of bananas and fish.The inhabitants are pious, honourable, and upright, and they have well-built wooden mosques.

Kulwa on the African mainland

The sultan at the time of my visit was Abu'l-Muzaffar Hasan, who was noted for his gifts and generosity. 10 He used to devote the fifth part of the booty made on his expeditions to pious and charitable purposes, as is prescribed in the Koran, and I have seen him give the clothes off his back to a mendicant who asked him for them. When this liberal and virtuous sultan died, he was succeeded by his brother Dawud, who was at the opposite pole from him in this respect. Whenever a petitioner came to him, he would say, "He who gave is dead, and left nothing behind him to be given." Visitors would stay at his court for months on end, and finally he would make them some small gift, so that at last people gave up going to his gate.

From Kulwa we sailed to Dhafari [Dhofar], at the extremity of Yemen [near the border with Oman]. Thoroughbred horses are exported from here to India, the passage taking a month with a favouring wind. Dhafari is a month's journey from 'Aden across the desert, and is situated in a desolate locality without villages or dependencies. Its market is one of the dirtiest in the world and the most pestered by flies because of the quantity of fruit and fish sold there. Most of the fish are of the kind called sardines, which are extremely fat in that country. A curious fact is that these sardines are the sole food of their beasts and flocks, a thing which I have seen nowhere else. Most of the sellers [in the market] are female slaves, who wear black garments. The inhabitants cultivate millet and irrigate it from very deep wells, the water from which is raised in a large bucket drawn up by a number of ropes attached to the waists of slaves. Their principal food is rice imported from India.

The people of Dhofar and their customs

Its population consists of merchants who live entirely on trade. When a vessel arrives they take the master, captain and writer in procession to the sultan's palace and entertain the entire ship's company for three days in order to gain the goodwill of the shipmasters. Another curious thing is that its people closely resemble the people of Northwest Africa in their customs.

Banana, betel, and coconut trees

In the neighbourhood of the town there are orchards with many banana trees. The bananas are of immense size; one which was weighed in my presence scaled twelve ounces and was pleasant to the taste and very sweet. They grow also betel-trees and coco-palms, which are found only in India and the town of Dhafari. Since we have mentioned these trees, we shall describe them and their properties here.

Betel-trees are grown like vines on cane trellises or else trained up coco-palms. They have no fruit and are grown only for their leaves. The Indians have a high opinion of betel, and if a man visits a friend and the latter gives him five leaves of it, you would think he had given him the world, especially if he is a prince or notable. A gift of betel is a far greater honour than a gift of gold and silver. It is used in this way. First one takes areca-nuts, which are like nutmegs, crushes them into small bits and chews them. Then the betel leaves are taken, a little chalk is put on them, and they are chewed with the areca-nuts. They sweeten the breath and aid digestion, prevent the disagreeable effects of drinking water on an empty stomach, and stimulates the faculties.

The coco-palm is one of the strangest of trees, and looks exactly like a date-palm. The nut resembles a man's head, for it has marks like eyes and a mouth, and the contents, when it is green, are like the brain. It has fibre like hair, out of which they make ropes, which they use instead of nails to bind their ships together and also as cables. Amongst its properties are that it strengthens the body, fattens, and adds redness to the face. If it is cut open when it is green it gives a liquid deliciously sweet and fresh. After drinking this one takes a piece of the rind as a spoon and scoops out the pulp inside the nut. This tastes like an egg that has been broiled but not quite cooked, and is nourishing. I lived on it for a year and a half when I was in the Maldive islands.

The many uses of the coconut

One of its peculiarities is that oil, milk and honey are extracted from it. The honey is made in this fashion. They cut a stalk on which the fruit grows, leaving two fingers' length, and on this they tie a small bowl, into which the sap drips. If this has been done in the morning, a servant climbs up again in the evening with two bowls, one filled with water. He pours into the other the sap that has collected, then washes the stalk, cuts off a small piece, and ties on another bowl. The same thing is repeated next morning until a good deal of the sap has been collected, when it is cooked until it thickens. It then makes an excellent honey, and the merchants of India, Yemen, and China buy it and take it to their own countries, where they manufacture sweetmeats from it. The milk is made by steeping the contents of the nut in water, which takes on the colour and taste of milk and is used along with food. To make the oil, the ripe nuts are peeled and the contents dried in the sun, then cooked in cauldrons and the oil extracted. They use it for lighting and dip bread in it, and the women put it on their hair.

It is a fertile land, with streams trees, orchards, palm gardens, and fruit trees of various kinds. Its capital, the town of Nazwa, lies at the foot of a mountain and has fine bazaars and splendid clean mosques. Its inhabitants make a habit of eating meals in the courts of the mosques, every person bringing what he has, and all sitting down to he meal together, and travellers join in with them. They are very warlike and brave, always fighting between themselves. The sultan of Oman is an Arab of the tribe of Azd, and is called Abu Muhammad, which is the title given to every sultan who governs Oman. The towns on the coast are for the most part under the government of Hormuz.

The city of Hormuz

I travelled next to the country of Hormuz. Hormuz is a town on the coast, called also Mughistan, and in the sea facing it and nine miles from shore is New Hormuz, which is an island. The town on it is called Jarawn. It is a large and fine city, with busy markets, as it is the port from which the wares from India and Sind are despatched to the Iraqs, Firs and Khurasan. The island is saline, and the inhabitants live on fish and dates exported to them from Basra. They say in their tongue . . . "Dates and fish are a royal dish."

Water is a valuable commodity in this island. They have wells and artificial reservoirs to collect rainwater at some distance from the town. The inhabitants go there with waterskins, which they fill and carry on their backs to the shore, load them on boats and bring them to the town.

Ibn Battuta leaves Hormuz by land and crosses a desert

We set out from Hormuz to visit a saintly man in the town of Khunjubal, and after crossing the strait, hired mounts from the Turkmens who live in that country. No travelling can be done there except in their company, because of their bravery and knowledge of the roads. In these parts there is a desert four days' journey in extent, which is the haunt of Arab brigands, and in which the deadly samum [simoom] blows in June and July. 11 All who are overtaken by it perish, and I was told that when a man has fallen a victim to this wind and his friends attempt to wash his body [for burial], all his limbs fall apart. All along the road there are graves of persons who have succumbed there to this wind. We used to travel by night, and halt from sunrise until late afternoon in the shade of the trees.

This desert was the scene of the exploits of the famous brigand Jamal al-Luk, who had under him a band of Arab and Persian horsemen. He used to build hospices and entertain travellers with the money that he gained by robbery, and it is said that he used to claim that he never employed violence except against those who did not pay the tithes on their property. No king could do anything against him, but afterwards he repented and gave himself up to ascetic practices and his grave is now a place of pilgrimage.

We went on to the town of Khunjubal, the residence of the Shaykh Abu Dulaf, whom we had come to visit. We lodged in his hermitage and he treated me kindly and sent me food and fruit by one of his sons.

Pearl divers of the Persian Gulf

From there we journeyed to the town of Qays, which is also called Siraf. The people of Siraf are Persians of noble stock, and amongst them there is a tribe of Arabs, who dive for pearls. The pearl fisheries are situated between Siraf and Bahrayn in a calm bay like a wide river. During the months of April and May a large number of boats come to this place with divers and merchants from Firs, Bahrayn and Qathif. Before diving the diver puts on his face a sort of tortoiseshell mask and a tortoiseshell clip on his nose, then he ties a rope round his waist and dives. They differ in their endurance under water, some of them being able to stay under for an hour or two hours or less. When he reaches the bottom of the sea he finds the shells there stuck in the sand between small stones, and pulls them out by hand or cuts them loose with a knife which he has for the purpose, and puts them in a leather bag slung round his neck. When his breath becomes restricted he pulls the rope, and the man holding the rope on the shore feels the movement and pulls him up into the boat. The bag is taken from him and the shells are opened. Inside them are found pieces of flesh which are cut out with a knife, and when they come into contact with the air solidify and turn into pearls. These are then collected large and small together; the sultan takes his fifth and the remainder are bought by the merchants who are there in the boats. Most of them are the creditors of the divers, and they take the pearls in quittance of their debt [i.e., the debt of the divers] or so much of it as is their due.

