Ibn Batuta

Moroccan Muslim scholar and traveller Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn Battuta He was well-known for his frequent travels and Rihla excursions. His journeys lasted nearly thirty years, and he travelled nearly the entire known Islamic world and beyond. They stretched from North Africa, West Africa, Southern Europe, and Eastern Europe in the west to the Middle East, Indian subcontinent, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, and China in the east, a distance far exceeding that of his forefathers. He returned to Morocco after his travels and told Ibn Juzay about his adventures.

 

On February 25, 1304 in Tangier, modern-day Morocco, Ibn Battuta was born. This Atlantic Ocean port city is 45 miles west of the Mediterranean Sea, close to the western side of the Gibraltar Strait, where Africa and Europe almost collide.

 

Ibn Battuta's father was a legal scholar, and he was raised with an emphasis on education; however, Tangier lacked a "madrasa," or college of higher learning. Ibn Battuta's desire to travel was fueled by a desire to find the best teachers and libraries, which were located in Alexandria, Cairo, and Damascus at the time. Out of eagerness and devotion to his faith, he also wanted to make the pilgrimage to Mecca, known as the "hajj," as soon as possible. Ibn Battuta set out from Tangier on a donkey on June 14, 1325, at the age of 21, on the first leg of a 16-month journey to Mecca.

 

He continued on his journey and did not return to Morocco for at least another 24 years. His travels were primarily by land. He usually chose to join a caravan to reduce the risk of being attacked. He married in the town of Sfax. He survived wars, shipwrecks, and rebellions on his journey.

 

He began his journey by travelling through the Middle East. He sailed down the Red Sea to Mecca after that. He travelled to Iraq and Iran after crossing the vast Arabian Desert. In 1330, he set sail once more, this time down the Red Sea to Aden, then to Tanzania. Then, in 1332, Ibn Battuta made the decision to travel to India. The Sultan of Delhi greeted him with open arms. He was promoted to the position of judge there. He stayed in India for eight years before moving to China. In 1352, Ibn Battuta embarked on a new adventure. He then travelled south, crossing the Sahara desert on his way to Mali, an African country.

 

Battuta finally returned to Tangier in 1355. It's debatable whether Ibn Battuta actually visited all of the places he described. Ibn Battuta most likely relied on hearsay evidence and made extensive use of accounts by earlier travellers in order to provide a comprehensive description of places in the Muslim world.

 

In some of the regions he visited, Ibn Battuta reported experiencing culture shock. His orthodox Muslim background clashed with the local customs of newly converted people. He was astounded by the behaviour of women among Turks and Mongols. They were given the right to free speech. He also thought the Maldives' and some Sub-Saharan African countries' dress codes were too revealing.

 

Ibn Battuta then travelled to India via Afghanistan, crossing the Hindu Kush Mountains at one of several high passes to fulfil the prophecies of the various seers he'd met. The Khawak Pass, at 13,000 feet (4,000 metres), was where his group crossed.

 

At the time, Muhammad bin Tughluq was known as the wealthiest man in the Muslim world. In order to consolidate his rule, he favoured various scholars, Sufis, qadis, viziers, and other officials. The sultan appointed Ibn Battuta as a qadi, or judge, based on his years of study in Mecca. Due to India's lack of Islamic appeal, he found it difficult to enforce Islamic law beyond the sultan's court in Delhi.

 

Ibn Battuta's route into the Indian subcontinent is unknown, but it is known that he was kidnapped and robbed by Hindu rebels on his way to the Indian coast. He could have entered through the Khyber Pass and Peshawar, or he could have gone further south. He crossed the Sutlej river near Pakpattan, Pakistan, where he paid his respects at the Baba Farid shrine before heading southwest into Rajput territory. Battuta travelled to Hansi in India from the Rajput kingdom of Sarsatti, describing it as "among the most beautiful cities, the best constructed and the most populated; it is surrounded with a strong wall, and its founder is said to be one of the great infidel kings, called Tara" Ibn Battuta mentions the Indian rhinoceros that lived on the banks of the Indus River upon his arrival in Sindh.

 

Even by the standards of the time, the Sultan was erratic, and Ibn Battuta alternated between living the high life of a trusted subordinate and being suspected of treason for a variety of offences for six years. The Sultan thwarted his plan to leave under the guise of performing another hajj. Battuta finally got his chance to leave Delhi in 1341, when an embassy from Yuan dynasty China arrived, requesting permission to rebuild a Himalayan Buddhist temple popular with Chinese pilgrims.

