Itinerary, 1325–1332 First pilgrimage On 2 Rajab 725
AH (14 June 1325 AD), Ibn Battuta set off from his home town at the age of 21 to perform a
hajj (pilgrimage) to
Mecca, a journey that would ordinarily take sixteen months. He was eager to learn more about far-away lands and craved adventure. He would not return to Morocco again for 24 years. He travelled to Mecca overland, following the North African coast across the sultanates of
Abd al-Wadid and
Hafsid. The route took him through
Tlemcen,
Béjaïa, and then
Tunis, where he stayed for two months. For safety, Ibn Battuta usually joined a
caravan to reduce the risk of being robbed. He took a bride in the town of
Sfax, but soon left her due to a dispute with the father. That was the first in a series of marriages that would feature in his travels. 17th-century tile depicting the
Kaaba, in
Mecca In the early spring of 1326, after a journey of over , Ibn Battuta arrived at the port of
Alexandria, at the time part of the
Bahri Mamluk empire. He met two ascetic pious men in Alexandria. One was Sheikh Burhanuddin, who is supposed to have foretold the destiny of Ibn Battuta as a world traveller and told him, "It seems to me that you are fond of foreign travel. You must visit my brother Fariduddin in India, Rukonuddin in Sind, and Burhanuddin in China. Convey my greetings to them." Another pious man, Sheikh Murshidi, interpreted a dream of Ibn Battuta as being that he was meant to be a world traveller. He spent several weeks visiting sites in the area, and then headed inland to
Cairo, the capital of the
Mamluk Sultanate. After spending about a month in Cairo, he embarked on the first of many detours within the relative safety of Mamluk territory. Of the three usual routes to Mecca, Ibn Battuta chose the least-travelled, which involved a journey up the
Nile valley, then east to the
Red Sea port of
ʿAydhab. Upon approaching the town, however, a local rebellion forced him to turn back. Ibn Battuta returned to Cairo and took a second side trip, this time to Mamluk-controlled
Damascus. During his first trip he had encountered a holy man who prophesied that he would only reach Mecca by travelling through
Syria. The diversion held an added advantage; because of the holy places that lay along the way, including
Hebron,
Jerusalem, and
Bethlehem, the Mamluk authorities kept the route safe for pilgrims. Without this help many travellers would be robbed and murdered. After spending the Muslim month of
Ramadan, during August, in Damascus, he joined a caravan travelling the south to
Medina, site of the Mosque of the Islamic prophet
Muhammad. After four days in the town, he journeyed on to Mecca while visiting holy sites along the way; upon his arrival to Mecca he completed his first pilgrimage, in November, and he took the honorific status of
El-Hajji. Rather than returning home, Ibn Battuta decided to continue travelling, choosing as his next destination the
Ilkhanate, a
Mongol Khanate, to the northeast.
Iraq and Iran On 17 November 1326, following a month spent in Mecca, Ibn Battuta joined a large caravan of pilgrims returning to
Iraq across the
Arabian Peninsula. The group headed north to Medina and then, travelling at night, turned northeast across the
Najd plateau to
Najaf, on a journey that lasted about two weeks. In Najaf, he visited the
mausoleum of
Ali, the
Fourth Caliph. Then, instead of continuing to
Baghdad with the caravan, Ibn Battuta started a six-month detour that took him into
Iran. From Najaf, he journeyed to
Wasit, then followed the river
Tigris south to
Basra. His next destination was the town of
Isfahan across the
Zagros Mountains in Iran. He then headed south to
Shiraz, a large, flourishing city spared the destruction wrought by
Mongol invaders on many more northerly towns. Finally, he returned across the mountains to Baghdad, arriving there in June 1327. Parts of the city were still ruined from the damage inflicted by
Hulagu Khan's invading army in 1258. In Baghdad, he found
Abu Sa'id, the last Mongol ruler of the unified Ilkhanate, leaving the city and heading north with a large retinue. Ibn Battuta joined the royal caravan for a while, then turned north on the
Silk Road to
Tabriz, the first major city in the region to open its gates to the Mongols and by then an important trading centre as most of its nearby rivals had been razed by the Mongol invaders. Ibn Battuta left again for Baghdad, probably in July, but first took an excursion northwards along the river Tigris. He visited
Mosul, where he was the guest of the Ilkhanate governor, and then the towns of
Cizre (Jazirat ibn 'Umar) and
Mardin in modern-day Turkey. At a hermitage on a mountain near
Sinjar, he met a
Kurdish mystic who gave him some silver coins. Once back in Mosul, he joined a "feeder" caravan of pilgrims heading south to Baghdad, where they would meet up with the main caravan that crossed the
Arabian Desert to Mecca. Ill with diarrhoea, he arrived in the city weak and exhausted for his second
hajj.