The saltworks at the oasis of Taghaza 12

After twenty-five days [from Sijilmasa] we reached Taghaza, an unattractive village, with the curious feature that its houses and mosques are built of blocks of salt, roofed with camel skins. There are no trees there, nothing but sand. In the sand is a salt mine; they dig for the salt, and find it in thick slabs, lying one on top. of the other, as though they had been tool-squared and laid under the surface of the earth. A camel will carry two of these slabs.

No one lives at Taghaza except the slaves of the Massufa tribe, who dig for the salt; they subsist on dates imported from Dar'a and Sijilmasa, camels' flesh, and millet imported from the Negrolands. The negroes come up from their country and take away the salt from there. At Iwalatan a load of salt brings eight to ten mithqals; in the town of Malli [Mali] it sells for twenty to thirty, and sometimes as much as forty. The negroes use salt as a medium of exchange, just as gold and silver is used [elsewhere]; they cut it up into pieces and buy and sell with it. The business done at Taghaza, for all its meanness, amounts to an enormous figure in terms of hundredweights of gold-dust.

We passed ten days of discomfort there, because the water is brackish and the place is plagued with flies. Water supplies are laid in at Taghaza for the crossing of the desert which lies beyond it, which is a ten-nights' journey with no water on the way except on rare occasions. We indeed had the good fortune to find water in plenty, in pools left by the rain. One day we found a pool of sweet water between two rocky prominences. We quenched our thirst at it and then washed our clothes. Truffles are plentiful in this desert and it swarms with lice, so that people wear string necklaces containing mercury, which kills them.

At that time we used to go ahead of the caravan, and when we found a place suitable for pasturage we would graze our beasts. We went on doing this until one of our party was lost in the desert; after that I neither went ahead nor lagged behind. We passed a caravan on the way and they told us that some of their party had become separated from them. We found one of them dead under a shrub, of the sort that grows in the sand, with his clothes on and a whip in his hand. The water was only about a mile away from him.

The oasis of Tisarahla, where the caravan hires a desert guide

We came next to Tisarahla, a place of subterranean water-beds, where the caravans halt. They stay there three days to rest, mend their waterskins, fill them with water, and sew on them covers of sackcloth as a precaution against the wind.

From this point the "takshif" is despatched. The "takshif" is a name given to any man of the Massufa tribe who is hired by the persons in the caravan to go ahead to Iwalatan, carrying letters from them to their friends there, so that they may take lodgings for them. These persons then come out a distance of four nights' journey to meet the caravan, and bring water with them. Anyone who has no friend in Iwalatan writes to some merchant well known for his worthy character who then undertakes the same services for him.

It often happens that the "takshif" perishes in this desert, with the result that the people of Iwalatan know nothing about the caravan, and all or most of those who are with it perish. That desert is haunted by demons; if the "takshif" be alone, they make sport of him and disorder his mind, so that he loses his way and perishes. For there is no visible road or track in these parts, nothing but sand blown hither and thither by the wind. You see hills of sand in one place, and afterwards you will see them moved to quite another place. The guide there [sic] is one who has made the journey frequently in both directions, and who is gifted with a quick intelligence. I remarked, as a strange thing, that the guide whom we had was blind in one eye, and diseased in the other, yet he had the best knowledge of the road of any man. We hired the "takshif" on this journey for a hundred gold mithqals; he was a man of the Massufa. On the night of the seventh day [from Tasarahla] we saw with joy the fires of the party who had come out to meet us.

The caravan reaches the oasis of Walata

Thus we reached the town of Iwalatan [Walata] after a journey from Sijilmasa of two months to a day. Iwalatan is the northernmost province of the negroes, and the sultan's representative there was one Farba Husayn, "farba" meaning deputy [in their language]. When we arrived there, the merchants deposited their goods in an open square, where the blacks undertook to guard them, and went to the farba. He was sitting on a carpet under an archway, with his guards before him carrying lances and bows in their hands, and the headmen of the Massufa behind him. The merchants remained standing in front of him while he spoke to them through an interpreter, although they were close to him, to show his contempt for them. It was then that I repented of having come to their country, because of their lack of manners and their contempt for the whites.

I went to visit Ibn Badda, a worthy man of Sala' [Sallee, near the Morroccan city of Rabat], to whom I had written requesting him to hire a house for me, and who had done so. Later on the mushrif [inspector] of Iwalatan, whose name was Mansha Ju, invited all those who had come with the caravan to partake of his hospitality. At first I refused to attend, but my companions urged me very strongly, so I went with the rest. The repast was served--some pounded millet mixed with a little honey and milk, put in a half calabash shaped like a large bowl. The guests drank and retired. I said to them, "Was it for this that the black invited us?" They answered, "Yes; and it is in their opinion the highest form of hospitality." This convinced me that there was no good to be hoped for from these people, and I made up my mind to travel [back to Morocco at once] with the pilgrim caravan from Iwalatan. Afterwards, however, I thought it best to go to see the capital of their king [of the kingdom of Mali, at the city of Mali].

Life at Walata

My stay at Iwalatan [Walata] lasted about fifty days; and I was shown honour and entertained by its inhabitants. It is an excessively hot place, and boasts a few small date-palms, in the shade of which they sow watermelons. Its water comes from underground waterbeds at that point, and there is plenty of mutton to be had. The garments of its inhabitants, most of whom belong to the Massufa tribe, are of fine Egyptian fabrics.

Their women are of surpassing beauty, and are shown more respect than the men. The state of affairs amongst these people is indeed extraordinary. Their men show no signs of jealousy whatever; no one claims descent from his father, but on the contrary from his mother's brother. A person's heirs are his sister's sons, not his own sons. This is a thing which I have seen nowhere in the world except among the Indians of Malabar. But those are heathens; these people are Muslims, punctilious in observing the hours of prayer, studying books of law, and memorizing the Koran. Yet their women show no bashfulness before men and do not veil themselves, though they are assiduous in attending the prayers. Any man who wishes to marry one of them may do so, but they do not travel with their husbands, and even if one desired to do so her family would not allow her to go.

The women there have "friends" and "companions" amongst the men outside their own families, and the men in the same way have "companions" amongst the women of other families. A man may go into his house and find his wife entertaining her "companion" but he takes no objection to it. One day at Iwalatan I went into the qadi's house, after asking his permission to enter, and found with him a young woman of remarkable beauty. When I saw her I was shocked and turned to go out, but she laughed at me, instead of being overcome by shame, and the qadi said to me "Why are you going out? She is my companion." I was amazed at their conduct, for he was a theologian and a pilgrim [to Mecca] to boot. I was told that he had asked the sultan's permission to make the pilgrimage that year with his "companion"--whether this one or not I cannot say--but the sultan would not grant it.

From Walata to the river Niger

When I decided to make the journey to Malli [the city of Mali], which is reached in twenty-four days from Iwalatan if the traveller pushes on rapidly, I hired a guide from the Massufa--for there is no necessity to travel in a company on account of the safety of that road--and set out with three of my companions.

