Meet the Boss Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn Battuta was probably the best-traveled person of the Middle Ages In 30 years he traveled about 75,000 miles 120,700 kilometers from Spain in the west to China in the east Did you know Ibn Battuta left Tangier at the age of 21 He set out alone and suffered from bad homesickness He said that he was compelled to leave home by his desire to see the famous sites of Islam in Arabia BERBER BACKGROUND Traditional Peoples Ibn Battuta was born in 1304 in Tangier Morocco His family were Berbers The Berbers were a traditional people who lived throughout North Africa They mainly followed the Sunni branch of Islam Many Berbers still live in Morocco today above and their culture is carefully preserved 4 TRAVEL WITH THE GREAT EXPLORERS IS IT TRUE An Unreliable Account Did Ibn Battuta Fib Ibn Battuta did not keep a journal or diary After he returned home from 30 years of traveling his account was written in a book entitled Rihla or Travels Modern experts say that some dates and details in the book are wrong Some passages even come from the work of other writers It is likely Ibn Battuta could not accurately remember all his 30 years of traveling This makes the Rihla unreliable as a source of history However scholars agree the story is generally true It also provides many details about life in the Islamic world at the time
GETTING ALONG Legal Expert Good at Languages Ibn Battuta’s father was a qadi or a judge of Islamic sharia law Ibn Battuta also studied Islamic law and became a qadi When he traveled throughout the Islamic world Ibn Battuta reported that he was welcomed in many places partly because of his useful legal knowledge He also learned some of the languages of the places he visited such as Persian so he could communicate more easily HEADING TO MECCA Going on Pilgrimage In 628 the Prophet Muhammad traveled to Mecca in Arabia with his 1,400 followers Later it became the duty of all Muslims to make a pilgrimage to Mecca right if they could This pilgrimage or hajj is an expression of devotion to God Pilgrims purify themselves wear simple clothes and perform acts of worship together Ibn Battuta’s first journey began in 1325 when he made his first hajj He then decided to explore the rest of the Muslim world WIVES AND CHILDREN Marries many times Ibn Battuta married at least 10 times on his travels and had at least five children Islamic law allowed men to be married to more than one woman at a time Women had very little freedom at the time They were expected to stay at home and care for their families Ibn Battuta left his families behind when he traveled to a new place He often divorced his wives EXPLORE WITH IBN BATTUTA 5
Where Are We Heading In Ibn Battuta’s time southern Spain North Africa the Middle East and Central Asia were all Muslim regions Much of southern Asia also had large Muslim populations Did you know as Dar al-Islam Since its founding in the 600s Islam had spread widely Virtually all of Ibn Battuta’s travels took place in Islamic countries The Islamic world was known CENTER OF TRADE Tabriz is on the Silk Road Meeting place for merchants In the 1200s the Mongols set up a huge empire in Central Asia They made Tabriz above in modern-day Iranian Azerbaijan an important center on the Silk Road This long trade route joined East and South Asia to Europe via Anatolia In 1327 Ibn Battuta briefly visited Tabriz He said it was home to many merchants from Europe and China 6 TRAVEL WITH THE GREAT EXPLORERS TRAVEL UPDATE TRAVEL UPDATE Get a Job On a long journey raise money by working along the way In 1334 when Ibn Battuta reached India he got a job with the sultan Ibn Battuta spent six years traveling through India as a judge Eventually the sultan selected Ibn Battua to act as his ambassador in China
THE MALDIVES Tropical islands A new master The Maldives are 26 islands spread out in the Indian Ocean Ibn Battuta stopped there on his way from India to China The Maldives had been a Buddhist nation but it had recently converted to Islam and needed an expert in Islamic law The sultan of the Maldives made Ibn Battuta stay and work as the chief qadi for nine months MOORISH KINGDOM Muslims in Spain When Ibn Battuta returned to Morocco in 1349 he learned that his parents had died He decided to travel to al-Andalus the Islamic kingdom of southern Spain to help defend it from the Christian kingdom in the north By the time he arrived the two sides were at peace Instead Ibn Battuta visited Valencia and Granada home of the great Islamic Alhambra Palace left Ibn Battuta visited Sri Lanka to make a pilgrimage to a sacred mountain called Adam’s Peak At the top the rock formation is indented with what looks like a huge footprint Buddhists say it is a footprint of Buddha Hindus believe it belongs to the god Shiva Muslims see it as the footprint of Adam the first human and first prophet EXPLORE WITH IBN BATTUTA 7 A PILGRIMAGE Footprints on the mountain But whose feet
