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The Adventures of Ibn Battuta: A Muslim Traveler of the Fourteenth Century
Known as the greatest traveler of premodern times, Abu Abdallah ibn Battuta was born in Morocco in 1304 and educated in Islamic law. At the age of twenty-one, he left home to make the holy pilgrimage to Mecca. This was only the first of a series of extraordinary journeys that spanned nearly three decades and took him not only eastward to India and China but also north to the Volga River valley and south to Tanzania. The narrative of these travels has been known to specialists in Islamic and medieval history for years. Ross E. Dunn's 1986 retelling of these tales, however, was the first work of scholarship to make the legendary traveler's story accessible to a general audience. Now updated with revisions, a new preface, and an updated bibliography, Dunn's classic interprets Ibn Battuta's adventures and places them within the rich, trans-hemispheric cultural setting of medieval Islam.
379 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1986
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November 12, 2023
When I met Professor Dunn, he was already being called America's foremost authority on Ibn Battuta. As we discussed our mutually favored subject, I will never forget how he commented, "I believe I can say that I know just how a Maliki scholar in the 14th century would think."
Ibn Battuta's name should sound as familiar to Near and Middle Eastern school children as Marco Polo's does to Western pupils. Born half a century after the Venetian traveler, Abu Abdallah ibn Battuta was in fact more widely traveled: "Ibn Battuta traveled to, and reports on, a great many more places than Marco did, and his narrative offers details, sometimes incidental bits, sometimes in long disquisitions, on almost ever conceivable aspect of human life in that age, from the royal ceremonial of the Sultan of Delhi to the customs of women in the Maldive Islands. . . ." Ibn Battuta traveled for 29 years, only going home once briefly. The narration of these travels is known in Arabic by the literary term "rihla."
Anyone who is seriously interested in Muslim history should read this rihla, something else entirely than The Adventures of Ibn Battuta: A Muslim Traveler of the Fourteenth Century by Ross Dunn. That latter book is the appropriate and recommended companion to Ibn Battuta's rihla. Ideally, both books should be open at once. Dunn has his own voice: his affection for the traveler pervades the book, in spite of tiny barbed witticisms, which are not always unwarranted.
Most importantly, there is a lot that the modern Western reader will find not just exotic but strange. Dunn helps explain what is going on, and he does so without being pedantic or condescending. When I first read about Muhammad Tughluq, the ruler in whose court Ibn Battuta found himself for an extended period, he struck me as outrageous and horrifying. I Wish I'd had my professor's book then. Dunn succinctly calls Tughluq the "odd duck of fourteenth century rulers." Tughluq was a religious scholar who learned Arabic in order to read religious texts; as a ruler he scandalized his subjects with "policies that were visionary, extreme, and unfathomable." Court subjects like Ibn Battuta lived under horrendous stress: skinning his critics alive was among the least imaginative methods Muhammad Tughluq had of keeping them in line. Dunn provides insight into this enigmatic psychotic as into the entire fabric of the world that was Ibn Battuta's destiny to explore.
If you love all that is exotic in the Muslim past, definitely pick up this book along with Ibn Battuta's rihla. Such a double read would be the mother of magic carpet rides.
My books at Amazon: The Red Sea Bride by “Sylvia Fowler,” Under a Crescent Moon: Stories of Arabia, Burning Boats: The Birth of Muslim Spain, Wax Works. I am currently working on a French translation of The Jinn in the Clock.
Ibn Battuta's name should sound as familiar to Near and Middle Eastern school children as Marco Polo's does to Western pupils. Born half a century after the Venetian traveler, Abu Abdallah ibn Battuta was in fact more widely traveled: "Ibn Battuta traveled to, and reports on, a great many more places than Marco did, and his narrative offers details, sometimes incidental bits, sometimes in long disquisitions, on almost ever conceivable aspect of human life in that age, from the royal ceremonial of the Sultan of Delhi to the customs of women in the Maldive Islands. . . ." Ibn Battuta traveled for 29 years, only going home once briefly. The narration of these travels is known in Arabic by the literary term "rihla."
Anyone who is seriously interested in Muslim history should read this rihla, something else entirely than The Adventures of Ibn Battuta: A Muslim Traveler of the Fourteenth Century by Ross Dunn. That latter book is the appropriate and recommended companion to Ibn Battuta's rihla. Ideally, both books should be open at once. Dunn has his own voice: his affection for the traveler pervades the book, in spite of tiny barbed witticisms, which are not always unwarranted.
Most importantly, there is a lot that the modern Western reader will find not just exotic but strange. Dunn helps explain what is going on, and he does so without being pedantic or condescending. When I first read about Muhammad Tughluq, the ruler in whose court Ibn Battuta found himself for an extended period, he struck me as outrageous and horrifying. I Wish I'd had my professor's book then. Dunn succinctly calls Tughluq the "odd duck of fourteenth century rulers." Tughluq was a religious scholar who learned Arabic in order to read religious texts; as a ruler he scandalized his subjects with "policies that were visionary, extreme, and unfathomable." Court subjects like Ibn Battuta lived under horrendous stress: skinning his critics alive was among the least imaginative methods Muhammad Tughluq had of keeping them in line. Dunn provides insight into this enigmatic psychotic as into the entire fabric of the world that was Ibn Battuta's destiny to explore.
If you love all that is exotic in the Muslim past, definitely pick up this book along with Ibn Battuta's rihla. Such a double read would be the mother of magic carpet rides.
My books at Amazon: The Red Sea Bride by “Sylvia Fowler,” Under a Crescent Moon: Stories of Arabia, Burning Boats: The Birth of Muslim Spain, Wax Works. I am currently working on a French translation of The Jinn in the Clock.
March 18, 2019
The Adventures of Ibn Battuta: A Muslim Traveler of the Fourteenth Century by Ross E. Dunn recounts the journey (Rihla) of Ibn Battuta throughout the Islamic world.
In 1325, at the age of twenty-one, Abu Abdallah Ibn Battuta set off from his birth place of Tangier, Morocco, to go on a pilgrimage (hajj) to Mecca. After performing the hajj, Ibn Battuta goes on a detour to visit the far reaches of the Islamic world, a detour that was to last twenty-four years. He visits Syria, Egypt, Persia, Iraq, East Africa, Yemen, Anatolia, southern Russia, Constantinople, India, southern Spain, the Maldives, Sumatra, and, possibly, China. Upon his return and with the help of Ibn Juzayy, a secretary, Ibn Battuta records his travels in the Rihla.
Since the spread of Islam and Islamic jurisprudence required literacy in Arabic even though Arabic may not have been a country’s primary language, Ibn Battuta has no difficulty encountering an Arabic-speaking individual to serve as his translator and guide wherever he goes. He is generally greeted as a visiting dignitary and is provided with free accommodation, money, and gifts—a characteristic of Islamic hospitality. Even when he is robbed and stumbles destitute into a village, he is immediately taken in and given housing, food, and clothing. He survives shipwrecks, pirates, malaria, and the plague.
Using the Rihla as his reference point, Professor Dunn takes us on a fascinating tour of the Islamic world in the fourteenth-century. He traces Ibn Battuta’s steps as he travels by foot, by camel, by horse, and by boat to the different locations. Professor Dunn suggests Ibn Battuta’s destinations are frequently serendipitous. He happens to encounter a caravan or a boat going in one direction and decides to join it even though his initial intention may have been to go in an entirely different direction. We are the beneficiaries of the haphazard and extensive nature of his travels.
Professor Dunn situates each location in its cultural, social, historical, and political context. As a consequence, we learn a great deal about the geography, history, trade, religious practices, habits, and conduct of a wide geographical region in the Islamic world. Relying on quotations from the Rihla as well as summaries and maps, Professor Dunn charts the journey. During Ibn Battuta’s time, the Islamic world was divided in numerous kingdoms and provinces with competing factions and feuds. The glue that bound them together was their faith and their modes of conduct derived from their belief in the one God and their allegiance to the Sacred Law. This made it possible for Ibn Battuta to travel to foreign climes and feel right at home because of a shared belief system governing public and private affairs.