On the way there are many trees [baobabs], and these trees are of great age and girth; a whole caravan may shelter in the shade of one of them. There are trees which have neither branches nor leaves, yet the shade cast by their trunks is sufficient to shelter a man. Some of these trees are rotted in the interior and the rain-water collects in them, so that they serve as wells and the people drink of the water inside them. In others there are bees and honey, which is collected by the people. I was surprised to find inside one tree, by which I passed, a man, a weaver, who had set up his loom in it and was actually weaving.

A traveller in this country carries no provisions, whether plain food or seasonings, and neither gold nor silver. He takes nothing but pieces of salt and glass ornaments, which the people call beads, and some aromatic goods. When he comes to a village the womenfolk of the blacks bring out millet, milk, chickens, pulped lotus fruit, rice, "funi" (a grain resembling mustard seed, from which "kuskusu" [couscous] and gruel are made), and pounded haricot beans. The traveller buys what of these he wants, but their rice causes sickness to whites when it is eaten, and the funi is preferable to it.

Ibn Battuta reaches the Niger river, which he mistakenly believes to be the Nile

The Nile [actually the Niger] flows from there down to Kabara, and thence to Zagha. In both Kabara and Zagha there are sultans who owe allegiance to the king of Malli. The inhabitants of Zagha are of old standing in Islam; they show great devotion and zeal for study.

Thence the Nile [Niger] descends to Tumbuktu [Timbuktoo] and Gawgaw [Gogo], both of which will be described later; then to the town of Muli in the land of the Limis, which is the frontier province of [the kingdom of] Malli; thence to Yufi, one of the largest towns of the negroes, whose ruler is one of the most considerable of the negro rulers. It cannot be visited by any white man because they would kill him before he got there.

A crocodile

I saw a crocodile in this part of the Nile [Niger], close to the bank; it looked just like a small boat. One day I went down to the river to satisfy a need, and lo, one of the blacks came and stood between me and the river. I was amazed at such lack of manners and decency on his part, and spoke of it to someone or other. [That person] answered. "His purpose in doing that was solely to protect you from the crocodile, by placing himself between you and it."

Ibn Battuta arrives at the city of Mali, capital of the kingdom of Mali p 323-335.

Thus I reached the city of Malli [Mali], the capital of the king of the blacks. I stopped at the cemetery and went to the quarter occupied by the whites, where I asked for Muhammad ibn al-Faqih. 13 I found that he had hired a house for me and went there. His son-in-law brought me candles and food, and next day Ibn al-Faqih himself came to visit me, with other prominent residents. I met the qadi 14 of Malli, 'Abd ar-Rahman, who came to see me; he is a negro, a pilgrim, and a man of fine character. I met also the interpreter Dugha, who is one of the principal men among the blacks. All these persons sent me hospitality-gifts of food and treated me with the utmost generosity--may God reward them for their kindnesses!

Ten days after our arrival we ate a gruel made of a root resembling colocasia, which is preferred by them to all other dishes. We all fell ill--there were six of us--and one of our number died. I for my part went to the morning prayer and fainted there. I asked a certain Egyptian for a loosening remedy and he gave me a thing called "baydar," made of vegetable roots, which he mixed with aniseed and sugar, and stirred in water. I drank it off and vomited what I had eaten, together with a large quantity of bile. God preserved me from death but I was ill for two months.

Ibn Battuta meets the king of Mali

The sultan of Malli is Mansa Sulayman, "mansa" meaning [in Mandingo] sultan, and Sulayman being his proper name. 15 He is a miserly king, not a man from whom one might hope for a rich present. It happened that I spent these two months without seeing him, on account of my illness. Later on he held a banquet in commemoration of our master [the late sultan of Morocco] Abu'l-Hasan, to which the commanders, doctors, qadi and preacher were invited, and I went along with them. Reading-desks were brought in, and the Koran was read through, then they prayed for our master Abu'l-Hasan and also for Mansa Sulayman.

When the ceremony was over I went forward and saluted Mansa Sulayman. The qadi, the preacher, and Ibn al-Faqih told him who I was, and he answered them in their tongue. They said to me, "The sultan says to you 'Give thanks to God,'" so I said, "Praise be to God and thanks under all circumstances." When I withdrew the [sultan's] hospitality gift was sent to me. It was taken first to the qadi's house, and the qadi sent it on with his men to Ibn al-Faqih's house. Ibn al-Faqih came hurrying out of his house barefooted, and entered my room saying, "Stand up; here comes the sultan's stuff and gift to you." So I stood up thinking--since he had called it "stuff"--that it consisted of robes of honour and money, and lo!, it was three cakes of bread, and a piece of beef fried in native oil, and a calabash of sour curds. When I saw this I burst out laughing, and thought it a most amazing thing that they could be so foolish and make so much of such a paltry matter.

The court ceremonial of king Sulayman of Mali

On certain days the sultan holds audiences in the palace yard, where there is a platform under a tree, with three steps; this they call the "pempi." It is carpeted with silk and has cushions placed on it. [Over it] is raised the umbrella, which is a sort of pavilion made of silk, surmounted by a bird in gold, about the size of a falcon. The sultan comes out of a door in a corner of the palace, carrying a bow in his hand and a quiver on his back. On his head he has a golden skull-cap, bound with a gold band which has narrow ends shaped like knives, more than a span in length. His usual dress is a velvety red tunic, made of the European fabrics called "mutanfas." The sultan is preceded by his musicians, who carry gold and silver guimbris [two-stringed guitars], and behind him come three hundred armed slaves. 16 He walks in a leisurely fashion, affecting a very slow movement, and even stops from time to time. On reaching the pempi he stops and looks round the assembly, then ascends it in the sedate manner of a preacher ascending a mosque-pulpit. As he takes his seat the drums, trumpets, and bugles are sounded. Three slaves go out at a run to summon the sovereign's deputy and the military commanders, who enter and sit down. Two saddled and bridled horses are brought, along with two goats, which they hold to serve as a protection against the evil eye. Dugha stands at the gate and the rest of the people remain in the street, under the trees.

Sometimes one of them stands up before him and recalls his deeds in the sultan's service, saying, "I did so-and-so on such a day," or, "I killed so-and-so on such a day." Those who have knowledge of this confirm his words, which they do by plucking the cord of the bow and releasing it [with a twang], just as an archer does when shooting an arrow. If the sultan says, "Truly spoken," or thanks him, he removes his clothes and "dusts." That is their idea of good manners.

Festival ceremonial

I was at Malli during the two festivals of the sacrifice and the fast-breaking. On these days the sultan takes his seat on the pempi after the midafternoon prayer. The armour-bearers bring in magnificent arms--quivers of gold and silver, swords ornamented with gold and with golden scabbards, gold and silver lances, and crystal maces. At his head stand four amirs driving off the flies, having in their hands silver ornaments resembling saddle-stirrups. The commanders, qadi and preacher sit in their usual places.

The interpreter Dugha comes with his four wives and his slave-girls, who are about a hundred in number. They are wearing beautiful robes, and on their heads they have gold and silver fillets, with gold and silver balls attached. A chair is placed for Dugha to sit on. He plays on an instrument made of reeds, with some small calabashes at its lower end, and chants a poem in praise of the sultan, recalling his battles and deeds of valour. The women and girls sing along with him and play with bows. Accompanying them are about thirty youths, wearing red woollen tunics and white skull-caps; each of them has his drum slung from his shoulder and beats it. Afterwards come his boy pupils who play and turn wheels in the air, like the natives of Sind. They show a marvellous nimbleness and agility in these exercises and play most cleverly with swords. Dugha also makes a fine play with the sword. Thereupon the sultan orders a gift to be presented to Dugha and he is given a purse containing two hundred mithqals of gold dust and is informed of the contents of the purse before all the people. The commanders rise and twang their bows in thanks to the sultan. The next day each one of them gives Dugha a gift, every man according to his rank. Every Friday after the 'asr prayer, Dugha carries out a similar ceremony to this that we have described.

