Ibn Battuta
Abu Abdallah Muhammad ibn Battuta was a Moroccan scholar and traveler who undertook one of the most extraordinary journeys in human history. Born in Tangier in 1304, he left home at age 21 to perform the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, and effectively never stopped traveling for the next 29 years. By the time he dictated his memoirs, he had covered an estimated 75,000 miles — more than any traveler before the age of steam. Ibn Battuta's itinerary included North Africa, the Middle East, East Africa's Swahili Coast, Anatolia, the Crimea, Constantinople, Central Asia, India (where he served as a judge in Delhi for eight years), the Maldives, Southeast Asia, and China. He witnessed the Black Death devastating the Middle East in 1347 and later traveled across West Africa to the Mali Empire. His account provides invaluable primary source evidence for 14th-century societies across the Islamic world and beyond. Upon returning to Morocco, the Sultan Abu Inan commanded him to dictate his travels to the scholar Ibn Juzayy, producing the Rihla ('Journey') in 1355. Though sometimes dismissed as exaggerated by later historians, modern research has largely corroborated the accuracy of his geographical, cultural, and political observations. He died around 1368 or 1369, having met rulers, saints, scholars, and merchants across virtually the entire known world.
- Lived: 1304 CE – 1368 CE
- Nationality: moroccan
- Roles: explorer, writer