Professor Dunn paints an intriguing portrait of this fourteenth-century Muslim globe-trotter. Although he is not without the occasional criticism for Ibn Battuta’s oftentimes meddlesome ways and self-inflated importance, it is obvious he holds an affection for this quirky adventurer. But more importantly than his portrait of Ibn Battuta is Professor Dunn’s extensive research, bibliography, endnotes, maps, commentary, and narrative of the mosaic nature of the cultural and political climate of the Islamic world in the fourteenth century.
Highly recommended for any who wish to trek through the Islamic world in the fourteenth century under the expert guidance of a professor of History and his audacious world traveler.
In 1325, at the age of twenty-one, Abu Abdallah Ibn Battuta set off from his birth place of Tangier, Morocco, to go on a pilgrimage (hajj) to Mecca. After performing the hajj, Ibn Battuta goes on a detour to visit the far reaches of the Islamic world, a detour that was to last twenty-four years. He visits Syria, Egypt, Persia, Iraq, East Africa, Yemen, Anatolia, southern Russia, Constantinople, India, southern Spain, the Maldives, Sumatra, and, possibly, China. Upon his return and with the help of Ibn Juzayy, a secretary, Ibn Battuta records his travels in the Rihla.
Since the spread of Islam and Islamic jurisprudence required literacy in Arabic even though Arabic may not have been a country’s primary language, Ibn Battuta has no difficulty encountering an Arabic-speaking individual to serve as his translator and guide wherever he goes. He is generally greeted as a visiting dignitary and is provided with free accommodation, money, and gifts—a characteristic of Islamic hospitality. Even when he is robbed and stumbles destitute into a village, he is immediately taken in and given housing, food, and clothing. He survives shipwrecks, pirates, malaria, and the plague.
Using the Rihla as his reference point, Professor Dunn takes us on a fascinating tour of the Islamic world in the fourteenth-century. He traces Ibn Battuta’s steps as he travels by foot, by camel, by horse, and by boat to the different locations. Professor Dunn suggests Ibn Battuta’s destinations are frequently serendipitous. He happens to encounter a caravan or a boat going in one direction and decides to join it even though his initial intention may have been to go in an entirely different direction. We are the beneficiaries of the haphazard and extensive nature of his travels.
Professor Dunn situates each location in its cultural, social, historical, and political context. As a consequence, we learn a great deal about the geography, history, trade, religious practices, habits, and conduct of a wide geographical region in the Islamic world. Relying on quotations from the Rihla as well as summaries and maps, Professor Dunn charts the journey. During Ibn Battuta’s time, the Islamic world was divided in numerous kingdoms and provinces with competing factions and feuds. The glue that bound them together was their faith and their modes of conduct derived from their belief in the one God and their allegiance to the Sacred Law. This made it possible for Ibn Battuta to travel to foreign climes and feel right at home because of a shared belief system governing public and private affairs.
Professor Dunn paints an intriguing portrait of this fourteenth-century Muslim globe-trotter. Although he is not without the occasional criticism for Ibn Battuta’s oftentimes meddlesome ways and self-inflated importance, it is obvious he holds an affection for this quirky adventurer. But more importantly than his portrait of Ibn Battuta is Professor Dunn’s extensive research, bibliography, endnotes, maps, commentary, and narrative of the mosaic nature of the cultural and political climate of the Islamic world in the fourteenth century.
Highly recommended for any who wish to trek through the Islamic world in the fourteenth century under the expert guidance of a professor of History and his audacious world traveler.
February 23, 2018
From Tangier to the ends of the earth and back......
Centuries-old travelogues tend to have this archaic, dusty sort of air about them. We can't identify with the people who wrote them because the language in no way resembles ours. This is of course the fault of those who translate those documents. Then too, travellers of medieval times or earlier tended to write about things not so much of interest today. In THE ADVENTURES OF IBN BATTUTA, Ross E. Dunn has successfully avoided these problems by writing ABOUT the 14th century North African traveller, Ibn Battuta, not just translating his book. Ibn Battuta (1304-1368) travelled around the civilized world of his day. Surprisingly enough for Eurocentric folks, the term "civilized" only included Spain at that time. It did, however, include most of the Islamic regions on earth, plus India and China. Dunn includes chapters on Tangier, North Africa, Egypt-Syria-Palestine, Mecca, Persia and Iraq, Yemen, Oman, and East Africa, Constantinople, Anatolia, Central Asia, India and the Maldives, China, Spain, and Mali---across the Sahara in West Africa. In each, he gives a picture of the times in that particular place, what Ibn Battuta said he saw and what he must have seen or experienced but didn't mention. Dunn recounts many of the Moroccan's interesting adventures, from being jailed in Delhi to trying as a judge to forbid Maldivian women going topless in public. Dunn also places Ibn Battuta in a framework of a hemisphere-wide Islamic civilization and as an ambitious semi-scholar who was perhaps not so well studied as he wanted people to believe. So, not only is this book a record of Ibn Battuta's life and voyages, it is a very interesting commentary on a large part of the world in the 14th century and the life story of a particular individual. If you like history, if you are interested in what was happening in the world beyond Europe in the days when "knights were bold" [and illiterate], read this book. It comes with good maps and some black and white photographs of places that might still look a bit like what they did in Ibn Battuta's time.
Centuries-old travelogues tend to have this archaic, dusty sort of air about them. We can't identify with the people who wrote them because the language in no way resembles ours. This is of course the fault of those who translate those documents. Then too, travellers of medieval times or earlier tended to write about things not so much of interest today. In THE ADVENTURES OF IBN BATTUTA, Ross E. Dunn has successfully avoided these problems by writing ABOUT the 14th century North African traveller, Ibn Battuta, not just translating his book. Ibn Battuta (1304-1368) travelled around the civilized world of his day. Surprisingly enough for Eurocentric folks, the term "civilized" only included Spain at that time. It did, however, include most of the Islamic regions on earth, plus India and China. Dunn includes chapters on Tangier, North Africa, Egypt-Syria-Palestine, Mecca, Persia and Iraq, Yemen, Oman, and East Africa, Constantinople, Anatolia, Central Asia, India and the Maldives, China, Spain, and Mali---across the Sahara in West Africa. In each, he gives a picture of the times in that particular place, what Ibn Battuta said he saw and what he must have seen or experienced but didn't mention. Dunn recounts many of the Moroccan's interesting adventures, from being jailed in Delhi to trying as a judge to forbid Maldivian women going topless in public. Dunn also places Ibn Battuta in a framework of a hemisphere-wide Islamic civilization and as an ambitious semi-scholar who was perhaps not so well studied as he wanted people to believe. So, not only is this book a record of Ibn Battuta's life and voyages, it is a very interesting commentary on a large part of the world in the 14th century and the life story of a particular individual. If you like history, if you are interested in what was happening in the world beyond Europe in the days when "knights were bold" [and illiterate], read this book. It comes with good maps and some black and white photographs of places that might still look a bit like what they did in Ibn Battuta's time.
December 26, 2015
Abu Abdallah ibn Battuta seems to have been a very lucky man. Born in Tangiers, ibn Battuta left in 1325, age 21, on a 24 year trip that took him across North Africa, the Near East, southern Russia, India, Sumatra, and perhaps China, returning in 1349. He subsequently also visited southern Spain and crossed the Sahara to Mali and back. With the help of a young amanuensis, he then wrote a travel memoir, or rihla. I haven't read the excerpts of his memoir available in modern English translation, but from the reviews I've seen, they sound remarkably uninteresting for a person who saw so much of the world at such an interesting time.
Ross Dunn's book restores much of the excitement, and a coherent chronology, to ibn Battuta's journey. Dunn provides context to understand how the moment of ibn Battuta's arrival in each kingdom fit into the historical arc of the period. This is one of the ways ibn Battuta was lucky: he arrived at most of his destinations just in time to profit from a final flowering of power and peace, and usually left shortly before a slide into chaos. Beyond his fortuitous timing, ibn Battuta also survived two shipwrecks, several captures by brigands or pirates, and the Black Death. Ultimately, the world ibn Battuta moved through was more compelling than his recorded experience of it, and with this book, you get a fresh and well sourced look at that world.
