The World’s Greatest Traveller

Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn Battuta
(1304 to 1369)

"I left Tangiers, my birth place on Thursday, 13 June 1325 with the intention of going on pilgrimage to Mecca. I was alone, without companions, not in a caravan, but I was stirred by a powerful urge to reach my goal… I left my friends and my home, just as a bird leaves its parental nest. My father and mother were still alive, and with great pain, I parted with them. For me as for them, it was cause of insufferable illness. I was then only twenty two."

With these words, Ibn Battuta narrated the beginning of his journeys that would eventually take him to most parts of the known Islamic world and even beyond. Born in Tanger, Morocco, in 1304, he was a scholar and a judge, before he embarked on what was to become one of the greatest adventures of all times.

The narration of his adventures is known as “Ibn Battuta’s Rihla (Journey)”, and the original manuscript of his dictations is kept today in the National Library in Paris.

Muhammad Ibn Battuta

© Wikipedia

Over a period of almost 30 years, the traveller Ibn Battuta explored what would today be 44 countries in Africa, Europe and Asia. He covered some 117,000 kilometres, easily surpassing the performance of his almost-contemporary Venetian Marco Polo. What he brought back with him was a prime account of far-away kingdoms, foreign cultures and authentic adventure tales.

Despite his own words being the almost exclusive source of authentic storytelling, the details of his narration strongly suggest that at least most of it is in fact true and based on real personal experience.

Map of the Travels of Ibn Battuta and Marco Polo

© wwnorton.com

A number of literary sources deal with the extraordinary performance of Ibn Battuta as a traveller. Especially the English Arabist, writer and traveller Tim Macintosh-Smith has published widely on the medieval explorer from Morocco. He edited a modern version of the Rihla to bring back to life the insightful travel account from the fourteenth century.

© Macintosh-Smith

Ibn Battuta, Tim Macintosh-Smith
The Travels of Ibn Battuta 1325-1354
ISBN 0330418793


In another work, Tim follows the travels of his idol from Morocco via the Arabian Peninsula to Turkey in modern times. He looks for evidence from Ibn Battuta’s times and narrates encounters with a multitude of different people.

© Macintosh-Smith

Tim Macintosh-Smith
“Travels with a Tangerine: From Morocco to Turkey in the Footsteps of Islam’s Greatest Traveler”
ISBN 0812971647


With the above recommended books providing a very rich and entertaining start into the world of the Arab traveller, here are some more links to Ibn Battuta:

Ibn Battuta at Wikipedia
Ibn Battuta at Muslim Heritage
Tim Macintosh-Smith
Wonderful Guided Trip by the SFUSD


Enjoy following Ibn Battuta, one of the greatest travellers of all times, on his fascinating journey across the world of the 14th century!


Andreas Hauser