Ibn Battuta wrote the “Book of Travels”, which he writes about his journeys several Muslim countries. It started out as his pilgrim to Mecca but he continued to travel instead of going home. He started his pilgrimage in 1325 and did not return to his home town till 1355 (Hrbek).

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He started his travels in Tangier to go to Mecca on his pilgrimage, after he got to Mecaa, he continued to travel around going from China to Africa and everything in between to witness the Muslim culture and he wrote in extreme detail of their actions. Women’s roles in certain areas, the crime he witnessed, the rulers ways rather good or bad. He wrote about everything and criticized everything that he felt was wrong but also praised everything he found to be right. He travel by camel, foot and boat. He shared his legal advice with other lawyers and just shared his common beliefs with anything really.

While he was traveling, it was apparent that the world was not sitting still, this was around the time that the pledge was going around Eastern Asia, Egypt and North Africa killing around 20,000,000. This is also around the time the Hundred Years War started, the war was between England and France. This war started in 1337 while Battuta was still traveling, and ended well after his passing in 1368 (Notes on the 14th-century History).

While no one thought anything of his pilgrimage to Mecca because it was completely normal for Muslim men to make this journey, what set him aside was his extraordinary detail of writing everything he felt worthy. With his 16 month pilgrimage he decided to continue and see other countries and other cultures. He gave criticism to every country he did not agree with, “at this I was sorry I had come to their county, because of their bad manners and contempt for white people” (Fiero). “The women are of outstanding beauty and are more highly regarded than men. Conditions among these people are remarkable and their style is strange” (Fiero). “He said “The companionship of women and men among us is a good thing and an agreeable practice, which causes no suspicion; they are not like the women of your country.” I was astonished at his silliness. I left him and did not visit him again” (Fiero). All of this was in the city of Iwalatan,

Mali. He obviously disagreed with their practices because of the different cultures. This is also why he his writing is so extremely important, they tell the different cultures of different Muslim cultures that we would most likely not know otherwise. He may have no found a new country or a new religion, but he wrote about one that many countries may not have known there was a difference at, such as the city of Tangier to the city of Iwanlatan.

I would compare him most to Marco Polo, both travelers who documented their travels well. Marco Polo. They both had a great need to travel and generally traveled the same areas, only for different reasons. Marco Polo being an Italian was one of the first to travel through Asia (Marco Polo: Explorer). He also did not find any new country or any new culture, he was the first to travel from his country, like Battuta.

I have found that he is very popular in the Scholar world but I have to say, that I have never heard of this person before which surprises me. I feel like he needs to be more known around the world. He wrote more about a culture I have no knowledge of then anyone in the 14 century than anyone else. I have learned more about his writing than I have in almost 15 years in school of any kind. I feel like his outtake of different variations of a religion is the most significant aspect of his work that needs to be pasted down to future generation. They need to focus on that it okay to accept variation of an idea, not just a religion and that it has happened since the turn of time.

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Work Cited

Ivan , Hrbek. "Ibn Battutah." Encyclopedia Britannica. &lt;http://www.britannica.com/&gt;.

"Marco Polo: Explorer." Enchanted Learning. n. page. Web. 22 Sep. 2013. &lt;www.enchantedlearning.com&gt;.

"Notes on the 14th-century History." Washington State University. Web. 22 Sep. 2013. &lt;http://public.wsu.edu/~hanly/chaucer/coursematerials/14thcent.html&gt;.

Fiero, Gloria K. Cross-Cultural Encounter Ibn Battuta in West Africa. 6th. 2. Boston: Mcgraw-Hill, eBook.