Ross Dunn's book restores much of the excitement, and a coherent chronology, to ibn Battuta's journey. Dunn provides context to understand how the moment of ibn Battuta's arrival in each kingdom fit into the historical arc of the period. This is one of the ways ibn Battuta was lucky: he arrived at most of his destinations just in time to profit from a final flowering of power and peace, and usually left shortly before a slide into chaos. Beyond his fortuitous timing, ibn Battuta also survived two shipwrecks, several captures by brigands or pirates, and the Black Death. Ultimately, the world ibn Battuta moved through was more compelling than his recorded experience of it, and with this book, you get a fresh and well sourced look at that world.
May 29, 2008
Ibn Battuta was an amazing man who with very few possessions and only trust in Almighty God travelled half the world and came back to describe it. People mention Marco Polo as the first great explorer in world history however they dismiss Ibn Batuta at their peril.
Ibn Battuta was before Marco Polo by a few hundred years. So by my reckoning Ibn Battuta should be regarded in the West and around the world as the first real great explorer, however because he was a Muslim it seems as though he never existed.
I would recommend this book to anyone, young and old. It was about time that his name was more publicised and that people of today and tomorrow should know who this man was and what is his rightfulplace in history.
Ibn Battuta was before Marco Polo by a few hundred years. So by my reckoning Ibn Battuta should be regarded in the West and around the world as the first real great explorer, however because he was a Muslim it seems as though he never existed.
I would recommend this book to anyone, young and old. It was about time that his name was more publicised and that people of today and tomorrow should know who this man was and what is his rightfulplace in history.
July 17, 2008
I thought this would be much easier to read than the original I had to slog through in college, and it was, but expectedly it's not nearly as exciting. And I was let down by the author's use of the original text. This should have been either a breezy travelogue or a hard-core academic book. It falls uncomfortably in between. And if Ibn Battuta lied about his travels as much as Marco Polo did, then I wanted some more explanation for that, and maybe a comparison to the works of the people who didn't lie, even if just for context. The maps are great though, and the chapter on his travels up the Nile, through small towns and crossing over to the Arabian Peninsula, is well done. There is some sloppy copyediting that can be jarring.
May 17, 2021
“Traveling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.” If you have spent any time at all on social media and have one or two travel crazy contacts there, you will have seen this quote that is attributed to Ibn Battuta, a 14th century Moroccan who for more then 20 years trekked the globe on vague promises of status and opportunity right around the corner but ended up back home a living curiosity and suspected bragger or liar by his peers.
The historical validity of his travels are part of Ross E Dunn's publication on Ibn Battuta's life who chose to use the figure, much like my professor did at uni, to tell the story of the world of Islam as it existed in the early 14th century. Albeit through the eyes of a cosmopolitan drifter and pre modern age expat. I mean he even at one point complains about his room in a sailing ship not being up to his standard and demanding compensation and a better one. We have all either been or seen that person at a hotel lobby.
Off course that is what makes him fun to follow, he isn't perfect or tries to hide is ehm more obnoxious sides. He complained about gifts he received, did not like Chinese and Russian customs, almost caused a riot, he snitched on people in a bathhouse not clothed appropriately, he had casual sexual relations with women (and slaves) all along his journey, got a cushy job in Dehli way above his qualifications because of his ethnic background, he sought out wisdom from indian mystics and went to ascetic contemplation phases followed by a stint as a judge in the Maldives where he insisted on being carried in a litter for all his movements.
It is a shame then that we don't get to read most of this or his travels as a whole in his own words; most of Rose E Dunn's book is telling us what the travelling quadi saw rather then letting him tell it himself. As I said, Ibn Battuta's life and travels are used to tell the story of the Islamic world at that moment in time, how it got to that point in then recent history and what was going to happen in the next few decades. Ibn Battuta unknowingly passed through a lot of places that would before the end of the century be changed radically; such as yuan China, the Ilkhanate and the sultanate of Dehli. For some places he is the only eye witness account and off course there the temptation starts to either take everything he says at face value or to dismiss it whole hardheadedly.
Ross E Dunn tends to give Ibn Battuta the benefit of the doubt in most cases although he does point out a few side travels that might or quite possibly have been added later by the scribe who actually penned down his story. Even in his time, people saw the symbolic value of having an account of the whole of the Islamic world so it would have been a shame if a few places were left out right? All and all I do feel like that Dunn does walk the fine line well and I agree that the travels of this man are an incredibly valuable source for historical study.
However I do have a few criticism as well. For starts, why so few segments from the Rihla? Every chapter starts with a quote from the Koran, Ibn Khaldoen or even Marco polo? Why?? This is literally a book about a man's book telling you about his travels; why on earth would you not use his words more? Why would use other people's observations rather then his? Secondly, no Rose E Dunn, the mongol conquest of eurasia was not a holocaust. Calling the conquests a holocaust is just a historical falsehood and it diminishes the horror of the industrialized cleansing that happened in world war II. It also reduces the Mongols to this blood thirsty horde of quasi monstrous people. I seriously take offence and objection to stating: "indeed the mind of the mongol warrior was so culturally deprived that it presented a vast blank on which all sorts of refined and humane influences could be written". This is simply outdated; we know know that the mongols where not into wanton destruction but rather they used terror and destruction methodically. While other apparently more "civilized" nations caused terror in war, few ever used it as effectively to enforce submission and long term peace. No city was not first offered the option to surrender and none that ever did and not broke their word afterwards was ever betrayed. A holocaust? No, peaceful conquest? Off course not but has their ever been one?
What Rose E Dunn is going for her is to convey the message that the wondrous cosmopolitan world in which ibn Battuta moved about, had almost been strangled by these barbarians from Siberia. Yet he obviously struggles with the reality that despite the recent event of this "holocaust" the world seems to be working and trudging along just fine, in essence his core argument seems to be "it would have been better then it was had the mongols not come, which is a bit weak. Likewise Rose E Dunn also has a clear issue with a few of the mongol rulers seemingly flippant attitude towards religion until most had settled on Islam. You could call it flippant but on the other hand I called it ahead of its time; the Mongols were in the unique situation to chose their religion from such a wide catalog of options, literally all major religions of the world (with obvious exception of Sikhism) were known to them and they could bring in representatives of all them. Who else but cosmopolitans of the modern era have such a wide array of personal choices available to them when it comes to spirituality?
I will leave it at that but suffice to say that I was genuinely dissapointed on this front to find such a subjective point of view when it came to impact of the pax mongolia. But I do admit that I tend to lean towards the apologetic when it comes to Djenghis Khan and his descendants so I will agree to disagree on this topic.
So even if the Mongol topic feels a bit off and out of date, I still do recommend this book. It is remarkable that all and all, the Islamic world has stuck to the world Ibn battuta traversed, sure Indonesia and west/East Africa were barely Islamic, but the foundations were there. With exception of the Balkans and later loss of Granada, the islamic world as Ibn Battuta knew it, is strikingly matching with our current day one. So It really does feel like going on a timetravelling tour when you follow Ibn Battuta around. There is just something recognizable about Ibn Batutta and his life as a quasi expat, his world was a bit different but his status in it, is not. I am sure most of us know someone who is teaching English in Thailand or looking for inner peace in India, people who flip in and out of your life, who will not become rich or have much to show for but stories to tell and a bit of a medical history. People whom might say, as Ibn Battuta did in the Rihla, that it was all worth it and they lived a great life. That at least, I am sure was truthfully what Ibn Battuta thought about his quirky life.
for those who don't have the time; this youtube series is worth it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEI0s...
The historical validity of his travels are part of Ross E Dunn's publication on Ibn Battuta's life who chose to use the figure, much like my professor did at uni, to tell the story of the world of Islam as it existed in the early 14th century. Albeit through the eyes of a cosmopolitan drifter and pre modern age expat. I mean he even at one point complains about his room in a sailing ship not being up to his standard and demanding compensation and a better one. We have all either been or seen that person at a hotel lobby.