On feast-days after Dugha has finished his display, the poets come in. Each of them is inside a figure resembling a thrush, made of feathers, and provided with a wooden head with a red beak, to look like a thrush's head. They stand in front of the sultan in this ridiculous make-up and recite their poems. I was told that their poetry is a kind of sermonizing in which they say to the sultan: "This pempi which you occupy was that whereon sat this king and that king, and such and such were this one's noble actions and such and such the other's. So do you too do good deeds whose memory will outlive you." After that the chief of the poets mounts the steps of the pempi and lays his head on the sultan's lap, then climbs to the top of the pempi and lays his head first on the sultan's right shoulder and then on his left, speaking all the while in their tongue, and finally he comes down again. I was told that this practice is a very old custom amongst them, prior to the introduction of Islam, and that they have kept it Up.

Ibn Battuta judges the character of the people of Mali

The negroes possess some admirable qualities. They are seldom unjust, and have a greater abhorrence of injustice than any other people. Their sultan shows no mercy to anyone who is guilty of the least act of it. There is complete security in their country. Neither traveller nor inhabitant in it has anything to fear from robbers or men of violence. They do not confiscate the property of any white man who dies in their country, even if it be uncounted wealth. On the contrary, they give it into the charge of some trustworthy person among the whites, until the rightful heir takes possession of it. They are careful to observe the hours of prayer, and assiduous in attending them in congregations, and in bringing up their children to them.

Their piety

On Fridays, if a man does not go early to the mosque, he cannot find a corner to pray in, on account of the crowd. It is a custom of theirs to send each man his boy [to the mosque] with his prayer-mat; the boy spreads it out for his master in a place befitting him [and remains on it] until he comes to the mosque. Their prayer-mats are made of the leaves of a tree resembling a date-palm, but without fruit.

Another of their good qualities is their habit of wearing clean white garments on Fridays. Even if a man has nothing but an old worn shirt, he washes it and cleans it, and wears it to the Friday service. Yet another is their zeal for learning the Koran by heart. They put their children in chains if they show any backwardness in memorizing it, and they are not set free until they have it by heart. I visited the qadi in his house on the day of the festival. His children were chained up, so I said to him, "Will you not let them loose?" He replied, "I shall not do so until they learn the Koran by heart."

The nakedness of the women

Among their bad qualities are the following. The women servants, slave-girls, and young girls go about in front of everyone naked, without a stitch of clothing on them. Women go into the sultan's presence naked and without coverings, and his daughters also go about naked. Then there is their custom of putting dust and ashes on their heads, as a mark of respect, and the grotesque ceremonies we have described when the poets recite their verses. Another reprehensible practice among many of them is the eating of carrion, dogs, and asses.

Ibn Battuta leaves the city of Mali

The date of my arrival at Malli was 14th Jumada I, 53 [AH 753, June 28, 1352], and of my departure from it 22nd Muharram of the year 54 [AH 754, February 27, 1353].

The hippos of the river Niger

I was accompanied by a merchant called Abu Bakr ibn Ya'qub. We took the Mima road. I had a camel which I was riding, because horses are expensive, and cost a hundred mithqals each. We came to a wide channel which flows out of the Nile [Niger] and can only be crossed in boats. The place is infested with mosquitoes, and no one can pass that way except by night. We reached the channel three or four hours after nightfall on a moonlit night.

On reaching it I saw sixteen beasts with enormous bodies, and marvelled at them, taking them to be elephants, of which there are many in that country. Afterwards I saw that they had gone into the river, so I said to Abu Bakr, "What kind of animals are these?" He replied, "They are hippopotami which have come out to pasture ashore." They are bulkier than horses, have manes and tails, and their heads are like horses' heads, but their feet like elephants' feet. I saw these hippopotami again when we sailed down the Nile [Niger] from Tumbuktu to Gawgaw. They were swimming in the water, and lifting their heads and blowing. The men in the boat were afraid of them and kept close to the bank in case the hippopotami should sink them.

They have a cunning method of catching these hippopotami. They use spears with a hole bored in them, through which strong cords are passed. The spear is thrown at one of the animals, and if it strikes its leg or neck it goes right through it. Then they pull on the rope until the beast is brought to the bank, kill it and eat its flesh. Along the bank there are quantities of hippopotamus bones.

We halted near this channel at a large village, which had as governor a negro, a pilgrim, and man of fine character named Farba Magha. He was one of the negroes who made the pilgrimage in the company of Sultan Mansa Musa. 18 Farba Magha told me that when Mansa Musa came to this channel, he had with him a qadi, a white man. This qadi attempted to make away with four thousand mithqals and the sultan, on learning of it, was enraged at him and exiled him to the country of the heathen cannibals. He [the qadi] lived among them for four years, at the end of which the sultan sent him back to his own country. The reason why the heathens did not eat him was that he was white, for they say that the white is indigestible because he is not "ripe," whereas the black man is "ripe" in their opinion.

Sultan Mansa Sulayman was visited by a party of these negro cannibals, including one of their amirs. They have a custom of wearing in their ears large pendants, each pendant having an opening of half a span. They wrap themselves in silk mantles, and in their country there is a gold mine. The sultan received them with honour, and gave them as his hospitality-gift a servant. They killed and ate her, and having smeared their faces and hands with her blood came to the sultan to thank him. I was informed that this is their regular custom whenever they visit his court. Someone told me about them that they say that the choicest parts of women's flesh are the palm of the hand and the breast.

Ibn Battuta arrives at Timbuktoo

Thence we went on to Tumbuktu, which stands four miles from the river [Niger]. Most of its inhabitants are of the Massufa tribe, wearers of the face-veil. Its governor is called Farba Musa. I was present with him one day when he had just appointed one of the Massufa to be amir of a section. He assigned to him a robe, a turban, and trousers, all of them of dyed cloth, and bade him sit upon a shield, and the chiefs of his tribe raised him on their heads. In this town is the grave of the meritorious poet Abu Ishaq as-Sahili, of Gharnata [Granada], who is known in his own land as at-Tuwayjin ["Little Saucepan"].

Ibn Battuta leaves Timbuktoo for Gogo

From Tumbuktu I sailed down the Nile on a small boat, hollowed out of a single piece of wood.

I went on . . . to Gawgaw [Gogo], which is a large city on the Nile, and one of the finest towns in the Negrolands. It is also one of their biggest and best-provisioned towns, with rice in plenty, milk, and fish, and there is a species of cucumber there called "inani" which has no equal. The buying and selling of its inhabitants is done with cowry-shells, and the same is the case at Malli [the city of Mali]. 19 I stayed there about a month, and then set out in the direction of Tagadda by land with a large caravan of merchants from Ghadamas.

I arrived at the royal city of Fa's [Fez], the capital of our master the Commander of the Faithful (may God strengthen him), where I kissed his beneficent hand and was privileged to behold his gracious countenance. [Here] I settled down under the wing of his bounty after long journeying. May God Most High recompense him for the abundant favours and ample benefits which he has bestowed on me; may He prolong his days and spare him to the Muslims for many years to come.

Here ends the travel-narrative entitled "A Donation to those interested in the Curiosities of the Cities and Marvels of the Ways." Its dictation was finished on 3rd Dhu'l-hijja 756 [December 9, 1355]. Praise be to God, and peace to His creatures whom He hath chosen.

This is the end of Ibn Battuta's book of travels.

[1] Ross Dunn, The Adventures of Ibn Battuta (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012), 3.

[2] H.A.R. Gibb, Ibn Battuta's Travels in Asia and Africa (London: Broadway House, 1929), 12, cited in Dunn, Ibn Battuta , 5.

