Ibn Battuta in India
Ibn Battuta arrived at the Delhi Sultanate in 1334 in the reign of Muhammad bin Tughluq, one of the most ambitious and erratic rulers of the medieval Islamic world. The Sultan appointed Ibn Battuta as a qadi (judge) in Delhi — a position the Moroccan traveller held for several years, witnessing both the court's extraordinary wealth and its ruler's capacity for arbitrary violence. Ibn Battuta's account of the Delhi Sultanate — its administration, markets, scholarship, and the Sultan's catastrophic decision to move the entire population of Delhi to a new capital at Daulatabad — is the most detailed external description of 14th-century India available. He subsequently served as the Sultan's ambassador to China, surviving a shipwreck off the Indian coast before completing the mission overland.
- Year: 1334 CE
- Category: Exploration