Off course that is what makes him fun to follow, he isn't perfect or tries to hide is ehm more obnoxious sides. He complained about gifts he received, did not like Chinese and Russian customs, almost caused a riot, he snitched on people in a bathhouse not clothed appropriately, he had casual sexual relations with women (and slaves) all along his journey, got a cushy job in Dehli way above his qualifications because of his ethnic background, he sought out wisdom from indian mystics and went to ascetic contemplation phases followed by a stint as a judge in the Maldives where he insisted on being carried in a litter for all his movements.
It is a shame then that we don't get to read most of this or his travels as a whole in his own words; most of Rose E Dunn's book is telling us what the travelling quadi saw rather then letting him tell it himself. As I said, Ibn Battuta's life and travels are used to tell the story of the Islamic world at that moment in time, how it got to that point in then recent history and what was going to happen in the next few decades. Ibn Battuta unknowingly passed through a lot of places that would before the end of the century be changed radically; such as yuan China, the Ilkhanate and the sultanate of Dehli. For some places he is the only eye witness account and off course there the temptation starts to either take everything he says at face value or to dismiss it whole hardheadedly.
Ross E Dunn tends to give Ibn Battuta the benefit of the doubt in most cases although he does point out a few side travels that might or quite possibly have been added later by the scribe who actually penned down his story. Even in his time, people saw the symbolic value of having an account of the whole of the Islamic world so it would have been a shame if a few places were left out right? All and all I do feel like that Dunn does walk the fine line well and I agree that the travels of this man are an incredibly valuable source for historical study.
However I do have a few criticism as well. For starts, why so few segments from the Rihla? Every chapter starts with a quote from the Koran, Ibn Khaldoen or even Marco polo? Why?? This is literally a book about a man's book telling you about his travels; why on earth would you not use his words more? Why would use other people's observations rather then his? Secondly, no Rose E Dunn, the mongol conquest of eurasia was not a holocaust. Calling the conquests a holocaust is just a historical falsehood and it diminishes the horror of the industrialized cleansing that happened in world war II. It also reduces the Mongols to this blood thirsty horde of quasi monstrous people. I seriously take offence and objection to stating: "indeed the mind of the mongol warrior was so culturally deprived that it presented a vast blank on which all sorts of refined and humane influences could be written". This is simply outdated; we know know that the mongols where not into wanton destruction but rather they used terror and destruction methodically. While other apparently more "civilized" nations caused terror in war, few ever used it as effectively to enforce submission and long term peace. No city was not first offered the option to surrender and none that ever did and not broke their word afterwards was ever betrayed. A holocaust? No, peaceful conquest? Off course not but has their ever been one?
What Rose E Dunn is going for her is to convey the message that the wondrous cosmopolitan world in which ibn Battuta moved about, had almost been strangled by these barbarians from Siberia. Yet he obviously struggles with the reality that despite the recent event of this "holocaust" the world seems to be working and trudging along just fine, in essence his core argument seems to be "it would have been better then it was had the mongols not come, which is a bit weak. Likewise Rose E Dunn also has a clear issue with a few of the mongol rulers seemingly flippant attitude towards religion until most had settled on Islam. You could call it flippant but on the other hand I called it ahead of its time; the Mongols were in the unique situation to chose their religion from such a wide catalog of options, literally all major religions of the world (with obvious exception of Sikhism) were known to them and they could bring in representatives of all them. Who else but cosmopolitans of the modern era have such a wide array of personal choices available to them when it comes to spirituality?
I will leave it at that but suffice to say that I was genuinely dissapointed on this front to find such a subjective point of view when it came to impact of the pax mongolia. But I do admit that I tend to lean towards the apologetic when it comes to Djenghis Khan and his descendants so I will agree to disagree on this topic.
So even if the Mongol topic feels a bit off and out of date, I still do recommend this book. It is remarkable that all and all, the Islamic world has stuck to the world Ibn battuta traversed, sure Indonesia and west/East Africa were barely Islamic, but the foundations were there. With exception of the Balkans and later loss of Granada, the islamic world as Ibn Battuta knew it, is strikingly matching with our current day one. So It really does feel like going on a timetravelling tour when you follow Ibn Battuta around. There is just something recognizable about Ibn Batutta and his life as a quasi expat, his world was a bit different but his status in it, is not. I am sure most of us know someone who is teaching English in Thailand or looking for inner peace in India, people who flip in and out of your life, who will not become rich or have much to show for but stories to tell and a bit of a medical history. People whom might say, as Ibn Battuta did in the Rihla, that it was all worth it and they lived a great life. That at least, I am sure was truthfully what Ibn Battuta thought about his quirky life.
for those who don't have the time; this youtube series is worth it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEI0s...
April 1, 2022
I found this a tedious read and I'm not sure why. I think I'd rather just read Ibn Battuta's own account rather than trudging through Asia and Africa with Dunn. The text felt rather dated for something barely 30 years old and Dunn's judgements were thick in text, especially in his discussion of Turkic and other central Asian steppe peoples.
I also found the book spent a lot of time on geography (not particularly necessary, given the maps in each chapter) and not a lot of time on what Ibn Battuta actually observed. There's a lot of guessing at his internal state which I didn't find particularly interesting either. I also think it could have been better organized--I understand the chronological structure, but I felt within each chapter Dunn could've deviated from straight chronology and organized things into different thematic topics. I would've, personally, found that a more engaging read.
I also found the book spent a lot of time on geography (not particularly necessary, given the maps in each chapter) and not a lot of time on what Ibn Battuta actually observed. There's a lot of guessing at his internal state which I didn't find particularly interesting either. I also think it could have been better organized--I understand the chronological structure, but I felt within each chapter Dunn could've deviated from straight chronology and organized things into different thematic topics. I would've, personally, found that a more engaging read.
January 1, 2025
RIP Ibn Battuta, you would have loved being a travel vlogger
January 13, 2025
Beautifully written and so much history in one book
July 26, 2010
Ibn Battuta set off from Tangier in 1325, visiting Egypt, Mecca, Syria, Iraq, Anatolia, the Central Asian steppe, India, the Maldives and possibly China before returning home nearly twenty five years later. After additional trips to Spain and West Africa he settled down and his story was turned into a Rihla (travel narrative) by Ibn Juzayy.
The Adventures of Ibn Battuta follows Ibn Battuta's travels chronologically, but doesn't stay narrowly focused on the details of his career. It offers extensive background information and is an approachable introduction to the world of classical Islam as well as a lively and entertaining travel narrative.
Dunn uses direct quotations from and simple summaries of the Rihla, but he also works in information from other sources to produce an account that is comprehensible and satisfying to a modern reader. (References and discussions of details are relegated to chapter endnotes.) And he engages in speculation about events and thoughts not covered by the Rihla, but without any fictionalisation or dramatisation.
"He spent two weeks with Qutb al-Din in Isfahan, enjoying the preserved watermelon and other fruits of the Isfahan plain laid out at the zawiya's table. At this point in history the city was not the noble capital it had been under the Seljuk Turks and would be again under the Shi'i Safavids. Because of a sad inclination among the inhabitants to engage in violent factional rows, coupled with the turmoil of the early Mongol years, the city was only beginning to recover some of its earlier vigor. Perhaps dissatisfied with what the town had to show him of Persian culture, Ibn Battuta decided to travel another 300 miles south to Shiraz, chief city of the province of Fars."
Dunn provides information about the people Ibn Battuta met and the places he visited and background on the broader history, society and culture. So the opening chapter "Tangier" looks at the geography of the city and the Straits of Gibraltar and the history of the Almohad dynasty, for example, while the chapter on Persia and Iraq begins by describing the impacts of the Mongols and Turks on Mesopotamia. More general material includes explanations of the different schools of Islamic law, Sufism, the role of Arabic, and other aspects of the common culture of the Islamic world.
The result makes The Adventures of Ibn Battuta almost a guide to the Islamic world in the second quarter of the 14th century. With the travel and biographical material providing an extra attraction — Ibn Battuta's adventures get more exciting than the consumption of watermelon! — it would make an excellent entry work for those with no background knowledge of Islam or Islamic history.
