Ibn Battuta or inspired journeys

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Date: 23/06/2012
Ibn Battuta
Ibn Battuta was a Moorish traveler born on 25th February 1304. He was born within a wealthy family in Morocco at a place known as Tangier. Initially, he planned to be a judge. After completing his studies, he resolved to make a pilgrimage to Mecca for Hajj. In the real sense, Mecca was very many miles away and it could take him close to one year to reach the town. He started his journey to Mecca on June 14th, 1325. During the journey, Battuta became increasingly fascinated about what he saw. This made him to devote all his life to traveling. This made him to make two rules. The first rule was to only make visits to the Muslim world. The second was never to use the same road twice in his journeys.
He started by carrying out explorations in the Middle East’s lands. Afterwards, he sailed through the Red Sea to Mecca. He had to cross the massive Arabian Desert and reached the present day Iran and Iraq. Later on, he set out and travelled down the Red Sea to a place called Aden. Then, he reached the East African coat to the current Tanzania. In 1332 CE, Battuta resolved to go to India. Upon reaching India, he was welcomed by the Delhi Sultan and offered a job as a judge. He remained in India for eight years and then left for China. For instance, Battuta survived many wars, rebellions and shipwrecks during his journeys. Finally, Battuta went back home at Tangier around 1349 CE. He then left for an additional adventure to the south. He crossed the Sahara Desert and paid a visit to the African Kingdom of Mali (Harvey 19).
He returned back to Morocco in 1354 CE. Battuta had by now travelled for approximately twenty nine years and visited all the Muslim lands meeting sixty different rulers. After the completion of these many journeys, Battuta spent roughly two years telling his travel stories to his secretary called Ibn Juzayy. This secretary was appointed to him by the then Moroccan Sultan. The outcome was a lot of contribution towards the rihla genre. In addition, Battuta offered a new dimension to such travel narrative. His accounts concerning all the journeys he made is a representation of travel narratives in three continents. His travels covered about 80, 000 miles and went past very many unknown cultures. The travels included among other observations, functions at the sultans’ courts, the widows burning in India and the cannibals in Africa. It is very true that his journeys represent the longest trip overland before steam engine was invented.
In the real sense, this is his greatest achievement. He vi...