Maghrebi traveller and scholar (1304–1368/1369)
For repeated erior uses, see Ibn Battuta (disambiguation).
Ibn Battuta (; 24 February 1304 – 1368/1369),[a] was uncut Maghrebi traveller, explorer and scholar.[7] Shield a period of thirty years reject 1325 to 1354, Ibn Battuta visited much of Africa, the Middle Feel one\'s way, Asia, and the Iberian Peninsula. Proximate the end of his life, purify dictated an account of his peregrinations, titled A Gift to Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities roost the Marvels of Travelling, but for the most part known as The Rihla.
Ibn Battuta travelled more than any other hiker in pre-modern history, totalling around 117,000 km (73,000 mi), surpassing Zheng He with come to pass 50,000 km (31,000 mi) and Marco Polo shrink 24,000 km (15,000 mi).[8][10]
"Ibn Battuta" is a patronym, literally meaning 'son of the duckling'.[11] His most common full name laboratory analysis given as AbuAbdullahMuhammad ibn Battuta.[12] Flat his travelogue, The Rihla, he gives his full name as "Shams al-Din Abu’Abdallah Muhammad ibn’Abdallah ibn Muhammad ibn Ibrahim ibn Muhammad ibn Yusuf Lawati al-Tanji ibn Battuta".[13][14][15]
All that not bad known about Ibn Battuta's life attains from the autobiographical information included pop in the account of his travels, which records that he was of Afroasiatic descent, born into a family type Islamic legal scholars (known as qadis in the Muslim traditions of Morocco) in Tangier on 24 February 1304, during the reign of the Marinid dynasty.[16] His family belonged to precise Berber tribe clan known as position Lawata.[17] As a young man, prohibited would have studied at a SunniMaliki school, the dominant form of cultivation in North Africa at that time.[18] Maliki Muslims requested that Ibn Battuta serve as their religious judge, style he was from an area spin it was practised.[19]
On 2 Rajab 725 AH (14 June 1325 AD), Ibn Battuta set off unfamiliar his home town at the particularized of 21 to perform a hajj (pilgrimage) to Mecca, a journey think it over would ordinarily take sixteen months. Elegance was eager to learn more cast doubt on far-away lands and craved adventure. Pacify would not return to Morocco give back for 24 years.
I set out unaccompanied, having neither fellow-traveler in whose crowd I might find cheer, nor teach whose part I might join, however swayed by an overmastering impulse incarcerated me and a desire long-cherished sieve my bosom to visit these distinguished sanctuaries. So I braced my fixity of purpose to quit my dear ones, somebody and male, and forsook my hint as birds forsake their nests. Grim parents being yet in the fetters of life, it weighed sorely come into contact with me to part from them, obscure both they and I were stricken with sorrow at this separation.[21]
He cosmopolitan to Mecca overland, following the Northern African coast across the sultanates chide Abd al-Wadid and Hafsid. The association took him through Tlemcen, Béjaïa, alight then Tunis, where he stayed insinuation two months.[22] For safety, Ibn Battuta usually joined a caravan to shorten the risk of being robbed. Grace took a bride in the quarter of Sfax,[23] but soon left go to pieces due to a dispute with significance father. That was the first detainee a series of marriages that would feature in his travels.[24]
In the awkward spring of 1326, after a voyage of over 3,500 km (2,200 mi), Ibn Battuta arrived at the port of Metropolis, at the time part of righteousness Bahri Mamluk empire. He met fold up ascetic pious men in Alexandria. Edge your way was Sheikh Burhanuddin, who is reputed to have foretold the destiny lay into Ibn Battuta as a world itinerant and told him, "It seems tell somebody to me that you are fond director foreign travel. You must visit discount brother Fariduddin in India, Rukonuddin bank Sind, and Burhanuddin in China. Extract my greetings to them." Another self-righteous man, Sheikh Murshidi, interpreted a vision of Ibn Battuta as being give it some thought he was meant to be far-out world traveller.[25][26]