The Adventures of Ibn Battuta follows Ibn Battuta's travels chronologically, but doesn't stay narrowly focused on the details of his career. It offers extensive background information and is an approachable introduction to the world of classical Islam as well as a lively and entertaining travel narrative.
Dunn uses direct quotations from and simple summaries of the Rihla, but he also works in information from other sources to produce an account that is comprehensible and satisfying to a modern reader. (References and discussions of details are relegated to chapter endnotes.) And he engages in speculation about events and thoughts not covered by the Rihla, but without any fictionalisation or dramatisation.
"He spent two weeks with Qutb al-Din in Isfahan, enjoying the preserved watermelon and other fruits of the Isfahan plain laid out at the zawiya's table. At this point in history the city was not the noble capital it had been under the Seljuk Turks and would be again under the Shi'i Safavids. Because of a sad inclination among the inhabitants to engage in violent factional rows, coupled with the turmoil of the early Mongol years, the city was only beginning to recover some of its earlier vigor. Perhaps dissatisfied with what the town had to show him of Persian culture, Ibn Battuta decided to travel another 300 miles south to Shiraz, chief city of the province of Fars."
Dunn provides information about the people Ibn Battuta met and the places he visited and background on the broader history, society and culture. So the opening chapter "Tangier" looks at the geography of the city and the Straits of Gibraltar and the history of the Almohad dynasty, for example, while the chapter on Persia and Iraq begins by describing the impacts of the Mongols and Turks on Mesopotamia. More general material includes explanations of the different schools of Islamic law, Sufism, the role of Arabic, and other aspects of the common culture of the Islamic world.
The result makes The Adventures of Ibn Battuta almost a guide to the Islamic world in the second quarter of the 14th century. With the travel and biographical material providing an extra attraction — Ibn Battuta's adventures get more exciting than the consumption of watermelon! — it would make an excellent entry work for those with no background knowledge of Islam or Islamic history.
July 16, 2019
On the one hand, Ibn Battuta's journey throughout the medieval Muslim world was fascinating and the author does a nice job of capturing the flavor of the mosaic of ruling powers throughout the Near, Middle and Far East.
The drawbacks are the way Ibn Battuta's journeys were chronicled a couple of years after he returned from over 20 years of traveling. There is some doubt as to some of his journeys and there are references from scholars of Ibn Battuta's time that cast him as a liar.
At the beginning I was led to believe the Rihla, the name for Ibn Battuta's chronicle, would paint be more of a story of a man traveling the world. The way it is presented here is less a story and more a list of places and people with historical background. The material is valuable and insightful but I was hoping for something else.
The Adventures of Ibn Battuta might best serve as a companion to a translation of the Rihla. On top of that, I might like to read a fictionalized account of Ibn Battuta's journeys that has the courage to flesh out picture of the man and the people he encounters.
The drawbacks are the way Ibn Battuta's journeys were chronicled a couple of years after he returned from over 20 years of traveling. There is some doubt as to some of his journeys and there are references from scholars of Ibn Battuta's time that cast him as a liar.
At the beginning I was led to believe the Rihla, the name for Ibn Battuta's chronicle, would paint be more of a story of a man traveling the world. The way it is presented here is less a story and more a list of places and people with historical background. The material is valuable and insightful but I was hoping for something else.
The Adventures of Ibn Battuta might best serve as a companion to a translation of the Rihla. On top of that, I might like to read a fictionalized account of Ibn Battuta's journeys that has the courage to flesh out picture of the man and the people he encounters.
April 10, 2024
Menarik boleh diulang lagi bacaanya.
Penulis seorang prof sejarah mengulas rihla buku perjalanan ibnu battuta berdasarkan berbagai sumber yang lain.
Prof ini juga secara langsung menceritakan sejarah perkembangan kerajaan yang ada pada zaman ibnu battuta iaitu 1300 sehingga 1360.
Melalui buku ini juga kita akan mengetahui bahawa ibnu battuta bukan sahaja seorang pengembara bahkan ulama, kadi, ahli politik, duta dan mujahidin.
Ibnu battuta juga dapat berjumpa dengan ozbeg khan pemerintah crimea, muhamad tughluq pemerintah delhi, ratu khadija pemerintah maldive, malik zahir pemerintah samudera, ibu yusuf pemerintah granada, mansa sulaiman pemerintah mali dan abu inan pemerintah maghribi.
Penulis seorang prof sejarah mengulas rihla buku perjalanan ibnu battuta berdasarkan berbagai sumber yang lain.
Prof ini juga secara langsung menceritakan sejarah perkembangan kerajaan yang ada pada zaman ibnu battuta iaitu 1300 sehingga 1360.
Melalui buku ini juga kita akan mengetahui bahawa ibnu battuta bukan sahaja seorang pengembara bahkan ulama, kadi, ahli politik, duta dan mujahidin.
Ibnu battuta juga dapat berjumpa dengan ozbeg khan pemerintah crimea, muhamad tughluq pemerintah delhi, ratu khadija pemerintah maldive, malik zahir pemerintah samudera, ibu yusuf pemerintah granada, mansa sulaiman pemerintah mali dan abu inan pemerintah maghribi.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 18, 2007
This was a really fun book, with a touch of dry humor to it. It's actually a really good introduction to Islam as well. For Muslims, it's hard to believe what the world was once like, and it's harder to believe Ibn Battuta traveled across it all before the advent of cars, rails, and planes.
November 25, 2012
Acungkan tangan jika menikmati membaca buku kisah perjalanan Ibnu Battuta yg diinterpretasi oleh seorang profesor sejarah Ross E. Dunn.
Ketertarikan terhadap sejarah islam, cerita biografi adalah modal untuk membaca buku ini.
Ketertarikan terhadap sejarah islam, cerita biografi adalah modal untuk membaca buku ini.
February 25, 2024
This stunning narrative on one of the greatest journeys of all time, has been divided into 14 chapters:
1. Tangier
2. The Maghrib
3. The Mamluks
4. Mecca
5. Persia and Iraq
6. The Arabian Sea
7. Anatolia
8. The Steppe
9. Delhi
10. Malabar and the Maldives
11. China
12. Home
13. Mali
14. The Rihla
The year is 1325, just shortly after the culmination of the Crusades. A young Moroccan Muslim called Abu ’Abdallah ibn Battuta set out on a pilgrimage to Mecca. Born into a family of Muslim legal scholars in Tangier, in 1304 during the era of the Marinid dynasty, his was to become an odyssey from one end of the known world to the other.
In the progression of a career on the road covering almost 30 years, he crossed the extensiveness of the Eastern Hemisphere, visited territories comparable to about 40 modern countries, and put behind him an overall distance of crudely 73,000 miles -- more than thrice the distance Marco Polo covered.
And along the way this man was to encounter magicians, parley with dervishes and holymen, wonder at fire-eaters and tete-a-tete with other travelers from across three continents.
Battuta was by turns an academic, an entrepreneur and mystic fighter. In the course of his adventutes he would be imprisoned by mad Sultans, wout marry a whopping ten times and go on to have countless concubines. And when he would get home after decades on the road he would write it all down.
Written in the conventional literary style of the time, Battuta’s Rihla would find place in the first row of all-time greatest travelogues. It would be a comprehensive survey of the personalities, places, governments, customs, and curiosities of the Muslim world in the second quarter of the 14th century. It would also serve as the record of a dramatic personal adventure.
And in the 400 years after Battuta’s death, the Rihla would be circulated among people of learning in North Africa, West Africa, Egypt, and perhaps other Muslim lands where Arabic was read.
There is a soft hint of lament when the author of this book pens the following lines:
The Western world has conventionally celebrated Marco Polo, who died the year before Ibn Battuta first left home, as the “Greatest Traveler in History.” Ibn Battuta has inevitably been compared with him and has usually taken second prize as “the Marco Polo of the Muslim world” or “the Marco Polo of the tropics.”…Yet Ibn Battuta traveled to, and reports on, a great many more places than Marco did, and his narrative offers details, sometimes in incidental bits, sometimes in long disquisitions, on almost every conceivable aspect of human life in that age, from the royal ceremonial of the Sultan of Delhi to the sexual customs of women in the Maldive Islands to the harvesting of coconuts in South Arabia. Moreover his story is far more personal and humanely engaging than Marco’s…. (Introduction - The Adventures of Ibn Battuta; A Muslim Traveler of the 14th Century – Ross E. Dunn)
Give it a try if you choose to. Recommended.
