Thirdly, he was a juridical scholar searching for knowledge as well as for the company of other such scholars throughout the Muslim World, not to mention a job for himself. Secondly, being devoted to Sufism (a mystical form of Islam), he traveled in order to visit important Sufi hermitages and to dialogue with Sufi holy men. As noted earlier, he was a Muslim pilgrim joining other believers who were making the hajj. Indeed, we shall see that he was often quite critical of some of the rituals and practices he observed in different lands.ĭunn suggests that Ibn Battuta was actively involved in four variant "streams of travel" at one time. That is not to say that he was always accepting of their customs. By visiting lands where the sacred law of Islam (shari'a) provided the foundation of social order (either because of dominant Muslim populations or because of strong Muslim leaders), Ibn Battuta was able to surround himself with people of similar values and beliefs known as the umma, or community of believers. Traveling at times by sea but primarily by land (which he preferred), Ibn Battuta covered a distance of about 73,000 miles in 29 years, confining most of his travels "within the cultural boundaries of what Muslims called the Dar al-Islam or Abode of Islam" (Dunn, The Adventures of Ibn Battuta-A Muslim Traveler of the 14th Century, p. Lucille McDonald uses a very apt quote of our traveler in her book, where Ibn Battuta attributes his desire for relentless travel to a hungry heart (McDonald, Lucille. He did successfully complete his hajj but didn't end his travels there. 3).Īt the age of 20, Ibn Battuta left his home in 1325 intent on making a hajj, or pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca in Arabia. Gibb, "it was because he was a theologian and because of his interest in theologians that he undertook his travels at all and survived to complete them" (Gibb, H.A.R. We assume, therefore, that he had received an education (both literary and scholastic) of the type that a Muslim theologian would have received. Ibn Battuta belonged to the religious upper-class in Tangier, Morocco. I will read aloud selections from these two sources to my students as we accompany Ibn Battuta on his journey. The other book is a primary source in which portions of Ibn Battuta's writings relating to his travels to East Africa in 1329 or 1331 and his longer trip to West Africa between 13 have been selected, translated, and edited by Said Hamdun and Noel King in their book, Ibn Battuta in Black Africa. ![]() ![]() ![]() Dunn entitled The Adventures of Ibn Battuta-A Muslim Traveler of the 14th Century. I will be focusing on Ibn Battuta's last trip from Fez, Morrocco to Mali, West Africa which began in 1353, I will be using two main sources as I recount Ibn Battuta's last journey: One is a secondary source by Ross E.
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