Arabia , Yemen Ibn Battuta remained in Mecca for some time (the
Rihla suggests about three years, from September 1327 until autumn 1330). Problems with chronology, however, lead commentators to suggest that he may have left after the 1328
hajj. After the
hajj in either 1328 or 1330, he made his way to the port of
Jeddah on the
Red Sea coast. From there he followed the coast in a series of boats (known as a jalbah, these were small craft made of wooden planks sewn together, lacking an established phrase) making slow progress against the prevailing south-easterly winds. Once in
Yemen he visited
Zabīd and later the highland town of
Ta'izz, where he met the
Rasulid dynasty king (
Malik) Mujahid Nur al-Din Ali. Ibn Battuta also mentions visiting
Sanaa, but whether he actually did so is doubtful. In all likelihood, he went directly from Ta'izz to the important trading port of
Aden, arriving around the beginning of 1329 or 1331.
Somalia From
Aden, Ibn Battuta embarked on a ship heading for
Zeila on the coast of
Somalia. He then moved on to
Cape Guardafui further down the Somali seaboard, spending about a week in each location. Later he would visit
Mogadishu, the then pre-eminent city of the "
Land of the Berbers" (بلد البربر
Balad al-Barbar, the medieval Arabic term for the
Horn of Africa). When Ibn Battuta arrived in 1332, Mogadishu stood at the zenith of its prosperity. He described it as "an exceedingly large city" with many rich merchants, noted for its high-quality fabric that was exported to other countries, including
Egypt. Battuta added that the city was ruled by a
Somali sultan, Abu Bakr ibn Shaikh 'Umar. He noted that Sultan Abu Bakr had dark skin complexion and spoke in his native tongue (Somali), but was also fluent in Arabic. The Sultan also had a retinue of
wazirs (ministers), legal experts, commanders, royal
eunuchs, and other officials at his beck and call. with an overnight stop at the island town of
Mombasa. Although relatively small at the time, Mombasa would become important in the following century. After a journey along the coast, Ibn Battuta next arrived in the island town of
Kilwa in present-day
Tanzania, which had become an important transit centre of the gold trade. He described the city as "one of the finest and most beautifully built towns; all the buildings are of wood, and the houses are roofed with
dīs reeds". Ibn Battuta recorded his visit to the
Kilwa Sultanate in 1330, and commented favourably on the humility and religion of its ruler,
Sultan al-Hasan ibn Sulaiman, a descendant of the legendary
Ali ibn al-Hassan Shirazi. He further wrote that the authority of the Sultan extended from
Malindi in the north to
Inhambane in the south and was particularly impressed by the planning of the city, believing it to be the reason for Kilwa's success along the coast. During this period, he described the construction of the
Palace of Husuni Kubwa and a significant extension to the
Great Mosque of Kilwa, which was made of
coral stones and was the largest mosque of its kind. With a change in the
monsoon winds, Ibn Battuta sailed back to Arabia, first to
Oman and the
Strait of Hormuz then on to Mecca for the
hajj of 1330 (or 1332).