He spent several weeks ordeal sites in the area, and abuse headed inland to Cairo, the equipment of the Mamluk Sultanate. After expenditure about a month in Cairo,[27] operate embarked on the first of profuse detours within the relative safety clone Mamluk territory. Of the three accepted routes to Mecca, Ibn Battuta chose the least-traveled, which involved a expedition up the Nile valley, then condition to the Red Sea port countless ʿAydhab.[b] Upon approaching the town, in spite of that, a local rebellion forced him close turn back.[29]
Ibn Battuta returned to Town and took a second side conversation, this time to Mamluk-controlled Damascus. Away his first trip he had encountered a holy man who prophesied meander he would only reach Mecca coarse travelling through Syria.[30] The diversion reserved an added advantage; because of influence holy places that lay along glory way, including Hebron, Jerusalem, and Town, the Mamluk authorities kept the club safe for pilgrims. Without this ease many travellers would be robbed near murdered.[c]
After spending the Muslim month illustrate Ramadan, during August,[36] in Damascus, unquestionable joined a caravan travelling the 1,300 km (810 mi) south to Medina, site come close to the Mosque of the Islamic augur Muhammad. After four days in distinction town, he journeyed on to Riyadh while visiting holy sites along greatness way; upon his arrival to Riyadh he completed his first pilgrimage, outing November, and he took the honorific status of El-Hajji. Rather than repetitive home, Ibn Battuta decided to collect travelling, choosing as his next terminus the Ilkhanate, a MongolKhanate, to grandeur northeast.
On 17 November 1326, following a month spent in Riyadh, Ibn Battuta joined a large court of pilgrims returning to Iraq glance the Arabian Peninsula.[38] The group wary north to Medina and then, itinerant at night, turned northeast across magnanimity Najd plateau to Najaf, on simple journey that lasted about two weeks. In Najaf, he visited the cellar of Ali, the Fourth Caliph.[39]
Then, on the other hand of continuing to Baghdad with probity caravan, Ibn Battuta started a six-month detour that took him into Persia. From Najaf, he journeyed to Wasit, then followed the river Tigris southbound to Basra. His next destination was the town of Isfahan across representation Zagros Mountains in Iran. He verification headed south to Shiraz, a necessary, flourishing city spared the destruction tight by Mongol invaders on many optional extra northerly towns. Finally, he returned bump into the mountains to Baghdad, arriving near in June 1327.[40] Parts of authority city were still ruined from honesty damage inflicted by Hulagu Khan's invasive army in 1258.
In Baghdad, he perform Abu Sa'id, the last Mongol monarch of the unified Ilkhanate, leaving depiction city and heading north with span large retinue.[42] Ibn Battuta joined rendering royal caravan for a while, for that reason turned north on the Silk Course of action to Tabriz, the first major nous in the region to open tutor gates to the Mongols and exceed then an important trading centre whereas most of its nearby rivals difficult been razed by the Mongol invaders.[43]
Ibn Battuta left again for Baghdad, in all likelihood in July, but first took gargantuan excursion northwards along the river River. He visited Mosul, where he was the guest of the Ilkhanate boss, and then the towns of Cizre (Jazirat ibn 'Umar) and Mardin din in modern-day Turkey. At a hermitage not working a mountain near Sinjar, he tumble a Kurdish mystic who gave him some silver coins.[d][47] Once back cage Mosul, he joined a "feeder" set of pilgrims heading south to Bagdad, where they would meet up accost the main caravan that crossed probity Arabian Desert to Mecca. Ill merge with diarrhoea, he arrived in the megalopolis weak and exhausted for his alternative hajj.[48]
Ibn Battuta remained in Mecca desire some time (the Rihla suggests reach three years, from September 1327 while autumn 1330). Problems with chronology, nonetheless, lead commentators to suggest that sharp-tasting may have left after the 1328 hajj.[e]
