In the 14th century, Ibn Battuta, a Berber Maghrebi scholar and explorer traveled throughout the Islamic world over the course of several decades. He would travel throughout Northern Africa, the Middle East and Asia – reaching as far east as China. It is one of the great stories of exploration in travel in history – 73,000 miles to the corners of the Islamic world – more than three times the distance of Marco Polo. It is an amazing tale – and one not known outside of the Muslim world until the 1800s.
Episodes
Ibn Battuta – Part 1 – Mecca
The early life of Ibn Battuta is covered in the first episode of our series – plus our explorer’s first major journey – a trek to Mecca in 1325-26. It is the start to one of the great stories in the history of exploration and travel.
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Ibn Battuta – Part 2 – Iraq and Persia
Ibn Battuta crosses the Arabian desert, visits the great cities of western Persia, and explores the Mesopotamian region and the legendary city of Baghdad.
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Ibn Battuta – Part 3 – East Africa and Arabia
Ibn Battuta sets off for East Africa – including the colonies of Mogadishu, Mombasa, Zanzibar and Kilwa. After that, it’s back to the Arabian Peninsula, including Oman and Hormuz.
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Ibn Battuta – Part 4 – Anatolia and the Golden Horde
Ibn Battuta heads to India – the long way. This time he travels north to Anatolia (modern-day Turkey), and then ventures into the realm of the Golden Horde – aka the Kipchak Khanate. We can also throw in a side excursion to Constantinople before Ibn Battuta crosses the western Himalayan Mountains and enters the Sultanate of Delhi.
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Ibn Battuta – Part 5 – India
Ibn Battuta comes to India and gets a job! Now he gets to navigate the world of the Sultanate of Delhi – and the unpredictable (and that’s being polite) sultan.
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Ibn Battuta – Part 6 – China
Ibn Battatu goes to the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Bengal, Sumatra and China. In the process he nearly dies in a storm, loses everything to pirates, and plots to take over an island kingdom.
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Ibn Battuta – Part 7 – Mali
In the final episode in our series, Ibn Battuta returns to Morocco, and then goes on a final journey across the Saharan Desert to West Africa and the Kingdom of Mali – including the legendary city of Timbuktu.
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Maps
Ibn Battuta’s travels 1325-1332. Source.
Ibn Battuta’s travels 1332-1347. Source.
Ibn Battuta’s travels 1349-1354. Source.
Resources
Masterpiece to Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Traveling by Ibn Battuta. Also simply called the Rihla. This is Ibn Battuta’s story – as told through Ibn Juzayy. You can find various iterations of this, but the really big one is the fully annotated four part translation done by Hamilton Gibb (known as H.A.R. Gibb). The fourth volume was completed by Charles Beckingham after Gibb’s death.
The Adventures of Ibn Battuta, a Muslim Traveler of the Fourteenth Century, by Ross E. Dunn (1986). This was a really serious attempt to analyze Ibn Battuta’s travels – and it’s really good. Dunn puts a skeptical face on much of what Ibn Battuta says – but I think he’s mostly fair.
Ibn Battuta’s Wikipedia page. This gives you a basic overview of Ibn Battuta, and has links to all the people and places associated with the man (and there are a lot of people and places).
Explorers Podcast 