[3] Dunn, Ibn Battuta , 5.

[4] This table of contents is adapted from "The Travels of Ibn Battuta," Berkeley ORIAS ( https://orias.berkeley.edu/resources-teachers/travels-ibn-battuta ), accessed July 9, 2021.

[5] Zayla or Zeila is a port city in Somaliland on the Horn of Africa.

[6] A qadi is a judge or magistrate of Sharia law responsible for a wide range of governing duties.

[7] A wazir (or vizier) refers to a high-ranking government functionary.

[8] A shaykh refers to the head of a noble family or a religious scholar (often both).

[9] Here Ibn Battuta is probably referring to non-Muslim neighbors of Kilwa.

[10] This is an accurate assessment of Abu'l-Muzaffar Hasan, who was also known for expanding the Great Mosque of Kilwa during his rule.

[11] A simoom is a seasonal windstorm that can occur from the Sahara to the eastern Mediterranean.

[12] Taghaza is a salt mine in the western Sahara Desert.

[13] "King of the blacks" is a common designation (among many) for the emperor (or mansa) or Mali. What Ibn Battuta is describing is not segregation in our modern sense, but districts of the city inhabited by locals verses those typically reserved for people form elsewhere (such as travelers, merchants, etc), whom Ibn Battuta simply refers to as "whites."

[14] As noted above, a qadi is a judge or magistrate of Sharia law responsible for a wide range of governing duties.

[15] Mansa Sulayman was the brother and successor to the more famous (and certainly more generous!) Mansa Musa I.

[16] There are many names for such a string instrument, but the most common in the region is probably the sintir.

[17] As in many ancient and medieval societies, slavery was taken for granted as part of the social structure. People typically became enslaved because their region or city was captured in war, or because they were unable to pay off a debt. Slavery was not typically a permanent state in this period, in contrast with many modern forms of slavery.

[18] Here Ibn Battuta is referring to the famous hajj (pilgrimate) of Mansa Musa to Mecca in 1324-25.

[19] Buying and selling with cowrie shells a currency was a common practice in this region.

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Ibn Battuta: Journey of a Lifetime

Ibn Battuta is arguably the world’s greatest explorer. A fourteenth century pilgrimage to Mecca ended up as a thirty-year, 120,000-kilometre wanderlust which culminated in one of the world’s great travel diaries, but could he possibly have travelled that far? Read on to discover the remarkable story of the travels of Ibn Battutah.

In an age when few dared to travel beyond known boundaries, Ibn Battuta’s journey started as a pilgrimage to Mecca. It became an astonishing three decade quest to the depths of the unknown and ended with a monumental travelogue.

Dubbed by many as the world’s greatest traveller, the travels of Ibn Battutah surpassed those of his near-contemporary Marco Polo in both distance and duration. While Polo’s travels were primarily through Asia and the court of Kublai Khan, Ibn Battuta encompassed not only Asia but also North and West Africa, Southern and Eastern Europe, the Arabian Peninsula, Central and Southeast Asia, India and China.

This distinction often draws comparisons and links between Ibn Battuta and Marco Polo, highlighting their unique contributions to the understanding of the mediaeval world. Battuta’s travels were driven by both religious devotion and an insatiable curiosity about the cultures, peoples, and governance systems he encountered.

However, Ibn Battuta’s accounts have not been without their critics. Some modern historians have raised doubts about the authenticity and accuracy of his descriptions, questioning whether he could have possibly visited all the places he claimed.

Let’s step back in time to the fourteenth century in an attempt to shed light on the remarkable footsteps of Ibn Battuta.

The Early Life of Ibn e Batuta

Portrait of Ibn Battuta (Credit: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Very little is known about the early life of Ibn Battuta, sometimes known as Ibn e Batuta or Ibn Battutah.

It’s believed he was born in Tangier – modern-day Morocco – in February 1304 into a Muslim Berber family of legal scholars known as qadis. It’s likely he studied at a school of Islamic jurisprudence, but in 1325 at the age of twenty-one he set out on a pilgrimage – hajj – to Mecca. It seems his original intention was to fulfil his religious duty, study under a number of eminent scholars and then return home, but it didn’t quite work out like that.

A passion for travel overtook him and he started to wander the Earth. Ibn Battuta and Marco Polo – albeit Marco Polo travelled thirty or so years before – were similar but different. Both extraordinary explorers, but the Venetian travelled for trade and education. Ibn Battuta travelled not to fulfil an obligation or mission, nor to reach a specific destination. He arguably travelled for the pure joy it gave him.

The Travels of Ibn Battutah - The First Itinerary

Ibn Battuta in Egypt. (Credit: Heritage Images / Contributor via Getty Images)

Ibn Battuta’s journey is generally broken up into three itineraries. The first, from 1325 until 1332 took him through North Africa, Iraq, Iran and elsewhere in the Arabian Peninsula, and down Africa’s east coast.

His first journey to Mecca, of which there were many, took him to Algeria and onto Tunisia. Here he got married, but soon left his new wife due to a dispute with her father. He then went to Alexandria in Egypt and then, on arriving in Cairo, he called it ‘peerless in beauty and splendour’.

Ibn Battuta then joined a caravan which took him as far as Medina. From there he completed his pilgrimage to Mecca. He was supposed to go home at this point, but decided instead to continue on. He travelled to Iraq and Iran in the summer of 1327 and sometime around September or October of that year, he went back to Mecca performing his second hajj.

It’s not clear in his chronicle but he either left Mecca in 1328, or stayed three years and left in 1330, but his next stops took him to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. From there he took a series of boats south to Yemen and then down the eastern coast of Africa to Mogadishu in Somalia, a place he described as ‘an exceedingly large city’ known as Balad al-Barbar, or the ‘Land of the Berbers’.

From there, he went back to Mecca to perform a third hajj, either in 1330, or as the timeline suggests, most likely in 1332.

Ibn Battuta’s Journey - The Second Itinerary

The second itinerary, from 1332 until 1347 saw him travel across the Black Sea area, through Central Asia, India, Southeast Asia and China.

This period of Ibn Battuta’s journey is particularly challenging to detail accurately due to the mix of eyewitness accounts and second-hand information in his book. Some scholars suggest the confusion in the timeline could be due to the way Ibn Battuta recounted his stories to his scribe, Ibn Juzayy, years after the actual events. Despite these uncertainties, his account provides a rich and vivid picture of the mediaeval world.

After his third pilgrimage to Mecca, Ibn e Batuta travelled north to the Black Sea region, visiting Anatolia (present-day Turkey). He may have also journeyed to Crimea and the Golden Horde region along the Volga River. He returned to Mecca briefly and then set off for a long journey towards India. This journey led him across Persia (Iran) and Afghanistan. He likely travelled through cities like Shiraz, Herat, and Kabul.

Ibn Battuta arrived in India and spent an extended period in the Delhi Sultanate, under the patronage of Sultan Muhammad bin Tughluq. He travelled extensively across the Indian subcontinent, visiting places like Bengal and the Malabar Coast.

It’s believed he spent as many as six years in India and, in around 1341, he was sent as an ambassador to China by the Sultan of Delhi. However, his journey was interrupted by pirates where he was almost killed. He went back to India and from there to the Maldives, where he stayed for about a year working as a judge and marrying into the royal family.

From the Maldives to Sri Lanka and from there the travels of Ibn Battutah took him to Bengal and Sumatra, eventually reaching the Chinese port of Quanzhou in the Fujian province around 1345. His descriptions of China include visits to Guangzhou, Hangzhou – which he described as one of the biggest cities he’d ever seen- and possibly even Beijing, although the exact details and sequence of these visits are uncertain.