 

Ibn Battuta was given command of the embassy, but he and his large entourage were attacked by bandits en route to the coast at the start of their journey to China. He was robbed, kidnapped, and nearly died after being separated from his companions. Despite this setback, he caught up with his group within ten days and continued on to Khambhat, Gujarat, India. They then sailed to Calicut (now known as Kozhikode), where two centuries later Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama would land. Battuta was a guest of the ruling Zamorin in Calicut. A storm arose while Ibn Battuta was on shore visiting a mosque, and one of his expedition's ships sank. The other ship then set sail without him, only to be captured a few months later by a local Sumatran king.

 

He stayed in southern India for a time under the protection of Jamal-ud-Din, ruler of the small but powerful Nawayath sultanate on the banks of the Sharavathi river near the Arabian Sea, fearful of being seen as a failure if he returned to Delhi. This area is now known as Hosapattana and is located in Uttara Kannada's Honavar administrative district. Ibn Battuta had no choice but to flee India after the sultanate was overthrown. He took a detour to the Maldive Islands, where he worked as a judge, despite his determination to continue his journey to China.

 

He travelled to Sri Lanka after visiting Sri Pada and Tenavaram temples in the Maldives. Ibn Battuta's ship nearly sank as it set sail from Sri Lanka, only for the ship that rescued him to be attacked by pirates. He worked his way back to India's Madurai kingdom after becoming stranded on the beach. He spent some time in the court of Ghiyas-ud-Din Muhammad Damghani's short-lived Madurai Sultanate, from which he returned to the Maldives and boarded a Chinese junk, still intending to reach China and take up his ambassadorial post.

 

He arrived in modern-day Bangladesh's port of Chittagong with the intention of travelling to Sylhet to meet Shah Jalal, who had become so well-known that Ibn Battuta, who was then in Chittagong, made a one-month journey through the mountains of Kamaru near Sylhet to meet him. He noted that the Shah Jalal's companions were foreigners who were known for their strength and bravery. He also mentions that many people would seek advice from the Shah. Ibn Battuta continued north into Assam before turning around and returning to his original route.

 

In 1349, Ibn Battuta returned to Tangier, where he paid his respects to his mother, who had perished in the Black Death (plague) only a few months before his return. (When he returned to Damascus, he learned that his father had died 15 years before.) Ibn Battuta spent only a few days in Tangier before departing for North Africa, Spain, and West Africa (Mali).

 

In 1354, he returned to Fez, Morocco, where the local sultan commissioned a young literary scholar to chronicle Ibn Battuta's adventures. The scholar was required to write the entire storey in literary form, using a type of Arabic literature known as a rihla, which denotes a quest for divine knowledge. For two years, the two men worked together, with Ibn Battuta telling his storey and writing notes about it. Ibn Battuta had an incredible memory, but he occasionally misremembered facts and dates.

 

After the publication of his book, all we know about Ibn Battuta's life is that he served as a judge in some town. He is thought to have married again and had more children because he was not yet 50 when he stopped travelling.

 

Unlike Marco Polo's Travels, which had a significant impact on the European world, Battuta's account of his travels had only a minor impact on the Muslim world before the 19th century. While copies had circulated previously, it was French and English scholars who finally brought The Travels of Ibn Battuta to the attention it deserved on the international stage.

 

What is the difference between Ibn Battuta's account and Marco Polo's? Each traveller relied on his wits to get by — this was something they all had in common. Each revelled in new experiences, and each demonstrated incredible fortitude and perseverance in completing lengthy journeys and returning to their homeland.

 

Despite this, there were numerous differences. Ibn Battuta was a well-educated, cosmopolitan, gregarious upper-class man who travelled within a familiar Muslim culture, meeting like-minded individuals wherever he went. Polo was a merchant who travelled to strange, unfamiliar cultures and learned new ways of dressing, speaking, and behaving. He was not formally educated. Ibn Battuta went into greater detail about himself, the people he met, and the significance of the positions he held. Marco Polo, on the other hand, was concerned with accurately reporting what he had seen. We are extremely fortunate to have accounts from two different intercontinental travellers from over 600 years ago.

 

Little is known about Ibn Battuta's life after the completion of the Rihla in 1355. In 1368, he was appointed as a judge in Morocco and died. The Rihla is an important source for information about many areas of the world in the fourteenth century.