1. Tangier
2. The Maghrib
3. The Mamluks
4. Mecca
5. Persia and Iraq
6. The Arabian Sea
7. Anatolia
8. The Steppe
9. Delhi
10. Malabar and the Maldives
11. China
12. Home
13. Mali
14. The Rihla
The year is 1325, just shortly after the culmination of the Crusades. A young Moroccan Muslim called Abu ’Abdallah ibn Battuta set out on a pilgrimage to Mecca. Born into a family of Muslim legal scholars in Tangier, in 1304 during the era of the Marinid dynasty, his was to become an odyssey from one end of the known world to the other.
In the progression of a career on the road covering almost 30 years, he crossed the extensiveness of the Eastern Hemisphere, visited territories comparable to about 40 modern countries, and put behind him an overall distance of crudely 73,000 miles -- more than thrice the distance Marco Polo covered.
And along the way this man was to encounter magicians, parley with dervishes and holymen, wonder at fire-eaters and tete-a-tete with other travelers from across three continents.
Battuta was by turns an academic, an entrepreneur and mystic fighter. In the course of his adventutes he would be imprisoned by mad Sultans, wout marry a whopping ten times and go on to have countless concubines. And when he would get home after decades on the road he would write it all down.
Written in the conventional literary style of the time, Battuta’s Rihla would find place in the first row of all-time greatest travelogues. It would be a comprehensive survey of the personalities, places, governments, customs, and curiosities of the Muslim world in the second quarter of the 14th century. It would also serve as the record of a dramatic personal adventure.
And in the 400 years after Battuta’s death, the Rihla would be circulated among people of learning in North Africa, West Africa, Egypt, and perhaps other Muslim lands where Arabic was read.
There is a soft hint of lament when the author of this book pens the following lines:
The Western world has conventionally celebrated Marco Polo, who died the year before Ibn Battuta first left home, as the “Greatest Traveler in History.” Ibn Battuta has inevitably been compared with him and has usually taken second prize as “the Marco Polo of the Muslim world” or “the Marco Polo of the tropics.”…Yet Ibn Battuta traveled to, and reports on, a great many more places than Marco did, and his narrative offers details, sometimes in incidental bits, sometimes in long disquisitions, on almost every conceivable aspect of human life in that age, from the royal ceremonial of the Sultan of Delhi to the sexual customs of women in the Maldive Islands to the harvesting of coconuts in South Arabia. Moreover his story is far more personal and humanely engaging than Marco’s…. (Introduction - The Adventures of Ibn Battuta; A Muslim Traveler of the 14th Century – Ross E. Dunn)
Give it a try if you choose to. Recommended.
May 23, 2025
700 years after Ibn Battuta began his journey. 14 years after I started reading this book. The Adventures of Ibn Battuta is now marked as Read!
It was a long ride but it ended up being a good one. I had to restart the book because .... no idea where I was in his journey 14 years ago. But the author was very good at beginning each chapter by giving lots of context for the relevant political, cultural, historical and economic knowledge for a given area of the time so you have an idea of what Ibn Battuta is walking into and where his cultural capital is at before we hear about his experience. It was immensely useful but it could be a lot of information all at once so taking breaks between chapters helped to stay focused and engaged.
The second half of the chapters would detail Ibn Battuta’s actual journey and this is where the good stuff was. It gave personality to the not necessarily dry but denser part of the start of the chapters. The second half was a nice mix of content and quotes directly from the Rihla with more context from the author on the travel and happenings of Ibn Battuta directly. It's clear the author was well researched with extensive knowledge around Ibn Battuta himself, the journey and the time period. And Ibn Battuta went on a journey!
Ibn Battuta was the epitome of ‘I don’t want this trip to end so what if I never went home and just traveled’. So he did and then he built his way to privilege and prestige one stop and one connection at a time. A proper influencer of the 1300s.
He was 21 when he started out and 45 when he came back home so you really got to see him grow and change over time. And he went all over. He started from Morocco and headed across North Africa going through the Middle East, Anatolia, Mongolian Steppe, India, Maldives, Spain, West Africa, East Africa, Byzantine Empire - he went where his whims took him.
And he really got into it - he was kissing hands, hanging out with Sufi mystics, cozy-ing up to despots. He witnessed plagues, shipwrecks, got lost in the dessert, had dubious travel guides - literally had the shirt taken off his back 3 times. Went on Hajj multiple times. Even tried to engage in some regime change. Parts of this were pretty wild.
What really made this book so neat besides being a first person insight into a lived experience in the 1300s was that because Ibn Battuta covered so much ground you really get a sense of how interconnected the world is. A lot of times reading history can feel like a disconnected patchwork that you have to really think about to piece together. This really connects that patchwork and shows how responsive and interconnected the world is and always has been.
Happy to have been on the journey. And happy to have finished.
It was a long ride but it ended up being a good one. I had to restart the book because .... no idea where I was in his journey 14 years ago. But the author was very good at beginning each chapter by giving lots of context for the relevant political, cultural, historical and economic knowledge for a given area of the time so you have an idea of what Ibn Battuta is walking into and where his cultural capital is at before we hear about his experience. It was immensely useful but it could be a lot of information all at once so taking breaks between chapters helped to stay focused and engaged.
The second half of the chapters would detail Ibn Battuta’s actual journey and this is where the good stuff was. It gave personality to the not necessarily dry but denser part of the start of the chapters. The second half was a nice mix of content and quotes directly from the Rihla with more context from the author on the travel and happenings of Ibn Battuta directly. It's clear the author was well researched with extensive knowledge around Ibn Battuta himself, the journey and the time period. And Ibn Battuta went on a journey!
Ibn Battuta was the epitome of ‘I don’t want this trip to end so what if I never went home and just traveled’. So he did and then he built his way to privilege and prestige one stop and one connection at a time. A proper influencer of the 1300s.
He was 21 when he started out and 45 when he came back home so you really got to see him grow and change over time. And he went all over. He started from Morocco and headed across North Africa going through the Middle East, Anatolia, Mongolian Steppe, India, Maldives, Spain, West Africa, East Africa, Byzantine Empire - he went where his whims took him.
And he really got into it - he was kissing hands, hanging out with Sufi mystics, cozy-ing up to despots. He witnessed plagues, shipwrecks, got lost in the dessert, had dubious travel guides - literally had the shirt taken off his back 3 times. Went on Hajj multiple times. Even tried to engage in some regime change. Parts of this were pretty wild.
What really made this book so neat besides being a first person insight into a lived experience in the 1300s was that because Ibn Battuta covered so much ground you really get a sense of how interconnected the world is. A lot of times reading history can feel like a disconnected patchwork that you have to really think about to piece together. This really connects that patchwork and shows how responsive and interconnected the world is and always has been.
Happy to have been on the journey. And happy to have finished.