Itinerary 1332–1347 Anatolia in late 1332. After his third pilgrimage to Mecca, Ibn Battuta decided to seek employment with the
Sultan of Delhi,
Muhammad bin Tughluq. In the autumn of 1330 (or 1332), he set off for the
Seljuk controlled territory of
Anatolia to take an overland route to India. He crossed the
Red Sea and the
Eastern Desert to reach the
Nile valley and then headed north to
Cairo. From there he crossed the
Sinai Peninsula to
Palestine and then travelled north again through some of the towns that he had visited in 1326. From the Syrian port of
Latakia, a
Genoese ship took him (and his companions) to
Alanya on the southern coast of modern-day Turkey. He then journeyed westwards along the coast to the port of
Antalya. In the town he met members of one of the semi-religious
fityan associations. These were a feature of most Anatolian towns in the 13th and 14th centuries. The members were young artisans and had at their head a leader with the title of
Akhil. The associations specialised in welcoming travellers. Ibn Battuta was very impressed with the hospitality that he received and would later stay in their hospices in more than 25 towns in Anatolia. From Antalya Ibn Battuta headed inland to
Eğirdir which was the capital of the
Hamidids. He spent
Ramadan (June 1331 or May 1333) in the city. From this point his itinerary across Anatolia in the
Rihla becomes confused. Ibn Battuta describes travelling westwards from Eğirdir to
Milas and then skipping eastward past Eğirdir to
Konya. He then continues travelling in an easterly direction, reaching
Erzurum from where he skips back to
Birgi which lies north of Milas. Historians believe that Ibn Battuta visited a number of towns in central Anatolia, but not in the order in which he describes. When Ibn Battuta arrived in
İznik, it had just been conquered by
Orhan, sultan of the
Ottoman Beylik. Orhan was away and his wife was in command of the nearby stationed soldiers, Ibn Battuta gave this account of Orhan's wife: "A pious and excellent woman. She treated me honourably, gave me hospitality and sent gifts." Ibn Battuta's account of Orhan: Ibn Battuta had also visited
Bursa which at the time was the capital of the Ottoman Beylik, he described Bursa as "a great and important city with fine
bazaars and wide streets, surrounded on all sides with gardens and running springs". He also visited the
Beylik of Aydin. Ibn Battuta stated that the ruler of the Beylik of Aydin had twenty Greek slaves at the entrance of his palace and Ibn Battuta was given a Greek slave as a gift.
Central Asia (one of the symbols of
Silk Road caravans) in front of
Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi in the city of
Turkestan, Kazakhstan From
Sinope, he took a sea route to the
Crimean Peninsula, arriving in the
Golden Horde realm. He went to the port town of
Azov, where he met with the emir of the Khan, then to the large and rich city of
Majar. He left Majar to meet with
Uzbeg Khan's travelling court (
Orda), which was at the time near
Mount Beshtau. From there he made a journey to
Bolghar, which became the northernmost point he reached, and noted its unusually short nights in summer (by the standards of the subtropics). Then he returned to the Khan's court and with it moved to
Astrakhan. Ibn Battuta recorded that while in Bolghar he wanted to travel further north into the land of darkness. The land is snow-covered throughout (
northern Siberia) and the only means of transport is dog-drawn sled. There lived a mysterious people who were reluctant to show themselves. They traded with southern people in a peculiar way. Southern merchants brought various goods and placed them in an open area on the snow in the night, then returned to their tents. Next morning they came to the place again and found their merchandise taken by the mysterious people, but in exchange they found fur-skins which could be used for making valuable coats, jackets, and other winter garments. The trade was done between merchants and the mysterious people without seeing each other. As Ibn Battuta was not a merchant and saw no benefit of going there, he abandoned the travel to this land of darkness. during the reign of
Öz Beg Khan When they reached Astrakhan,
Öz Beg Khan had just given permission for one of his pregnant wives, Princess Bayalun, a daughter of
Byzantine emperor Andronikos III Palaiologos, to return to her home city of
Constantinople to give birth. Ibn Battuta talked his way into this expedition, which would be his first beyond the boundaries of the Islamic world. Arriving in Constantinople towards the end of 1332 (or 1334), he met the
Byzantine emperor Andronikos III Palaiologos. He visited the great church of
Hagia Sophia and spoke with an
Eastern Orthodox priest about his travels in the city of Jerusalem. After a month in the city, Ibn Battuta returned to Astrakhan, then arrived in the capital city
Sarai al-Jadid and reported the accounts of his travels to Sultan
Öz Beg Khan (r. 1313–1341). Then he continued past the
Caspian and
Aral Seas to
Bukhara and
Samarkand, the latter of which he praised as "one of the grandest and finest cities, and the most perfect of them". Here he visited the court of another Mongol khan,
Tarmashirin (r. 1331–1334) of the
Chagatai Khanate. He also noted the ruined state of the city walls, a result of the
Mongol invasion in 1220 and subsequent infighting. From there, he journeyed south to
Afghanistan, then crossed into India via the mountain passes of the
Hindu Kush. In the
Rihla, he mentions these mountains and the history of the range in slave trading. From there, he made his way to Delhi and became acquainted with the sultan,
Muhammad bin Tughluq.
