The Travels Of Ibn Battutah

The true story of a fourteenth-century traveler, whose journeys through the Islamic world and beyond were extraordinary for his time. In 1325, when Ibn Battuta was just twenty-one, he bid farewell to his parents in Tangier, Morocco, and embarked on a pilgrimage to Mecca. It was thirty years before he returned home, having seen much of the world. In this book he recalls his amazing journey and the fascinating people, cultures and places he encountered. After his pilgrimage to Mecca, Ibn Battuta was filled with a desire to see more of the world. He traveled extensively, throughout Islamic lands and beyond — from the Middle East to Africa to Europe to Asia. Travelers were uncommon in those days, and when Ibn Battuta arrived in a new city he would introduce himself to the governor or religious leaders, and they in turn would provide him with gifts, a place to stay and study, and sometimes they even gave him money to continue his journey. Some of the highlights of his travels included seeing the stunning Dome of the Rock shrine in Jerusalem; witnessing the hundreds of women who gathered to pray at the mosque in Shiraz; visiting the public baths in Baghdad; and meeting the Mogul emperor of India, who made him a judge and eventually sent him to China as an ambassador. Ibn Battuta kept a diary of his travels, and even though he lost it many times and had to recall and rewrite what he had seen, he kept a remarkable record of his years away. His adventurous spirit, keen mind and meticulous observations, as retold here by Fatima Sharafeddine, give us a remarkable picture of what it was like to be a traveler nearly seven hundred years ago. The book is beautifully illustrated by Intelaq Mohammed Ali, with maps and travel routes forming the backdrop for many richly painted scenes. Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.4.1 Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.4.3 Explain events, procedures, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text, including what happened and why, based on specific information in the text. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.5.3 Explain the relationships or interactions between two or more individuals, events, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text based on specific information in the text.

He did not return to Morocco for another twenty-nine years, travelling instead through more than forty countries on the modern map, covering seventy-five thousand miles and getting as far north as the Volga, as far east as China and as far south as Tanzania. He wrote of his travels, and comes across as a superb ethnographer, biographer, anecdotal historian and occasional botanist and gastronome. With this edition by Mackintosh-Smith, Battuta's Travels takes its place alongside other indestructible masterpieces of the travel-writing genre.

Ibn Baṭṭūṭa (1304 - 1369) was the best-known Arab traveler in world history. Over a period of thirty years, he visited most of the Islamic world and many non-Muslim lands. Following his travels, he dictated a report he called "A Gift to Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Traveling," known simply in Arabic as the Riḥla. This dramatic document provides a firsthand account of the nascent globalization brought by the spread of Islam and the relationship between the Western world and India and China in the 14th century. As an Islamic legal scholar, Ibn Baṭṭūṭa served at high levels of government within the vibrant Muslim network of India and China. In the Riḥla, he shares insights into the complex power dynamics of the time and provides commentary on the religious miracles he encountered. The result is an entertaining narrative with a wealth of anecdotes, often humorous or shocking, and in many cases touchingly human.

Ibn Battutah set out in 1325 from his native Tangier on the pilgrimage to Mecca. By the time he returned twenty-nine years later, he had visited most of the known world, travelling three times the distance Marco Polo covered. Spiritual backpacker, social climber, temporary hermit and failed ambassador, he braved brigands, blisters and his own prejudices. The outcome was a monumental travel classic. Captivated by this indefatigable man, award-winning travel writer Tim Mackintosh-Smith set out on his own eventful journey, retracing the Moroccan's eccentric trip from Tangier to Constantinople. Tim proves himself a perfect companion to this distant traveller, and the result is an amazing blend of personalities, history and contemporary observation.

Ross Dunn's classic retelling of the travels of Ibn Battuta, a Muslim of the 14th century.

Ibn Battuta was the traveler of his age—the fourteenth century, a time before Columbus when many believed the world to be flat. Like Marco Polo, Ibn Battuta left behind an account of his own incredible journey from Morocco to China, from the steppes of Russia to the shores of Tanzania, some seventy-five thousand miles in all. James Rumford has retold Ibn Battuta’s story in words and pictures, adding the element of ancient Arab maps—maps as colorful and as evocative as a Persian miniature, as intricate and mysterious as a tiled Moroccan wall. Into this arabesque of pictures and maps, James Rumford has woven the story not just of a traveler in a world long gone but of a man on his journey through life.

In 922 AD, an Arab envoy from Baghdad named Ibn Fadlan encountered a party of Viking traders on the upper reaches of the Volga River. In his subsequent report on his mission he gave a meticulous and astonishingly objective description of Viking customs, dress, table manners, religion and sexual practices, as well as the only eyewitness account ever written of a Viking ship cremation. Between the ninth and fourteenth centuries, Arab travellers such as Ibn Fadlan journeyed widely and frequently into the far north, crossing territories that now include Russia, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. Their fascinating accounts describe how the numerous tribes and peoples they encountered traded furs, paid tribute and waged wars. This accessible new translation offers an illuminating insight into the world of the Arab geographers, and the medieval lands of the far north.