Introduction
Ibn Battuta 1304-1377
His Travelog, the “Rihla” Illustrated
Battuta's Travels 1325-1349
For
Cornelius and Ulysse
Ibn Battuta on the Road
Ibn Battuta was unknown in the West until a French translation of "The Rihla," his
travelogue, appeared in the 1860s. Since then he has become the "Arabian Marco Polo", a
highly unjust epithet.
In fact, Battuta's "Rihla" is far superior to Marco Polo's (1254-1324) famous "Il Millione."
In contrast to Polo's constantly repeated clichés, Battuta presents the reader with
surprisingly accurate, most lively descriptions of his adventures and of the people he
encounters. More open minded than the Christians of his time - though occasionally
horrified - he describes Infidels, Idolaters and Christians as carefully as Moslems.
Neither Polo nor Battuta describe the landscape: at best it is "beautiful or fertile," often
threatening. Francesco Petrarch's (1304 – 1374) discovery of the landscape (Mount
Ventoux) had not reached Battuta yet. The illustrations I added are supposed to remedy
this deficiency.
At 21, a year after Marco Polo had died, Battuta (he had a “doctorate” in jurisprudence)
left his home town of Tangier with the intention of making the obligatory pilgrimage to
the Holy Cities of Islam. Diverted by the promise of vast riches, by wars and the Black
Death he ended up traveling for 24 years with caravans and by boat all over the Near and
Far East, Spain and Africa.
Like Polo he was hired by local potentates as ambassador on special missions. At one
point he is obliged to accompany a pregnant Byzantine princess from Serai on the Volga,
the camp of her Uighur husband - the Khan of the Golden Horde - to Constantinople.
After the princess arrives there she refuses to return to her Khan! - He nearly drowns in a
storm on the Black Sea, is shipwrecked twice, at another time he is robbed losing all of
his possessions. Black Death is sweeping the cities. His curiosity is insatiable, his
observations on Moslem life and women are priceless.
After his return from China he traveled to Al-Andalus (Andalusia) and thereafter through
the Sahara to Mali in Central West Africa - where to his horror the women walk around
naked....
Ibn Battuta on the Road
To see the original of this pretty "click-able" map
go to its French source Montlucon Planet
On Reading The Rihla 1325-1349
Battuta dictating the Rihla to Ibn Juzayy and his scribes
Photo scienceinschool.org
Battuta's Dedication to The Rihla, Fez 1353-55
The Rihla is a Present to those interested in the Curiosities of the Cities and
the Marvels of the Ways of the World.
Its dictation was finished on
the 9th of December 1355.
Praise be to God and
Peace to His creatures whom He hath chosen.
A Google-Earth Map of Battuta's Travels
To see his journeys on a map click on
Google-Earth kmz-File of Battuta's Travels
For this link to work you have to have the GE-Program installed on your hard-disk
If Ibn Battuta's travels, 120,000 kilometers or 75,000 miles in 24 years, are an
impressive feat, his recall is astounding. He dictated his memoirs to Ibn Juzayy, the royal
scribe provided by his revered Sultan of Morocco, from memory! Occasionally the names
and locations of places, which he spells in Arabic, are mixed up, but when I was in doubt,
I invariably found that Battuta was right and I had to adjust his route.
This phenomenal recall is surely due to his training as a qadi (Islamic judge) and as a
pious Moslem. He could recite the complete Qur'an by heart, and when in distress did so.
He does not dwell on his gifts, but he appears as a highly intelligent man with a shrewd
insight into people and the affairs of the world. He is also surprisingly sensitive,
occasionally even sentimental and naturally believes in supra-mundane predictions and
happenings.
After his fateful meeting with Burhan al-Din in Alexandria and with Shaykh al-Murshidi in
Fawwa, Egypt on the following day in 1325, he becomes obsessed with the idea of going
to China, in order, besides to satisfy his curiosity, to outdo all other travelers of his day.
Tales of the largess of Sultan Mohammed ibn Tughluq of Delhi added the fantasy of
getting rich. He visits Mecca four times and spends 3 years there studying theology and
Islamic law, but these exercises are as much pious deeds as they are shrewd vehicles to
make himself more salable to the rich Moslems of his time. He has no own money – and
loses what he garners for himself again and again to robbers, shipwrecks or war fare. He
lives entirely on his wits.
A few passages in Battuta's account leave the reader incredulous: he tours eastern
Turkey in 3 pages. Then he claims to have visited Russia with even less to show, and a
long detour of the famous towns of eastern Persia is equally impossible. Everyone agrees
that he never got as far as Beijing. He did not have a "flying carpet" as we do today.
Closer inspection suggest that these descriptions of well-known destinations were
repeated after other travelers and inserted by him or Juzayy for prestige purposes. His
ambition got the upper hand, he had to have been where others had traveled. - An
excusable weakness which Marco Polo indulges in continuously. I simply disregarded
them.
For further reading:
In the past 60 years several abridged editions of the Rihla have appeared:
An excellent short article is found on-line at Saudi Aramco World
And, of course, there is an article in Wikipedi
For an on-line English translation of excerpts from his travel diaries see: Fordham
University
An incomplete on-line reprint of the Rihla (read only) exists at Books.Google.com
For my quotations I used an edition of "Battuta's Travels in Asia and Africa, 1325-1354"
published by Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1929. The name of the editor is not given.
In addition I also consulted the more modern and in places extended paperback
compilation of "The Travels of Ibn Battutah" edited by Tim Mackintosh-Smith, PicadorMacmillan, London, 2002.
All of these abridged excerpts are based on the monumental translation of H. A. R. Gibb,
"Travels of Ibn Battuta 1325-1354-; 3 Vol.'s, Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers, New
Delhi, 1999. Volume 4 was never finished and Volume 5 (notes, index, etc) appeared in
2000, but could not be found; besides the three available tomes alone cost a fortune.
Rolf, April 2009/January 2010