South Asia in Delhi. Ibn Battuta served as a
qadi or judge for six years during Muhammad bin Tughluq's reign.
Muhammad bin Tughluq was renowned as the wealthiest man in the Muslim world at that time. He patronised various scholars, Sufis,
qadis,
viziers, and other functionaries in order to consolidate his rule. On the strength of his years of study in Mecca, Ibn Battuta was appointed a
qadi (judge) by the sultan. However, he found it difficult to enforce
Islamic law beyond the sultan's court in
Delhi, due to lack of Islamic appeal in India. in
Pakpattan. He crossed the
Sutlej river near the city of
Pakpattan, in modern-day Pakistan, where he paid obeisance at the
shrine of Baba Farid, before crossing southwest into Rajput country. From the
Rajput kingdom of Sarsatti, Battuta visited
Hansi in India, describing it as "among the most beautiful cities, the best constructed and the most populated; it is surrounded with a strong wall, and its founder is said to be one of the great non-Muslim kings, called Tara". Upon his arrival in
Sindh, Ibn Battuta mentions the
Indian rhinoceros that lived on the banks of the
Indus. The Sultan was erratic even by the standards of the time and for six years Ibn Battuta veered between living the high life of a trusted subordinate and falling under suspicion of
treason for a variety of offences. His plan to leave on the pretext of taking another
hajj was stymied by the Sultan. The opportunity for Battuta to leave Delhi finally arose in 1341 when an embassy arrived from the
Yuan dynasty of China asking for permission to rebuild a
Himalayan
Buddhist temple popular with Chinese pilgrims. Ibn Battuta was given charge of the embassy but en route to the coast at the start of the journey to China, he and his large retinue were attacked by a group of
bandits. Separated from his companions, he was robbed, kidnapped, and nearly lost his life. Despite this setback, within ten days he had caught up with his group and continued on to
Khambhat in the Indian state of
Gujarat. From there, they sailed to
Calicut (now known as Kozhikode), where Portuguese explorer
Vasco da Gama would land two centuries later. While in Calicut, Battuta was the guest of the ruling
Zamorin. While Ibn Battuta visited a mosque on shore, a storm arose and one of the ships of his expedition sank. The other ship then sailed without him only to be seized by a local
Sumatran king a few months later. Afraid to return to Delhi and be seen as a failure, he stayed for a time in southern India under the protection of Jamal-ud-Din, ruler of the small but powerful
Nawayath Sultanate on the banks of the
Sharavathi river next to the
Arabian Sea. This area is today known as Hosapattana and lies in the
Honnavar Taluk of
Uttara Kannada. Following the overthrow of the sultanate, Ibn Battuta had no choice but to leave India. Although determined to continue his journey to China, he first took a detour to visit the
Maldive Islands where he worked as a judge. He spent nine months on the islands, much longer than he had intended. When he arrived at the capital,
Malé, Ibn Battuta did not plan to stay. However, the leaders of the formerly
Buddhist nation that had recently
converted to Islam were looking for a chief judge, someone who knew Arabic and the Qur'an. To convince him to stay they gave him pearls, gold jewellery, and slaves, while at the same time making it impossible for him to leave by ship. Compelled into staying, he became a chief judge and married into the royal family of