December 4, 2017
"In any of these traveling roles, however, he regarded himself as a citizen, not of a country called Morocco, but of the Dar al-Islam, to whose universalist spiritual, moral, and social values he was loyal above any other allegiance. His life and career exemplify a remarkable fact of Afro-Eurasian history in the later Middle Period, that, as Marshall Hodgson writes, Islam 'came closer than an other medieval society to establishing a common world order of social and even cultural standards.'" (12)
"In the Middle East and individual's sense of being part of an international social order varied considerably with his education and position in life. But in the Indian Ocean lands where Islam was a minority faith, all Muslims shared acutely this feeling of participation. Simply to be a Muslim in East Africa, southern India, or Malaysia in the fourteenth century was to have a cosmopolitan frame of mind." (116)
"The adjective 'golden' remains open to different explanations, but 'horde' came from the Turkish word 'ordu,' meaning camp or palace. The name carries a certain irony, for it suggested to the fourteenth century a meaning contrary to the modern image of a throng of wild barbarians riding into battle." (161)
"The silver lining around the devastations of the Islamic heartland was the consequent flowering of civilized life in cities just beyond the reach of the Mongol calvary." (186)
"'On some of the elephants there were mounted small military catapults, and when the sultan came near the city parcels of gold and silver coins mixed together were thrown from these machines. The men on foot in front of the sultan and the other persons present scrambled for the money, and they kept on scattering it until the procession reached the palace.'" (Ibn Battuta of the Delhi sultan's arrival after victory, 198)
"He notes in the Rihla that foreigners liked to call Bengal 'a hell crammed with good things.'" (254)
"The Black Death was the grimly ironic price the world paid for the trans-hemispheric unity of the Pax Mongolica." (271)
"Having come so far from their distant grassland kingdom, the emperor [of Mali] and his gold-heavy entourage spent freely and indiscriminately in the Cairo bazaars, like prosperous and naive tourists from some American prairie state. 'The Cairenes,' says al-Umari, 'made incalculable profits out of him and his suite and buying and selling and giving and taking. They exchanged gold until they depressed its value in Egypt an caused its price to fall.'" (290)
"In the Middle East and individual's sense of being part of an international social order varied considerably with his education and position in life. But in the Indian Ocean lands where Islam was a minority faith, all Muslims shared acutely this feeling of participation. Simply to be a Muslim in East Africa, southern India, or Malaysia in the fourteenth century was to have a cosmopolitan frame of mind." (116)
"The adjective 'golden' remains open to different explanations, but 'horde' came from the Turkish word 'ordu,' meaning camp or palace. The name carries a certain irony, for it suggested to the fourteenth century a meaning contrary to the modern image of a throng of wild barbarians riding into battle." (161)
"The silver lining around the devastations of the Islamic heartland was the consequent flowering of civilized life in cities just beyond the reach of the Mongol calvary." (186)
"'On some of the elephants there were mounted small military catapults, and when the sultan came near the city parcels of gold and silver coins mixed together were thrown from these machines. The men on foot in front of the sultan and the other persons present scrambled for the money, and they kept on scattering it until the procession reached the palace.'" (Ibn Battuta of the Delhi sultan's arrival after victory, 198)
"He notes in the Rihla that foreigners liked to call Bengal 'a hell crammed with good things.'" (254)
"The Black Death was the grimly ironic price the world paid for the trans-hemispheric unity of the Pax Mongolica." (271)
"Having come so far from their distant grassland kingdom, the emperor [of Mali] and his gold-heavy entourage spent freely and indiscriminately in the Cairo bazaars, like prosperous and naive tourists from some American prairie state. 'The Cairenes,' says al-Umari, 'made incalculable profits out of him and his suite and buying and selling and giving and taking. They exchanged gold until they depressed its value in Egypt an caused its price to fall.'" (290)
September 25, 2025
I think I might be entering my Dad-who-reads-any-history-book era, because I really, really liked this. First things first, disappointingly, it is NOT a translation of the Rihla, with just snippets here and there of Ibn Battuta's real text. But Dunn makes up for that by weaving a beautiful overview of everywhere Battuta went, interweaving with missing historical context and the accounts of others. It really allows it to shine through just what a remarkable world order Islam instituted across continents, and what a personality Ibn Battuta had. Dunn visibly both admires Battuta's adventurous nature and ability to make friends, while not shying from calling him out on his less positive qualities (guy was a bit of a nosy prude who complained to authorities about a sauna where men sometimes were naked) and the very distinct possibility he probably made up some of the adventures he said he had.
But if even half of the following is true:
* He was absolutely willing to coordinate an invasion and coup on an island kingdom
* He almost got himself involved in a war over the Rock of Gibraltar if it weren't for a timely coincidence of Black Plague
* He met multiple Khans
* He gained, and lost, and gained again slaves, wives, and treasure over decades
* He got a job as a judge in a country where he didn't speak the local language or the language of law or even knew their particular type of law well -- and he got away with it
* He managed to visit all these great cities just at their peak -- before politics, invaders, or (again) the Black Plague swooped down on them.
It's just as much a survey for Ibn Battuta's travels as it is a really interesting introduction to medieval Islam and all the bits and bobs that go with that.
But if even half of the following is true:
* He was absolutely willing to coordinate an invasion and coup on an island kingdom
* He almost got himself involved in a war over the Rock of Gibraltar if it weren't for a timely coincidence of Black Plague
* He met multiple Khans
* He gained, and lost, and gained again slaves, wives, and treasure over decades
* He got a job as a judge in a country where he didn't speak the local language or the language of law or even knew their particular type of law well -- and he got away with it
* He managed to visit all these great cities just at their peak -- before politics, invaders, or (again) the Black Plague swooped down on them.
It's just as much a survey for Ibn Battuta's travels as it is a really interesting introduction to medieval Islam and all the bits and bobs that go with that.
November 25, 2020
This was not quite what I expected or hoped for. Ibn Battuta was a devoutly religious Moroccan. He travelled extensively in the first half of the 1300s. As a Muslim scholar, he was well-treated and well-regarded throughout Dar al-Islam (all of the countries controlled by Islamic adherents), allowing him to travel relatively easily between countries.
Ibn Battuta's travels were recorded in a rihla, a sort of travelogue. This book is sort of a summation of the rihla, though it is quoted much less than I would have imagined. Apparently the rihla would be pretty tough to get through, so Dunn breaks it down for us. He also tries to give brief histories of the places and people Battuta meets to establish context.
For probably the first half of the book, this is somewhat boring and sporadically interesting. For me it wasn't until he got to India that it started to pick up. Battuta's travels from India, to the Maldives, and then to China are the most interesting parts. Those are where most of the "adventures" take place, the term "adventures" up until that point is a little hyperbolic. Of course, some of these travels are also the most questionable - it is not certain that they are true, particularly the Chinese travels.
True or not, this is ultimately an interesting look at the 14th century part of the world that I was least familiar with. This is the tail end of the Mongol reign, and this book provides a look at the humanity of the times, perhaps one of the best places to read about it.
Ibn Battuta's travels were recorded in a rihla, a sort of travelogue. This book is sort of a summation of the rihla, though it is quoted much less than I would have imagined. Apparently the rihla would be pretty tough to get through, so Dunn breaks it down for us. He also tries to give brief histories of the places and people Battuta meets to establish context.
For probably the first half of the book, this is somewhat boring and sporadically interesting. For me it wasn't until he got to India that it started to pick up. Battuta's travels from India, to the Maldives, and then to China are the most interesting parts. Those are where most of the "adventures" take place, the term "adventures" up until that point is a little hyperbolic. Of course, some of these travels are also the most questionable - it is not certain that they are true, particularly the Chinese travels.
True or not, this is ultimately an interesting look at the 14th century part of the world that I was least familiar with. This is the tail end of the Mongol reign, and this book provides a look at the humanity of the times, perhaps one of the best places to read about it.
March 17, 2019
Although the title says "adventures", read "scholarly treatise on the travels". This is a heavily footnoted book dense with references to original sources and previous commentaries on them. My favorite ones were those discussing the routes and times proposed by different authorities ("So and so says it was in May of this year, but that seems implausible based on the cities mentioned." or "Such and such thinks the visit to this city was entirely fabricated."). The scholarly back-and-forth aside, this book is fairly approachable even for someone entirely outside the field, like myself.
Each chapter handles a section of Ibn Battuta's travels that took place in a particular region. His travels begin in his home country of Morocco, and then he journeys onward throughout the middle east. After that, he quickly moves much further afield - across the steppes, up to Constantinople, then on to India, the Maldives, and even to China. Ibn Battuta obtains favors from many rulers, adds followers to his train and leaves them again, and sometimes takes part in political machinations. Mostly though, this is an absolutely fascinating glimpse into another time, which was much more cosmopolitan than I was aware of before picking up this book. My rating is mostly because I learned so much, about kingdoms and cultures I had no idea existed.