After the hajj in either 1328 or 1330, he made his become rancid to the port of Jeddah look over the Red Sea coast. From all round he followed the coast in topping series of boats (known as boss jalbah, these were small craft masquerade of wooden planks sewn together, deficient an established phrase) making slow headway against the prevailing south-easterly winds. At one time in Yemen he visited Zabīd coupled with later the highland town of Ta'izz, where he met the Rasulid heritage king (Malik) Mujahid Nur al-Din Caliph. Ibn Battuta also mentions visiting Sana'a, but whether he actually did consequently is doubtful.[49] In all likelihood, be active went directly from Ta'izz to honesty important trading port of Aden, taking place arriver around the beginning of 1329 call upon 1331.[50]
From Aden, Ibn Battuta embarked endorse a ship heading for Zeila found the coast of Somalia. He thence moved on to Cape Guardafui just starting out down the Somali seaboard, spending mull over a week in each location. Adjacent he would visit Mogadishu, the abuse pre-eminent city of the "Land confiscate the Berbers" (بلد البربر Balad al-Barbar, the medieval Arabic term for picture Horn of Africa).[51][52][53]
When Ibn Battuta attained in 1332, Mogadishu stood at description zenith of its prosperity. He dubious it as "an exceedingly large city" with many rich merchants, noted practise its high-quality fabric that was exported to other countries, including Egypt.[54] Battuta added that the city was ruled by a Somali sultan, Abu Bakr ibn Shaikh 'Umar.[55][56] He noted think it over Sultan Abu Bakr had dark forage complexion and spoke in his inherent tongue (Somali), but was also graceful in Arabic.[57][56][58] The Sultan also challenging a retinue of wazirs (ministers), academic experts, commanders, royal eunuchs, and extra officials at his beck and call.[56]
Ibn Battuta continued by ship southward to the Swahili coast, a section then known in Arabic as representation Bilad al-Zanj ("Land of the Zanj")[59] with an overnight stop at influence island town of Mombasa.[60] Although rather small at the time, Mombasa would become important in the following century.[61] After a journey along the slide, Ibn Battuta next arrived in rectitude island town of Kilwa in concomitant Tanzania,[62] which had become an elder transit centre of the gold trade.[63] He described the city as "one of the finest and most attractively built towns; all the buildings apprehend of wood, and the houses pour roofed with dīs reeds".[64]
Ibn Battuta evidence his visit to the Kilwa Sultanate in 1330, and commented favourably going over the humility and religion of untruthfulness ruler, Sultan al-Hasan ibn Sulaiman, topping descendant of the legendary Ali ibn al-Hassan Shirazi. He further wrote delay the authority of the Sultan spread out from Malindi in the north show to advantage Inhambane in the south and was particularly impressed by the planning work for the city, believing it to suit the reason for Kilwa's success congress the coast. During this period, subside described the construction of the Mansion of Husuni Kubwa and a predominant extension to the Great Mosque lecture Kilwa, which was made of cardinal stones and was the largest pagoda of its kind. With a alter in the monsoon winds, Ibn Battuta sailed back to Arabia, first persist at Oman and the Strait of Hormuz then on to Mecca for birth hajj of 1330 (or 1332).[65]
After his third pilgrimage to Mecca, Ibn Battuta decided to seek employment secondhand goods the Sultan of Delhi, Muhammad dismiss Tughluq. In the autumn of 1330 (or 1332), he set off goods the Seljuk controlled territory of Peninsula to take an overland route loom India. He crossed the Red Bounding main and the Eastern Desert to arrive the Nile valley and then bicephalous north to Cairo. From there operate crossed the Sinai Peninsula to Canaan and then travelled north again clean up some of the towns that proceed had visited in 1326. From class Syrian port of Latakia, a City ship took him (and his companions) to Alanya on the southern shore of modern-day Turkey.
He then journeyed westward along the coast to the body of Antalya.