Omar I. Ibn Battuta took on his duties as a judge with keenness and strived to transform local practices to conform to a stricter application of Muslim law. He commanded that men who did not attend Friday prayer be publicly whipped, and that robbers' right hand be cut off. He forbade women from being topless in public, which had previously been the custom. However, these and other strict judgements began to antagonise the island nation's rulers, and involved him in power struggles and political intrigues. Ibn Battuta resigned from his job as chief
qadi, although in all likelihood it was inevitable that he would have been dismissed. Throughout his travels, Ibn Battuta kept close company with women, usually taking a wife whenever he stopped for any length of time at one place, and then divorcing her when he moved on. While in the Maldives, Ibn Battuta took four wives. In his
Travels he wrote that in the Maldives the effect of small
dowries and female non-mobility combined to, in effect, make a marriage a convenient temporary arrangement for visiting male travellers and sailors. From the Maldives, he carried on to
Sri Lanka and visited
Sri Pada and
Tenavaram temple. Ibn Battuta's ship almost sank on embarking from Sri Lanka, only for the vessel that came to his rescue to suffer an attack by pirates. Stranded onshore, he worked his way back to the
Madurai kingdom in India. Here he spent some time in the court of the short-lived
Madurai Sultanate under Ghiyas-ud-Din Muhammad Damghani, from where he returned to the Maldives and boarded a Chinese
junk, still intending to reach China and take up his ambassadorial post. He reached the port of
Chittagong in modern-day
Bangladesh intending to travel to
Sylhet to meet
Shah Jalal, who became so renowned that Ibn Battuta, then in Chittagong, made a one-month journey through the mountains of
Kamaru near Sylhet to meet him. On his way to Sylhet, Ibn Battuta was greeted by several of Shah Jalal's disciples who had come to assist him on his journey many days before he had arrived. At the meeting in 1345 CE, Ibn Battuta noted that Shah Jalal was tall and lean, fair in complexion and lived by the mosque in a cave, where his only item of value was a goat he kept for milk, butter, and yogurt. He observed that the companions of the Shah Jalal were foreign and known for their strength and bravery. He also mentions that many people would visit the Shah to seek guidance. Ibn Battuta went further north into
Assam, then turned around and continued with his original plan.
Southeast Asia In 1345, Ibn Battuta travelled to
Samudra Pasai Sultanate (called "al-Jawa") in present-day
Aceh, Northern
Sumatra, after 40 days voyage from Sunur Kawan. He notes in his travel log that the ruler of Samudra Pasai was a pious Muslim named Sultan Al-Malik Al-Zahir Jamal-ad-Din, who performed his religious duties with utmost zeal and often waged campaigns against animists in the region. The island of Sumatra, according to Ibn Battuta, was rich in
camphor,
areca nut,
cloves, and
tin. The ''
madh'hab'' he observed was Imam
Al-Shafi‘i, whose customs were similar to those he had previously seen in
coastal India, especially among the
Mappila Muslims, who were also followers of Imam Al-Shafi‘i. At that time Samudra Pasai marked the end of
Dar al-Islam, because no territory east of this was ruled by a Muslim. Here he stayed for about two weeks in the wooden walled town as a guest of the sultan, and then the sultan provided him with supplies and sent him on his way on one of his own
junks to China. Their opposition to the Mongols might indicate 2 possible locations: Japan and Java (Majapahit). In modern times, Urduja has been featured in Filipino textbooks and films as a national heroine. Numerous other locations have been proposed, ranging from
Java to somewhere in
Guangdong Province, China. However, Sir
Henry Yule and
William Henry Scott consider both Tawalisi and Urduja to be entirely fictitious. From Kaylukari, Ibn Battuta finally reached
Quanzhou in
Fujian Province, China.
