Swayed by an overmastering impulse within me, and a long-cherished desire to visit those glorious sanctuaries, I resolved to quit all my friends and tear myself away from my home. I set out alone, finding no companion to cheer the way with friendly intercourse, and no party of travellers with whom to associate myself. He would not see Morocco again for twenty-four years. In June 1325, at the age of twenty-one, Ibn Battuta set off from his hometown on a hajj, or pilgrimage, to Mecca, a journey that would take sixteen months.

As a young man he would have studied at a Sunni Maliki madh’hab, (Islamic jurisprudence school), the dominant form of education in North Africa at that time. He claimed descent from the Berber tribe known as the Lawata. Ibn Battuta was born into a family of Islamic legal scholars in Tangier, Morocco, on February 25, 1304, during the reign of the Marinid dynasty. Ibn Battuta is generally considered one of the greatest travellers of all time.Ħ Near East, Central Asia and Southern AsiaĪ 13th-century book illustration produced in Baghdad by al-Wasiti showing a group of pilgrims on a Hajj.Īll that is known about Ibn Battuta’s life comes from the autobiographical information included in the account of his travels.

His journeys included trips to North Africa, the Horn of Africa, West Africa and Eastern Europe in the West, and to the Middle East, South Asia, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and China. Over a period of thirty years, Ibn Battuta visited most of the known Islamic world as well as many non-Muslim lands. He is known for his extensive travels, accounts of which were published in the Rihla (lit. Occupation Islamic scholar, Jurist, Judge, explorer, geographer

( Leave a comment ) Ibn Battuta – the great traveler.

رحلة ابن بطوطة by Ibn Battuta