{"id":98,"date":"2023-06-29T15:19:24","date_gmt":"2023-06-29T15:19:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/premodernmiddleeast\/?post_type=chapter&p=98"},"modified":"2024-03-22T00:20:46","modified_gmt":"2024-03-22T00:20:46","slug":"chapter-13-travels-of-ibn-battuta","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/premodernmiddleeast\/chapter\/chapter-13-travels-of-ibn-battuta\/","title":{"rendered":"Chapter 13: Travels of Ibn Battuta"},"content":{"raw":"Abu `Abdallah Muhammad ibn Battuta grew up in the city of Tangier on the northern coast of Morocco, approximately twenty miles from Tarifa on the southern coast of Spain.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He belonged to a family of legal scholars and so he was educated in Islamic law as a young man, becoming a religious judge in the Maliki school (madhhab<\/em>) of Sunni Islamic jurisprudence.\r\n\r\nIbn Battuta left Morocco in 1325, at the age of 21, to undertake his pilgrimage (hajj<\/em>) to the Islamic holy lands.\u00a0 Not only is the hajj<\/em> a religious requirement for devout Muslims, but it also was a prerequisite for aspiring scholars.\u00a0 Moroccans who desired to attain positions in the religious sphere would often devote a couple of years for making a trip to the Islamic east (Mashriq<\/em>: Egypt, Arabia and Syria).\u00a0 Not only would they complete a religious obligation through such a voyage, but they would also be able to study under leading scholars from their madhhab<\/em> while traveling in the east.\u00a0 If they made a good impression on these scholars, they would be granted a license (ijaza<\/em>) to teach the work of those scholars to their own students after returning home.\u00a0 Scholars who accumulated numerous ijaza<\/em>s during their travels would improve their chances of obtaining prestigious teaching positions, or other jobs in the field of Islamic law or in religious administration, upon their return to their homelands.\r\n\r\nHowever, Ibn Battuta seems to have been more interested in travel for its own sake than in forwarding his scholarly career by obtaining prominent ijaza<\/em>s.\u00a0 While in Egypt, he met a couple of holy men who prophesied that he would become a world traveler.\u00a0 The young man seems to have taken these words to heart, and he devoted the next 28 years of his life to traveling throughout the Islamic world.\u00a0 His travels took him to the central Middle East (Egypt, Arabia, Palestine, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Arab Gulf), down the eastern coast of Africa, across the Sahara desert from Morocco to West Africa, through the Anatolian peninsula (even visiting the city of Constantinople, which was still governed by the Christian Byzantine empire at that time), and throughout Islamic central Asia, India, the Maldive Islands, and East Asia.\u00a0 He finally returned home to Morocco in 1354, where he proceeded to dictate an account of his travels to the scribe Ibn Juzayy.\u00a0 This became his famous rihla<\/em>, which has been translated into multiple languages (including three different English language translations) in modern times.\u00a0 It is estimated that Ibn Battuta traveled more than 75,000 miles during his lifetime, which is more than three times as far as the travels of his more famous near-contemporary, Marco Polo.\r\n\r\nA mediocre scholar, who was hardly mentioned in the works of his contemporaries, Ibn Battuta nevertheless found sultans, local elites and holy men who were willing to assist, support or employ him throughout the regions he traveled in. A scholar of Muslim religious law was honored even in places as far away from home as India and southeast Asia.\u00a0 For example, he served as the Maliki religious judge under the sultan Muhammad ibn Tughluq for eight years in Delhi and later for nine months on the Maldive Islands.\u00a0 Although some have questioned the historicity of his accounts, modern scholars Ross Dunn and Tim Mackintosh-Smith have argued that many of the details provided in his stories have been verified by other sources and that Ibn Battuta would not have known this information without traveling to these locations himself.\r\n\r\nIn many of the places that he visited, Ibn Battuta\u2019s account is the only primary source we have for those locations at that time.\u00a0 His writings show the inter-connectedness of Islamic civilization in the post-Mongol world. Though politically divided, a larger sense of Islamic umma<\/em> still remained. Ibn Battuta confirms the impact of Mongol depravations on Persia and Iraq, as well as the flourishing of Egyptian society during that time. He also provides evidence of the plague's impact upon the Middle East, which he encountered on his trip back to Morocco in 1348.\u00a0 Yet, on the whole, the order and security of the pax Mongolica had proven conducive for the further expansion of Islam across Asia, and Ibn Battuta is a witness to the existence and nature of a large number of Islamic societies throughout both Africa and Asia.\u00a0 His account provides a snap-shot of the breadth and diversity of the dar al-Islam<\/em> during the first half of the fourteenth century.\r\n\r\nDue to copyright restrictions on the newer translations, the link below connects to the translation of Ibn Battuta's rihla<\/em> completed by the Rev. Samuel Lee in 1829.\u00a0 Despite the old English, this translation still brings to life for modern readers the adventures and observations of the greatest world traveler of pre-modern times.\r\n\r\nThe Travels of Ibn Battuta, trans. Rev. Samuel Lee<\/a>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_205\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"640\"]\"The The Travels of Ibn Battuta, 1325-1354, By Weetjesman - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=72277758.[\/caption]\r\n\r\nBelow: plaque at the tomb of Ibn Battuta in Tangier, Morocco.\u00a0 Photo by author during visit to Tangier in August 2015\r\n\r\n\"Ibn \"\"","rendered":"

