Though less famous in the West than his predecessor MARCO POLO, Ibn Batt¯ uta is almost certainly
the most inexhaustible traveler in the medieval
world. In his Rihlah (Book of Travels) he narrates
his 27-year trek of some 75,000 miles across Africa,
the Middle East, Asia Minor, Central Asia, India,
and into China. More than any other traveler in
the premodern world, Ibn Batt¯ uta fulfilled the
pledge he is said to have made to himself: That he
would never travel the same road twice.
Ibn Batt¯ uta was born in Tangier in Morocco in
1304. He was raised and educated in a family of legal
scholars until, at age 21, he decided to fulfill one of
the five pillars (spiritual requirements) of Islam and
make his pilgrimage to Mecca. Moreover he hoped
to further his education by studying with some of
the eastern sages. He set out in 1325 and, after crossing North Africa, Egypt, Palestine, and Syria, he arrived in the holy city of Mecca a year and a half later.
His journey had apparently instilled in him a
passion for travel, and from a base in Mecca, Ibn
Batt¯ uta explored both coasts of the Red Sea and
traveled down the East African coast as far south as
modern-day Tanzania. He returned through the
Persian Gulf and Oman, ultimately returning to
Mecca by an overland caravan route that took him
through central Arabia.
His wanderlust undiminished, Batt¯ uta conceived (about 1330) a plan to visit the Muslim
ruler of Delhi, and he set out on a new journey to
India. But rather than traveling to Delhi directly,
Battuta took ship for the Byzantine capital of Constantinople and then pressed on across Asia Minor,
crossing the Black Sea and exploring the Crimea
and some of Central Asia. He journeyed through
the Asian steppes and Afghanistan, and finally arrived at Delhi in 1333. Here, making use of his
legal education, Batt¯ uta served the sultan for eight
years as a jurist, ultimately becoming the chief justice of Delhi. Then in 1341, the sultan chose Battuta to act as emissary to the Chinese emperor.
Doubtlessly relishing this new opportunity for
travel, Ibn Batt¯ uta started out for Beijing, but
quickly suffered a setback when he was shipwrecked.
Undeterred, Battuta visited Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and
the Maldive Islands. From southern India he set out
again for China, exploring Bengal, Burma, Sumatra,
and Canton on the way to the Chinese city of
Quonzhou (Zaytun) and, possibly, Beijing. In any
case he then decided to make another pilgrimage to
Mecca, where he returned in 1347. From here he finally made his return trip to Morocco, arriving
home in 1349–24 years after he had left.
Even after such a prodigious journey, however,
Ibn Batt¯ uta was not content, and he was curious
to see the celebrated Muslim culture of Andalusian
Spain. In 1350, he visited Granada. In 1353, he
took his final trip—a caravan across the Sahara to
visit the Muslim empire of the Mandingos in Mali,
in the area of the Niger River.
It was apparently upon his return to Morocco
in 1354 that the Marinid Sultan, Abu ’Inan, commissioned the Andalusian scribe Ibn Jazayy to help
Battuta write his memoirs. Battuta dictated the
story of his adventures to the young literary
scholar, who completed his text in 1357. After that
date Ibn Batt¯ uta fades into obscurity, probably acting as a judge in a town somewhere in Morocco.
No one knows the details of his final years, but he
is purported to have died in either 1368 or 1377.
The story of Ibn Batt¯ uta’s travels was very popular in the Arab world, and was copied and reproduced regularly over the four centuries following
its first appearance. In the 19th century, translations made the book popular in the West as well as
in Japan and Iran. It is clear at times that Ibn
Batt¯ uta, relying on his memory of events sometimes long past, occasionally embellishes or gets
things muddled, and it is sometimes difficult to
put his journeys into a proper chronological sequence. It is also clear that sometimes Ibn Jazayy
uses his own imagination and may exaggerate certain accounts. Still Ibn Batt¯ uta’s record provides an
invaluable historical source for everyday life in virtually every Muslim society in the 14th century, including everything from the Ottoman Empire to
Muslim India to sub-Saharan Africa.
Bibliography
Dunn, Ross. The Adventures of Ibn Battuta: A Muslim
Traveler of the 14th Century. Berkeley: University
of California Press, 1989.
Gibb, H. A. R., trans. The Travels of Ibn Battuta, A.D.
1325–1354. Cambridge: Published for the Hakluyt
Society at the University Press, 1971.
Hamdun, Said, and Noel King. Ibn Battuta in Black
Africa. Princeton N.J.: M. Wiener, 1994.