The Return to Morocco

A tiled fountain on Mosque Hassan in Rabat, Morocco. (Credit: Richard Sharrocks via Getty Images)

Ibn Battuta’s return journey from China to Morocco, marking the final leg of his extensive travels, is a fascinating segment of his adventures, however it’s the aspect of his journey that is the most debated by academics and historians. Although the exact route and timeline are somewhat unclear due to inconsistencies in his accounts, the general outline of his journey effectively retraced his steps through Southeast Asia, back through Persia and the Middle East.

He then travelled across the North African coast and back to Morocco. At some point after his return it’s said he was sent by the Sultan of Morocco to Granada, the heartland of Muslim Spain.

Close-up of an old opened book in a historic library. (Credit: Westend61 via Getty Images)

There is one single account for the travels of Ibn Battutah, the book called A Masterpiece to Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Travelling, otherwise known as Rihla, or The Travels.

It was said he made no notes in the thirty years he was on the road and the book was dictated to a scholar he met in Granada named Ibn Juzayy. He relied on memory as well as manuscripts written by travellers who went before him. This has led scholars to have raised several specific issues regarding the authenticity of all the places Ibn Battuta claims to have visited.

Chronological and Geographical Inconsistencies

Some parts of the narrative contain chronological and geographical inconsistencies. For instance, the timeline of his travels in certain regions appears compressed or extended in a way that seems unrealistic. Additionally, the sequence of visits to some places does not align logically with the travel times and routes known from that period.

Second-Hand Information & Hearsay

There are suspicions that Ibn Battuta included accounts of places and events that he heard about from others but did not experience firsthand. This is particularly suspected in the sections about China and parts of Central Asia, where his descriptions sometimes seem more like compilations of other travellers’ tales rather than his own observations. For example, the descriptions of a number of locations in the Middle East are remarkably similar versions of accounts by Ibn Jubayr and Muhammad al-Abdari who travelled in the late thirteenth century.

Lack of Detailed Descriptions

In some instances, Ibn Battuta provides only vague or generic descriptions of certain places, lacking specific details that would indicate a personal visit. This has led some scholars to question whether he actually visited these locations. In addition, some descriptions of customs, cultures, and societal structures in various regions occasionally contain inaccuracies or exaggerations. These anomalies raise doubts about whether Ibn e Batuta fully understood or directly experienced these aspects.

Despite these issues, it’s important to note that many historians and scholars still regard Ibn Battuta’s Rihla as a valuable and accurate historical document. While there may be embellishments or occasional inaccuracies, the work provides an important perspective on the fourteenth century world, especially in relation to the Islamic societies and cultures he encountered. The Rihla remains a vitally important source for understanding the history, geography, and cultural and religious landscape of the mediaeval period.

Like his early years, very little is known of his life after the Rihla was finished around 1355. It’s believed he was made a judge in his home country of Morocco and died around 1369, aged 64 or 65.

The 75,000 Mile Man: The Travels of Ibn Battuta

Illustration of Ibn Battuta (Credit: Dorling Kindersley via Getty Images)

Ibn Battuta’s extraordinary journey encompassing vast swathes of the mediaeval world, stands as a remarkable testament to human curiosity and resilience. Despite the debates surrounding the veracity of his accounts, his narrative in the Rihla offers an invaluable window into the diverse cultures, societies, and landscapes of the fourteenth century.

His travels surpass mere physical exploration, delving into the realms of cultural exchange, religious devotion, and intellectual curiosity. The legacy of men like Ibn Battuta and Marco Polo endure through centuries and continue to inspire and educate, embodying the spirit of exploration and the timeless quest for knowledge and understanding of the world beyond one’s own horizons.

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The travels of ibn battuta.

UC Berkeley A Resource for Educators: Welcome to this tour of Ibn Battuta's medieval travels!

Educators and their student will follow in the footsteps of this famous 14th century Muslim traveler, exploring the places he visited and the people he encountered. To help you learn more about his adventures there will be images of the people and places he saw, information on the food he might have tasted, and "side trips" into the past and future.

Ibn Battuta started on his travels in 1325, when he was 20 years old. His main reason to travel was to go on a Hajj, or a Pilgrimage to Mecca, to fulfill the fifth pillar of Isla.. But his traveling went on for around 29 years and he covered about 75,000 miles visiting the equivalent of 44 modern countries which were then mostly under the governments of Muslim leaders of the World of Islam, or "Dar al-Islam".

He met many dangers and had numerous adventures along the way. He was attacked by bandits, almost drowned in a sinking ship, and nearly beheaded by a tyrant ruler. He also had a few marriages and lovers and fathered several children on his travels!

Near the end of Ibn Battuta's life, the Sultan of Morocco insisted that Ibn Battuta dictate the story of his travels to a scholar and today we can read translations of that account, which was originally titled Tuhfat al-anzar fi gharaaib al-amsar wa ajaaib al-asfar, or A Gift to Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Traveling.

That title is a bit of a mouthful so the text is generally just called Ibn Battuta's Rihla, or Journey.

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The Travels of Ibn Battutah: Alexandria

During Ibn Battutah’s pilgrimage to the Holy House in Mecca, he spent a considerable amount of time in Alexandria (al-Iskandariyah), Egypt, to explore the city and its culture. Battutah arrived on April 5, 1326, via a travel caravan from Tunis, and he stayed in Alexandria for several weeks. This section of Battutah’s travel narrative reflects his interest in the city’s culture, both via descriptions of cultural monuments as well as descriptions of the individuals with whom he interacted. He frequently expresses extreme awe towards the city from a visual, economic, and social perspective, and relays several positive experiences during his time there.

Battutah’s positive attitude towards Alexandria is first shaped by its beautiful and practical visual features. He specifically focuses on the city’s architecture, as it is not only visually appealing but also has aspects of functionality. The city includes a large citadel, secular buildings, religious edifices, and an impressive sea port. While describing the various structures in the city, he claims that they are built “in the way of embellishment and embattlement” that reflect “architectural perfection”(6). Battutah’s use of the word “embellishment” refers to the physical beauty of the city’s structures, while “embattlement” focuses on their strength and functionality. With his word choice,  Battutah does not appreciate outward beauty without simultaneously considering its rational purpose. This reflects Battutah’s cultural values as a practicing Muslim; members of the Islamic faith express disdain towards waste and extravagance, so it makes sense for Battutah to justify Alexandria’s outward beauty and extravagance with its practicality and purpose. 

While describing the city’s architecture, Battutah goes on to explain the structure and purpose of the city’s port. He credits some of the port’s success to its well-built structure, but also considers Alexandria’s geographic location as a key factor to its success. He refers to the city and its port as a mediator between the East and the West, indicating its vital role in the world of trade, communication, and travel. When describing the city as a whole, Battutah focuses on the man-made features; when describing the port, however, he references the man-made features as well as the geographical features in relation to the city’s success. The narrator’s shift in description shows that Alexandria’s success, especially in regards to trade, communication, and travel, relies on civilization competence just as much as geographic luck. For cities to thrive, they need to be in an economically beneficial location; this was especially true in the medieval ages because limited knowledge and resources made it more difficult to overcome limiting geographic features.

Battutah’s narrative also describes his interactions with the citizens of Alexandria. He considers all of the city’s people to be friendly and hospitable, but mainly interacts and describes his time spent with other educated, religious individuals such as Burhan al-Din the Lame and Shaikh Yaqut al-Habashi. In his narrative, Battutah describes these two individuals based on those with whom they interact. For example, he explains how Burhan al-Din the Lame has family in India and China, and mentions that Shaikh Yaqut al-Habashi has relations with a famous saint named Abul Hasan al-Shadhili (9). Describing people based on their relation to other people supports the trend of network communication via word of mouth. The limited nature of medieval travel and communication made it so that networks of “people who know people who know people” could be used to communicate. So, while interacting with Burhan al-Din the Lame and Shaikh Yaqut al-Habashi, Battutah also learns about other people and places to visit. This information is incredibly influential, as it actually leads Battutah to alter the trajectory of his journey to visit a pious figure known by Shaikh Yaqut al-Habashi. Because all of this information is delivered via word of mouth, though, its accuracy and truthfulness inherently comes into question. Errors can easily occur when people speak to each other, yet Battutah does not address this potential issue. It remains unclear whether this is due to ignorance or acceptance of his inability to solve the issue. 