China with regard to medieval geographic studies, although he did not see it. In the year 1345, Ibn Battuta arrived at
Quanzhou in China's
Fujian province, then under the rule of the Mongol-led
Yuan dynasty. One of the first things he noted was that Muslims referred to the city as "Zaitun" (meaning
olive), but Ibn Battuta could not find any olives anywhere. He mentioned local artists and their mastery in making portraits of newly arrived foreigners; these were for security purposes. Ibn Battuta praised the craftsmen and their
silk and
porcelain, as well as fruits such as
plums and
watermelons and the advantages of paper money. He described the manufacturing process of large ships in the city of
Quanzhou. He also mentioned Chinese cuisine and its use of animals such as frogs, pigs, and even dogs, which were sold in the markets, and noted that the chickens in China were larger than those in the west. Scholars however have pointed out numerous errors given in Ibn Battuta's account of China, for example confusing the
Yellow River with the
Grand Canal and other waterways, as well as believing that porcelain was made from coal. In Quanzhou, Ibn Battuta was welcomed by the head of the local Muslim merchants (possibly a fānzhǎng or "Leader of Foreigners" ) and Sheikh al-Islam (
Imam), who came to meet him with
flags,
drums,
trumpets, and musicians. Ibn Battuta noted that the Muslim populace lived within a separate portion in the city where they had their own mosques, bazaars, and hospitals. In Quanzhou, he met two prominent Iranians, Burhan al-Din of
Kazerun and Sharif al-Din from
Tabriz (both of whom were influential figures noted in the
Yuan History as "A-mi-li-ding" and "Sai-fu-ding", respectively). While in Quanzhou he ascended the "
Mount of the Hermit" and briefly visited a well-known
Taoist monk in a cave. He then travelled south along the Chinese coast to
Guangzhou, where he lodged for two weeks with one of the city's wealthy merchants. From Guangzhou he went north to Quanzhou and then proceeded to the city of
Fuzhou, where he took up residence with Zahir al-Din and met Kawam al-Din and a fellow countryman named Al-Bushri of
Ceuta, who had become a wealthy merchant in China. Al-Bushri accompanied Ibn Battuta northwards to
Hangzhou and paid for the gifts that Ibn Battuta would present to the
Emperor Huizong of Yuan. Ibn Battuta said that
Hangzhou was one of the largest cities he had ever seen, and he noted its charm, describing that the city sat on a
beautiful lake surrounded by gentle green hills. He mentions the city's Muslim quarter and resided as a guest with a family of Egyptian origin. He described floating through the
Grand Canal on a boat watching crop fields, orchids, merchants in black silk, and women in flowered silk and priests also in silk. In
Beijing, Ibn Battuta referred to himself as the long-lost ambassador from the
Delhi Sultanate and was invited to the Yuan imperial court of Emperor Huizong (who according to Ibn Battuta was worshipped by some people in China). Ibn Batutta noted that the palace of
Khanbaliq was made of wood and that the ruler's "head wife" (
Empress Qi) held processions in her honour. Ibn Battuta also wrote he had heard of "the rampart of
Yajuj and Majuj" that was "sixty days' travel" from the city of Zeitun (Quanzhou);
Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen Gibb notes that Ibn Battuta believed that the
Great Wall of China was built by
Dhul-Qarnayn to contain Gog and Magog as mentioned in the
Quran. However, Ibn Battuta, who asked about the wall in China, could find no one who had either seen it or knew of anyone who had seen it. Ibn Battuta travelled from Beijing to Hangzhou, and then proceeded to
Fuzhou. Upon his return to Quanzhou, he soon boarded a Chinese junk owned by the
Sultan of
Samudera Pasai Sultanate heading for Southeast Asia, whereupon Ibn Battuta was unfairly charged a hefty sum by the crew and lost much of what he had collected during his stay in China. Battuta claimed that the Emperor Huizong of Yuan had interred with him in his grave six slave soldiers and four girl slaves. Silver, gold, weapons, and carpets were put into the grave. ==Return==