Abu `Abdallah Muhammad ibn Battuta grew up in the city of Tangier on the northern coast of Morocco, approximately twenty miles from Tarifa on the southern coast of Spain.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He belonged to a family of legal scholars and so he was educated in Islamic law as a young man, becoming a religious judge in the Maliki school (madhhab<\/em>) of Sunni Islamic jurisprudence.<\/p>\n

Ibn Battuta left Morocco in 1325, at the age of 21, to undertake his pilgrimage (hajj<\/em>) to the Islamic holy lands.\u00a0 Not only is the hajj<\/em> a religious requirement for devout Muslims, but it also was a prerequisite for aspiring scholars.\u00a0 Moroccans who desired to attain positions in the religious sphere would often devote a couple of years for making a trip to the Islamic east (Mashriq<\/em>: Egypt, Arabia and Syria).\u00a0 Not only would they complete a religious obligation through such a voyage, but they would also be able to study under leading scholars from their madhhab<\/em> while traveling in the east.\u00a0 If they made a good impression on these scholars, they would be granted a license (ijaza<\/em>) to teach the work of those scholars to their own students after returning home.\u00a0 Scholars who accumulated numerous ijaza<\/em>s during their travels would improve their chances of obtaining prestigious teaching positions, or other jobs in the field of Islamic law or in religious administration, upon their return to their homelands.<\/p>\n

However, Ibn Battuta seems to have been more interested in travel for its own sake than in forwarding his scholarly career by obtaining prominent ijaza<\/em>s.\u00a0 While in Egypt, he met a couple of holy men who prophesied that he would become a world traveler.\u00a0 The young man seems to have taken these words to heart, and he devoted the next 28 years of his life to traveling throughout the Islamic world.\u00a0 His travels took him to the central Middle East (Egypt, Arabia, Palestine, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Arab Gulf), down the eastern coast of Africa, across the Sahara desert from Morocco to West Africa, through the Anatolian peninsula (even visiting the city of Constantinople, which was still governed by the Christian Byzantine empire at that time), and throughout Islamic central Asia, India, the Maldive Islands, and East Asia.\u00a0 He finally returned home to Morocco in 1354, where he proceeded to dictate an account of his travels to the scribe Ibn Juzayy.\u00a0 This became his famous rihla<\/em>, which has been translated into multiple languages (including three different English language translations) in modern times.\u00a0 It is estimated that Ibn Battuta traveled more than 75,000 miles during his lifetime, which is more than three times as far as the travels of his more famous near-contemporary, Marco Polo.<\/p>\n

A mediocre scholar, who was hardly mentioned in the works of his contemporaries, Ibn Battuta nevertheless found sultans, local elites and holy men who were willing to assist, support or employ him throughout the regions he traveled in. A scholar of Muslim religious law was honored even in places as far away from home as India and southeast Asia.\u00a0 For example, he served as the Maliki religious judge under the sultan Muhammad ibn Tughluq for eight years in Delhi and later for nine months on the Maldive Islands.\u00a0 Although some have questioned the historicity of his accounts, modern scholars Ross Dunn and Tim Mackintosh-Smith have argued that many of the details provided in his stories have been verified by other sources and that Ibn Battuta would not have known this information without traveling to these locations himself.<\/p>\n

In many of the places that he visited, Ibn Battuta\u2019s account is the only primary source we have for those locations at that time.\u00a0 His writings show the inter-connectedness of Islamic civilization in the post-Mongol world. Though politically divided, a larger sense of Islamic umma<\/em> still remained. Ibn Battuta confirms the impact of Mongol depravations on Persia and Iraq, as well as the flourishing of Egyptian society during that time. He also provides evidence of the plague’s impact upon the Middle East, which he encountered on his trip back to Morocco in 1348.\u00a0 Yet, on the whole, the order and security of the pax Mongolica had proven conducive for the further expansion of Islam across Asia, and Ibn Battuta is a witness to the existence and nature of a large number of Islamic societies throughout both Africa and Asia.\u00a0 His account provides a snap-shot of the breadth and diversity of the dar al-Islam<\/em> during the first half of the fourteenth century.<\/p>\n

Due to copyright restrictions on the newer translations, the link below connects to the translation of Ibn Battuta’s rihla<\/em> completed by the Rev. Samuel Lee in 1829.\u00a0 Despite the old English, this translation still brings to life for modern readers the adventures and observations of the greatest world traveler of pre-modern times.<\/p>\n

The Travels of Ibn Battuta, trans. Rev. Samuel Lee<\/a><\/p>\n

\"The
The Travels of Ibn Battuta, 1325-1354, By Weetjesman – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=72277758.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Below: plaque at the tomb of Ibn Battuta in Tangier, Morocco.\u00a0 Photo by author during visit to Tangier in August 2015<\/p>\n

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