Ibn-Baṭṭūṭa Muḥammad Ibn-ʿAbdallāh, and Tim Mackintosh-Smith. The Travels of Ibn Battutah . Translated by Gibb Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen, Picador, 2002.

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Ibn Battuta: The Extraordinary Journey of a Pioneering Traveler

In the annals of history, there are only a few individuals whose audacious expeditions have left an indelible mark on the world. Among these legendary explorers, Ibn Battuta, the intrepid Moroccan traveler, stands tall as one of the most remarkable and daring adventurers of the 14th century. Born in Tangier in 1304, Ibn Battuta embarked on an epic odyssey that would span nearly three decades and cover over 75,000 miles, an unparalleled distance for his time. His journey, chronicled in his famous travelogue “ Rihla ,” serves as a gateway to understanding the medieval world’s geographical expanse, cultural diversity, and historical significance.

Early Life and Education:

Ibn Battuta came from a scholarly family, and his early education focused on Islamic law, jurisprudence, and the Quran. At the age of 21, he embarked on his travels with the intention of performing the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. Little did he know that this journey would become the beginning of a remarkable odyssey that spanned three continents.

Setting Sail on a Quest for Knowledge:

Ibn Battuta’s thirst for knowledge and a desire to experience the wider Islamic world ignited his passion for exploration. At the age of 21, he set out on his pilgrimage to Mecca, a journey that would become the catalyst for his extraordinary travels. Fueled by an insatiable curiosity and the spirit of adventure, he chose to venture far beyond the boundaries of his homeland, determined to embrace the unknown and unravel the secrets of distant lands.

An Odyssey through Diverse Lands:

The start of Ibn Battuta’s travels in the early 14th century took him through the Middle East, from the cosmopolitan cities of Cairo and Damascus to the historic centers of learning in Baghdad. The Silk Road beckoned him to the Anatolian plains and the Crimean Peninsula, where he encountered the Golden Horde. His explorations led him further, traversing the vast Sahara Desert and venturing into the heart of Africa. He crossed the Sahara’s unforgiving terrain, arriving at the fabled cities of Timbuktu and Gao, witnessing the prosperity of the West African kingdoms.

Explorations in Africa:

Ibn Battuta’s travels in Africa were extensive and daring. He crossed the Sahara Desert, exploring the fabled cities of Timbuktu and Gao in present-day Mali. He continued south to the Niger River and then traveled through the Swahili Coast, where he visited Zanzibar, Kilwa, and other prosperous trading cities along the eastern coast of Africa.

Journey to Asia:

Ibn Battuta’s voyages continued as he ventured into the Indian subcontinent. He visited the Sultanate of Delhi, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, and the Maldive Islands. His admiration for the cultural diversity of India is evident in his accounts of the grand palaces, bustling bazaars, and majestic temples he encountered during his stay.

Ibn Battuta’s Visit to India: Embracing the Tapestry of Diversity

During his extensive travels, Ibn Battuta’s journey to India stands as one of the most captivating chapters of his travelogue, “Rihla.” In the early 1330s, he set foot on the Indian subcontinent, which was then a land of vibrant kingdoms and rich cultural heritage. His adventures took him to the Sultanate of Delhi, ruled by Muhammad bin Tughluq, a dynamic and powerful monarch.

Ibn Battuta’s accounts of India are a vivid portrayal of the subcontinent’s remarkable diversity. He marveled at the grandeur of Delhi’s architectural marvels, including the Qutub Minar and the Red Fort. His admiration extended to the bustling bazaars and vibrant marketplaces, where merchants from across the world converged to trade in exotic spices, textiles, and precious gems.

Traveling further south, Ibn Battuta was captivated by the coastal city of Calicut (now Kozhikode) in Kerala. He described it as “one of the greatest and most beautiful cities,” with its abundance of coconut palms and thriving maritime trade. In Calicut, he encountered the legendary Indian seafarer and navigator, Zheng He, a prominent figure in the history of maritime explorations.

During his stay in India, Ibn Battuta also visited the Maldives, Sri Lanka, and the Maldive Islands, further enriching his understanding of the Indian Ocean’s extensive maritime network.

Must Read: Top 5 Tropical Travel Destinations in the World – Here’s What You Need to Know

His observations of India’s diverse cultures, languages, and customs were recorded with great detail, providing valuable insights into the subcontinent’s social fabric during the 14th century. Ibn Battuta’s accounts have become an invaluable historical resource for understanding the medieval Indian society and its cultural tapestry.

His visit to India was not only a testament to his intrepid spirit as a traveler but also a testament to the intricate connections between India and the wider Islamic world. Ibn Battuta’s impressions of India highlight the profound impact of cultural exchanges during that era, fostering a deep appreciation for the nation’s extraordinary richness and captivating allure.

China and Beyond:

From India, Ibn Battuta embarked on a perilous journey through the maritime Silk Road to China. He traveled to Beijing, where he met the Yuan emperor, Kublai Khan. His descriptions of the Chinese society and customs are invaluable historical accounts.

Return to Morocco:

After nearly three decades of travel, Ibn Battuta finally returned to Morocco in 1349. His astounding journey had covered a vast expanse of the known world, including North Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, India, Southeast Asia, and China.

Legacy and Impact:

Ibn Battuta’s travelogue, “Rihla,” chronicled his incredible journey and became one of the most significant travel writings of the medieval era. His detailed accounts of the places he visited, the people he encountered, and the cultures he experienced provided invaluable insights into the diverse world of the 14th century.

Conclusion:

The tale of Ibn Battuta’s extraordinary journey continues to captivate and inspire generations of travelers and scholars alike. His unparalleled odyssey traversing Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and beyond, provides a window into the world of the 14th century. Through his meticulous observations and accounts, Ibn Battuta not only documented the geographical expanse of the medieval world but also highlighted the profound connections between diverse cultures and civilizations. His legacy as a trailblazing traveler and chronicler of history endures, encouraging the exploration of new horizons and fostering a deeper appreciation for the world’s cultural richness and shared heritage. Ibn Battuta’s odyssey reminds us that the spirit of exploration knows no boundaries, and that the pursuit of knowledge and understanding is a timeless quest that transcends generations.

Image Source – https://www.baytalfann.com/

Here are Frequently Asked Questions abour Ibn Battuta

Q: Who was Ibn Battuta, and what is he famous for? A: Ibn Battuta was a 14th-century Moroccan explorer known for his extensive travels across Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, chronicled in his travelogue “Rihla.”

Q: How many countries did Ibn Battuta visit during his travels? A: Ibn Battuta visited over 40 modern-day countries, covering a distance of over 75,000 miles during his remarkable journey.

Q: What motivated Ibn Battuta to embark on his travels? A: Ibn Battuta’s thirst for knowledge, curiosity about the wider Islamic world, and a desire for adventure motivated him to set out on his explorations.

Q: What is “Rihla,” and what does it reveal about Ibn Battuta’s travels? A: “Rihla” is Ibn Battuta’s travelogue, providing detailed accounts of the places he visited, the people he encountered, and the cultures he experienced during his journeys.

