Region-by-Region

Multiple regions | Arab lands | Iran | Sub-Saharan Africa | Anatolia and Central Asia | South Asia and the Maldives | China and Malaysia | Spain

Multiple regions

See also the section Ibn Battuta and His Travels.

The Longest Hajj: The Journeys of Ibn Battuta by Douglas Bullis, Saudi Aramco World (July/August 2000). This article is worth about as much as all other material on the web, and something of a find as the search engine's don't think much of it yet.. This first link is the editor's excellent introduction to the three articles, which mix recitation, translation and commentary. The parts are:

Part 1: From Pilgrim to Traveler—Tangier to Makkah. Bullis discusses Ibn Battuta's unique, 58-page account of Mecca (Makkah), with a nice footnote on authorship problems pertaining to some of the sections.

Part 2: From Riches to Rags—Makkah to India. "All through the Rihla Ibn Battuta's personal character comes out in hints and fragments. Today he might be regarded as a bit of a fussbudget or a meddler, evidenced by the rather too generous outrage he expresses at minor lapses in others' behavior."

Part 3: From Traveler to Memoirist—China, Mali and Home. "[I]n China, his reliability is so maddeningly variable that one can argue for or against his having been there at all." Has good sections on Spain and sub-Saharan Africa.

Selections on Slavery, Turks, Iraq and Astrakhan from the Internet Medieval Sourcebook. Taken from Gibb's selections.

Arab lands

Amazon. One Thousand Roads to Mecca: Ten Centuries of Travelers Writing About the Muslim Pilgrimage, edited by Michael Wolfe. Ibn Battuta gets 12 pages in this excellent collection.

The Adventures of Ibn Battuta, part 1. Detailed description, alas only covering the first leg of his travels—North Africa to Syria. Five more parts remain to be written. The host, IslamForToday.com, has a good page attacking Taliban discrimination against women from an Islamic perspective, and another on women's rights.

Journeys of Faith, Roads of Civilization by David W. Tschanz, Saudi Aramco World (2004), on the Hajj through history, with some attention to Ibn Battuta.

Morocco Across North Africa (1325), Cairo, Egypt (1326), On to Syria and Palestine (1326) and The Hajj: Medina to Mecca (1326) from Nick Bartel's site.

Iran

Web Archive: Encyclopaedia Iranica. Full article by Charles F. Beckingham, especially on Ibn Battuta's travels through Iran. Takes a somewhat negative view of his talents and worth.

"As history, it is very unreliable.... He was a careless observer of architecture, once claiming that an elephant would be able to climb the Qotab Menair in Delhi. Some sections of the Rehala—those on East Africa, Anatolia, south India, the Maldives, and Mali—are important because there are few other sources, but for Iranian lands it is of little value."

Persia and Iraq (1326 - 1327) and Further into Persia from Nick Bartel's site.

The Arabian Sea & East Africa (1328 - 1330) from Nick Bartel's site.

Sub-Saharan Africa

Amazon. Ibn Battuta in Black Africa by Ibn Batuta. Selections from his writings are translated and commented upon by Said Hamdun and Noel Quinton King. Publisher's blurb.

Notes to Lecture "East Africa, as seen by Ibn Battuta" by Jim Jones. Review of Ibn Batuta's journeys in East Africa, based on Ibn Battuta in Black Africa.

Web Archive: Ibn Batuta in Maqdashaw (Mogadishu). Selection from the Rihla.

Ibn Battuta and his Saharan Travels from Ibn Battuta in Black Africa by Said Harridun and Noel King. With some additions by Jim Mann Taylor.

Ibn Battuta's Account of Mogadishu from World History, a survey course at the U of MN.

West Africa, as seen by Ibn Battuta and East Africa, as seen by Ibn Battuta by Jim Jones, West Chester University. Lecture for Jones' course African History to 1875 , following and commenting on Hamdun and King's Ibn Battuta in Black Africa. It's off the subject, but you gotta love a guy whose homepage lists "Six unusual things about Jim Jones," including "Hitchhiked across the Sahara Desert three times."

Understanding Primary Sources: A Visit to Mali . Students read passage on Mali, and prepare a report on traditional West African cultures. Includes a student worksheet. From Education Place, Houghton Mifflin's K-8 website.

A few study questions on Ibn Battuta in Black Africa(William J. Wright, University of Tennessee). [mirror]

Journey to West Africa (1351 - 1353) from Nick Bartel's site.

Ibn Battuta in Mogadishu from hamarey.com, a Somali news site.

Anatolia and Central Asia

Amazon. The Travels of Ibn Battuta to Central Asia by Ibrahimov Ibrahimovich. The U.S. Amazon doesn't have much, but the British Amazon has more info.

Anatolia (Turkey) (1330 - 1331), The Steppe - Land of the Golden Horde (1332 - 1333) and Return to the Steppes and into the Land of Chagatay from Nick Bartel's site.

South Asia and the Maldives

Info on Ibn Battuta in Maldives and Ceylon (1313-1314), apparently from the 1882 number of the journal of the Ceylon branch of Royal Asiatic Society. This might be good to get online...

Ibn Battuta and Maldive Ginni .

Questions on Dunn's The Adventures of Ibn Battuta relative to South Asia, for Peter Schmitthenner's University of Vermont course, History of the Indian Subcontinent I.

Historic Honavar in Sri Lanka, visited and described by Ibn Batutta.

Delhi, capital of Muslim India (1334 - 1341) and Escape from Delhi and on to the Maldive Islands & Ceylon (Sri Lanka) 1342 - 1344) from Nick Bartel's site.

"Islam and the Sub-continent: Appraising it's [sic] Impact" Ibn Batuta is cited frequently. Anti-Islamic.

China and Malaysia

"The Truth About the Rope Trick," by Milbourne Christopher for Magical Past-Times (On-Line Journal of Magic History). Ibn Batuta saw the first rope trick (albeit sans rope).

Ibn Battuta on China. Selections from a World History (15th-18th C.) course at Alberta.

Ibn Battuta and Zheng He, "the tourist and the admiral: Trade, travel and politics in a Muslim world." From A Journey of a Thousand Li by Bangor, ME, high school students under the direction of Ryan Bradeen. Ibn Battuta page has some info on Battuta's travels in China.

Malaysia and China (1345 - 1346) from Nick Bartel's site.

Spain

Web Archive: (Spanish) Ruta de Ibn Battuta: Tanger - Malaga - Granada. Andalusian selections from the Rihla. El Legado Andalusi.

Andalusia (Muslim Spain) and Morocco (1349 - 1350) from Nick Bartel's site.