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).<!--more-->

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.

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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).

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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.

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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.

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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;.

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"Marco Polo: Explorer." Enchanted Learning. n. page. Web. 22 Sep. 2013.

&lt;www.enchantedlearning.com&gt;.

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"Notes on the 14th-century History." Washington State University. Web. 22 Sep. 2013. &lt;http://

public.wsu.edu/~hanly/chaucer/coursematerials/14thcent.html&gt;.

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

Mcgraw-Hill, eBook.