Q: How did Ibn Battuta document his travels without modern technology? A: Ibn Battuta relied on his remarkable memory, diligent note-taking, and storytelling skills to document his travels, later compiling them into his travelogue.

Q: What were some of the significant cities Ibn Battuta visited in India? A: Ibn Battuta explored the Sultanate of Delhi, Calicut (Kozhikode) in Kerala, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives during his time in the Indian subcontinent.

Q: How did Ibn Battuta’s travels contribute to our understanding of medieval geography? A: Ibn Battuta’s journeys provided valuable information about the medieval world’s geographical expanse, trade routes, and cultural interactions.

Q: What were some of the challenges Ibn Battuta faced during his travels? A: Ibn Battuta encountered various challenges, including harsh weather conditions, dangers on land and sea, and linguistic barriers.

Q: What legacy did Ibn Battuta leave behind, and how did his travels impact history? A: Ibn Battuta’s legacy includes his extensive knowledge of medieval cultures and geography, contributing to a deeper understanding of the era’s historical context.

Q: How is Ibn Battuta remembered and celebrated today? A: Ibn Battuta is revered as one of history’s greatest explorers, and his travels are celebrated through museums, historical sites, and academic studies worldwide.

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The Red Sea to East Africa and the Arabian Sea: 1328 - 1330

The Sultan of Kilwa was called 'the generous' "on account of the multitude of his gifts and acts of generosity. He used to engage frequently in expeditions to the land of the Zinj people [villagers of the interior], raiding them and taking booty [slaves and other wealth]... He is a man of great humility; he sits with poor brethren, eats with them, and greatly respects men of religion and noble descent." [Gibb, vol. II, pp. 380 - 381]

The Red Sea and East Africa

After Ibn Battuta had lived and studied in Mecca for about one year, he started another adventure. From Mecca, he went to Jidda on the Red Sea coast where he and other pilgrims were crammed onto a small ship. The image shown here is a dhow. Dhows were one of the earliest types of boats to sail the Indian Ocean. They were made from planks sewn together with no deck. The design proved so seaworthy that they are still used today.

"We traveled on this sea with a favoring wind for two days, but thereafter the wind changed and drove us off ... course... The waves of the sea entered in amongst us in the vessel, and the passengers fell grievously sick."

Eventually the ship had to head for shore, and fortunately Ibn Battuta and the other seasick passengers were able to rent camels and continue south on land. 

Ibn Battuta was able to visit coastal cities as well as villages in the high mountains of Yemen. In Taiz which was high on a mountain slope, he stayed with the sultan (leader) and was given a horse.

In the time Ibn Battuta lived, Muslim traders had firm control over the western half of the Indian Ocean trading centers. It was like "a Muslim lake" around which Muslim merchants had started businesses and they depended on trade by ship. Muslim communities had developed along the coast of Africa and later would develop along the coasts of India and Southeast Asia. A place in the business community was open to any young man with brains and ambition - whatever his racial background - if he was a Muslim. This is the network that Ibn Battuta now traveled. But this part of the world was not so solidly Muslim - here it was a minority religion - and the language of the places he would visit would not be Arabic. But at each site there would be Muslims who would welcome him as a fellow Muslim, a pilgrim and a scholar. He was part of the international brotherhood of Islam. He would take advantage of Muslim hospitality and charity wherever he went.

From Aden, Ibn Battuta decided to have another adventure before settling down to a permanent job - down the coast of East Africa this time. The weather conditions were right for the trip, and it was easy to get on a dhow sailing south. A large dhow usually had a crew of thirty to hoist the sails and turn the sails into the wind. Smaller dhows were used along the coast with only one triangular sail.

This map identifies dhow ports in the Indian Ocean. Indian Ocean trade was strongly influenced by a regional weather phenomenon called monsoons . Ships could travel during the winter months south with the monsoon winds . Then in the summer the winds reverse direction and ships could easily travel north.

Int'l Commerce, Snorkeling Camels, and The Indian Ocean Trade: Crash Course World History #18

Check out this video from Crash Course History to see how monsoon winds influenced trade in the Indian Ocean basin.

The trading ships made their way down the east coast of Africa stopping at towns to trade for African goods such as ivory, gold, myrrh to make a fine skin oil, animal skins, frankincense and ambergris used to make perfumes, and slaves. His first stop was Zeila, a port of the Christian kingdom of Ethiopia with a large Muslim community. He felt Zeila "the dirtiest, most disagreeable, and most stinking town in the world. The reason for its stink is the quantity of fish and the blood of the camels they butcher in its alleyways." To avoid the smell, Battuta spent the nights on his ship, even though the water was rough.

He continued southward and fifteen days later they reached Mogadishyu, the busiest and richest East African port. The Indian Ocean ports had long been active trading centers for Persian, Arabic, Indian and some European merchants. These merchants brought their languages, culture and religion to the region. For example, Ibn Battuta found that Mogadishu's sultan spoke both his native Somali and some Arabic and his chief legal advisor was Egyptian. But the East African trading ports were not isolated communities of foreign merchants. They were largely populated by black Africans speaking African languages like Somali in Mogadishu and Bantu further south). There was a great deal of intermarriage into the local families by the single Arab men who sought their fortunes along the coast of Africa. In some areas this coastal mingling of languages would finally develop into the language of Swahili which combines elements of Arabic, Bantu, and even some European languages.

Since Ibn Battuta was a real scholar of Islam religion and law now, he was made a welcomed guest of the local officials. This feasting and meeting of important people continued for about a week before the ship continued southward to Zanj and then Mombasa. They continued on to the islands of Pemba and Zanzibar, and finally arrived at Kilwa - today part of Tanzania.

Who were the people in the trading towns?

Settlers from Arabia and the Persian Gulf first introduced Islam into the little ports and fishing villages along the coast when they came to trade. The great majority of immigrants were males who married into local families. In Kilwa one family took control of the trading and gold markets from Zimbabwe. This family became very wealthy. They ate off Chinese porcelain, wore silk garments, and had indoor plumbing! Look at the ruins of the palace in which they lived.

What about slavery?

Ibn Battuta tells us several times that he was given or purchased slaves.

He also tells us very briefly how slaves were taken and given as gifts.

Kilwa was important as a trading city for gold and its citizens enjoyed a high standard of living. The ruling class lived in stone houses up to three stories high with indoor plumbing. Most of the population lived in mud-walled houses with thatched roofs.

Ibn Battuta probably prayed in the Great Mosque of Kilwa which is now in ruins (below). Because Ibn Battuta's description of the East African coast is the only eye-witness account of the medieval period, it is studied in detail by historians.

Arabian Sea

From Qalhat, Ibn Battuta probably continued to the Straits of Hormuz. In the bazaars he observed busy markets with merchandise from India and Persia, and along the coast he saw pearl fishing boats.

When people read Ibn Battuta's stories, he was accused of being a liar or teller of tales. For example, did he hear this account of pearl divers of the Persian Gulf  without actually seeing the process himself? Or was it a problem of translation?

"The diver ... puts over his face a covering made of the shell of the tortoise... and [something] like scissors which he fastens on his nose, then ties a rope around his waist and submerges. They differ in their endurance under water, some of them being able to stay under water for an hour or two hoursor less." ... "Inside [the oyster shells] are found pieces of fleshwhich are cut out with a knife, and when they come into contact with the air they solidify and turn into pearls (Gibb, vol. II, p. 408 - 409.)

Ibn Battuta was thinking about a return trip to Mecca - his third visit. Traveling mostly by land now, he reached Mecca in the winter of 1330. After tiring sea voyages, climbing high mountains in Yemen, traveling across the equator and through the hottest places on earth, and almost losing his life, he was looking forward to a long rest with his Koran and his law books.

Pearl divers in Bahrain