Each chapter handles a section of Ibn Battuta's travels that took place in a particular region. His travels begin in his home country of Morocco, and then he journeys onward throughout the middle east. After that, he quickly moves much further afield - across the steppes, up to Constantinople, then on to India, the Maldives, and even to China. Ibn Battuta obtains favors from many rulers, adds followers to his train and leaves them again, and sometimes takes part in political machinations. Mostly though, this is an absolutely fascinating glimpse into another time, which was much more cosmopolitan than I was aware of before picking up this book. My rating is mostly because I learned so much, about kingdoms and cultures I had no idea existed.
February 20, 2023
This was a good follow up to The Travels of Ibn Battuta: in the Near East, Asia and Africa, 1325-1354. I felt I needed a follow up that offered some context where the previous book did not.
As others have observed, some of the talk around the Mongols was a bit...weird. The way they are described as being uncivilised and uncultured seems to speak to some sort of bias on behalf of the author.
There is more detail about ibn Battuta's habit of repeatedly marrying or otherwise acquiring women and then abandoning, divorcing or losing them. However my biggest questions around this remain unanswered - was this acceptable in Battuta's time or was he unusually callous in his treatment of women?
I remain impressed at the extent of the Islamic world at the time, but the further I got in the book, the more I disliked his subject. He's a sanctimonious prat. At one point he gets cross because he's trying to relieve himself on the bank of a river and his "immodest" companion keeps standing in his way. Turns out the guy was trying to protect him from crocodiles.
As others have observed, some of the talk around the Mongols was a bit...weird. The way they are described as being uncivilised and uncultured seems to speak to some sort of bias on behalf of the author.
There is more detail about ibn Battuta's habit of repeatedly marrying or otherwise acquiring women and then abandoning, divorcing or losing them. However my biggest questions around this remain unanswered - was this acceptable in Battuta's time or was he unusually callous in his treatment of women?
I remain impressed at the extent of the Islamic world at the time, but the further I got in the book, the more I disliked his subject. He's a sanctimonious prat. At one point he gets cross because he's trying to relieve himself on the bank of a river and his "immodest" companion keeps standing in his way. Turns out the guy was trying to protect him from crocodiles.
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January 21, 2024I cannot imagine trying to tackle such an enormous feat of scholarship as writing this book. In order to understand and communicate the journey of Ibn Battuta and the world he lived in, Ross E. Dunn had to understand the complexities of societies as far west as Marinid Morocco and as far east as Yuan China, as far south as medieval Mozambique and as far north as the Golden Horde. Somehow, he manages to do it. He marshals an army of facts about the medieval Muslim world and guides us through them with the help of our main character, the 14th-Century itinerant Ibn Battuta. Though I would never call this book riveting, it's always interesting and informative. I learned so much about medieval society and the Muslim world reading it that I'd only glimpsed before from the pages of western texts. Dunn rights on an epic scale, but every page is full of the kind of microscopic details needed to bring a narrative like this alive. Anyone interested in history books should read this for it's intellectual nourishment and fullsomeness.
July 25, 2017
Ibn Battuta was a Berber born in Tangier. He was educated as a Moslem jurist and when he set off in 1325 to make the Hajj the adventure of travel was ignited. He spent over 40 years on the road. He mostly traveled in the Dar el Islam and spent most of his time with the moslem upper class who generally spoke Arabic and so even in Persia, Central Asia or India he could get by. In general the Moslem stricture to care for travelers’ served him well and he was often given money, camels, clothes, slaves and what not so he became rich. He sometimes did his legal work but not often. He is credited with traveling to China but his appears to be untrue; he may have padded his resume with reports by others. Even so, this book is fascinating for its description of the Islamic world of the Middle ages. It was still a place of learning and culture and a thriving commercial scene. I really recommend this engaging book.
May 27, 2020
Sejarah bagi seorang muslim merupakan sebuah pintu akan pelajaran-pelajaran berharga bagi kehidupan. Dunn menuliskan ulang kisah dari buku Rihla mengenai perjalanan Ibn Battuta dengan runtut. Tambahan gambaran mengenai tiap daerah yang dikunjunginya dari sumber-sumber literatur lain membuat saya ikut hanyut ke dalam cerita, meski terkesan terlalu "ilmiah" untuk sebuah kisah perjalanan dengan tambahan senarai catatan kaki panjang mengenai pembahasan perbedaan pendapat jalur dan waktu perjalanan yang sebenarnya dilakukan. Sosok Ibn Battuta yang cerdas diceritakan mampu melewati berbagai tantangan dan kondisi yang ada saat itu, melewati batas-batas negeri yang tidak semua orang tercatat memiliki pengalaman perjalanan luar biasa yang sama. Kesempatan sebagai seorang muslim dengan kebiasaan masyarakat Dar (Negeri) al-Islamnya untuk menjamu saudara-saudara mereka dari luar daerah membuka kesempatan besar petualangan ini.
May 12, 2020
Buku bagus yang menceritakan perjalanan Ibnu Battuta melakukan perjalan keliling dunia, dimana dalam buku itu banyak bersumber kepada 'Rihlah' acuan dasar pada kutipan perjalanan Batutta yang ditulis oleh rekan senegaranya dan semasa dengannya yaitu Ibnu Juzayy, dalam buku tersebut dikatakan Ibnu Battah pergi hampir ke seluruh belahan dunia mulai dari tanah kelahirannya Tangier, melintasi, Tunisia, Ceuta, Mesir, Irak, Suriah, Haji Mekkah, Madinah, kembali ke Oman, Yaman, Laut Hitam menyeberang Turki, Ukraina, Uzbekistan, Iran, Asia tengah lain sampai ke sungai Volga Rusia, Hindia, Banglades Sumatera dimana berjumpa Kerajaan Samudera Pasai, Melintasi selat malaka sampai ke Cina dan kembali ke kampung halamannya sampai pergi lagi berkelana ke Kesultaan Mali Afrika sampai meninggalnya di tahun 1368 atau 1369 dan mungkin banyak lagi daerah atau negara yang tidak saya sebutkan.
August 19, 2019
A very good abridgment/retelling of the travels of Ibn Battuta some one or two generations after Marco Polo. It is very different from Polo's Travels but still quite useful. The Rihla, the title given it by Battuta's ghostwriter, is worth the time it takes to read. It isn't all profound and there many things about Battuta's lifestyle and attitudes that will be difficult for readers who cannot or will not contextual man and next.
If readers can place Battuta in his time and place then the experience will be fruitful.
Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars.
If readers can place Battuta in his time and place then the experience will be fruitful.
Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars.
October 17, 2024
Originally read a few chapters for my Indian Ocean in world history class, but came back to read the rest.
Solid and insightful look into one of the greatest travelogues of the pre-modern era. Dunn does a fair job of interweaving Ibn Battuta’s narrative with the history of the places he visits, although I would have preferred he added in more history than what was provided. At times the narrative seemed to jump and move too quickly, but if I had a translation of the Rihla itself to read parallel to this (which I will do eventually) and I’d likely bump up the rating half a star.
Solid and insightful look into one of the greatest travelogues of the pre-modern era. Dunn does a fair job of interweaving Ibn Battuta’s narrative with the history of the places he visits, although I would have preferred he added in more history than what was provided. At times the narrative seemed to jump and move too quickly, but if I had a translation of the Rihla itself to read parallel to this (which I will do eventually) and I’d likely bump up the rating half a star.
August 17, 2018
My ratings of books on Goodreads are solely a crude ranking of their utility to me, and not an evaluation of literary merit, entertainment value, social importance, humor, insightfulness, scientific accuracy, creative vigor, suspensefulness of plot, depth of characters, vitality of theme, excitement of climax, satisfaction of ending, or any other combination of dimensions of value which we are expected to boil down through some fabulous alchemy into a single digit.
February 9, 2022
An enjoyable read with a fair overview of the travels of the famous Ibn Battuta. Dunn makes a good effort to provide the reader with sufficient narrative and context to keep the reader informed during the course of the trip as well as providing a reasonably (but not excessively) ciritical view of the account that Ibn Battuta passed down to us. For those interestest in 14th century muslim world and the life of this man, this is a very pleasant and informative read.
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