Ibn Battuta’s Travels

Historical significance

Dictated to Ibn Juzayy after Ibn Battuta’s return, the Rihla is an exceptional account of fourteenth-century societies and travel networks, especially where other written evidence is scarce. It is also a crafted literary work with inconsistent dates, borrowed passages, and disputed claims, so this route distinguishes well-supported destinations from reconstructed or contested movements.

Tangier across Africa and Asia and back

People

• Ibn Battuta: Moroccan jurist and traveller from Tangier who journeyed through much of Africa and Eurasia and later dictated the Rihla to Ibn Juzayy.

Major places

• Tangier: Ibn Battuta’s birthplace and the departure point for his pilgrimage in June 1325.
• Tunis: Major North African scholarly and caravan centre on the eastward and homeward routes.
• Alexandria: Mediterranean port through which Ibn Battuta entered and later left Egypt.
• Cairo: Mamluk capital and major junction between North African, Levantine, Red Sea, and pilgrimage routes.
• Jerusalem: Major pilgrimage city visited by travellers moving through the eastern Mediterranean and Levant.
• Damascus: Levantine scholarly centre and assembly point for the pilgrimage caravan to Mecca.
• Medina: Pilgrimage city visited before Ibn Battuta’s first arrival at Mecca.
• Mecca: The original destination of Ibn Battuta’s 1325 pilgrimage and a base to which he returned several times.
• Najaf: Iraqi pilgrimage centre visited during Ibn Battuta’s first journey beyond Mecca.
• Baghdad: Former Abbasid capital visited during the Persian journeys and again on the homeward route.
• Tabriz: Major commercial centre in the Ilkhanate visited by travellers crossing Iran and western Asia.
• Isfahan: Iranian city visited during Ibn Battuta’s 1326–27 circuit through Iraq and Persia.
• Shiraz: Iranian scholarly and commercial centre visited on the early Persian circuit and the return from Asia.
• Jeddah: Red Sea port serving Mecca and Ibn Battuta’s maritime departure toward Yemen and East Africa.
• Aden: Major Yemeni port connecting the Red Sea, Arabian Sea, and East African coast.
• Zeila: Horn of Africa port on the southward coastal voyage.
• Mogadishu: Prosperous Swahili coast city described during Ibn Battuta’s East African voyage.
• Mombasa: Swahili coast port visited while sailing south toward Kilwa.
• Kilwa Kisiwani: Southernmost well-supported destination of Ibn Battuta’s East African voyage and a major Indian Ocean trading city.
• Muscat: Omani port on Ibn Battuta’s passage from southern Arabia toward Hormuz.
• Hormuz Island: Island emporium visited in 1332 after the kingdom’s commercial centre had moved from mainland Old Hormuz.
• Konya: Anatolian urban and religious centre represented on Ibn Battuta’s extensive journey through the region.
• Constantinople: Major imperial city and maritime junction between the Black Sea and Mediterranean.
• Crimea: Representative point for Ibn Battuta’s entry into the territories of the Golden Horde.
• Astrakhan region: Representative lower Volga point for travel with the court of Öz Beg Khan; the chronology of the Constantinople detour is disputed.
• Khiva: Khwarazm oasis city on the route from the Golden Horde toward Transoxiana.
• Bukhara: Historic scholarly and caravan city visited while crossing Transoxiana toward India.
• Samarkand: Central Asian city visited on the journey through Chagatai territory toward Afghanistan.
• Balkh: Historic caravan centre in northern Afghanistan linking routes toward the Pamirs, Transoxiana, and India.
• Kabul: Representative point on the incompletely documented route through Afghanistan toward the Indus and Delhi.
• Delhi: Capital of the Delhi Sultanate, where Ibn Battuta served for years as a jurist under Muhammad bin Tughluq.
• Daulatabad: Deccan stronghold represented on the overland route from Delhi toward India’s western ports.
• Khambhat: Gujarat port reached during the ill-fated diplomatic mission from Delhi.
• Calicut: Major Malabar Coast entrepôt linking Indian Ocean commercial and diplomatic networks.
• Malé: Representative centre for Ibn Battuta’s extended residence and service as a judge in the Maldives.
• Sri Lanka: Representative southwest-coast landfall on maritime routes between Southeast Asia, India, and the Persian Gulf.
• Madurai region: Representative point for the contested and poorly dated south Indian phase associated with the Madurai Sultanate.
• Chittagong: Bengal port represented on Ibn Battuta’s voyage toward Sonargaon and Southeast Asia.
• Sonargaon: Bengal commercial centre visited before the eastward maritime journey.
• Samudra Pasai: Representative north Sumatran anchorage used in medieval travel accounts; exact local itineraries remain uncertain.
• Quanzhou: Major Yuan maritime port linking China with Southeast Asian and Indian Ocean networks.
• Guangzhou: Major Chinese port associated with the Rihla’s China narrative; whether Ibn Battuta personally followed every claimed Chinese leg is disputed.
• Hangzhou: Inland extent of the China itinerary represented with disputed certainty because the Rihla’s chronology and firsthand basis are contested.
• Gibraltar: Strait fortress that prompted Ibn Battuta’s short journey into al-Andalus after his first return to Morocco.
• Granada: Nasrid capital and principal destination of Ibn Battuta’s Andalusian journey.
• Sijilmasa: Moroccan caravan terminus used for the trans-Saharan journey to and from Mali.
• Taghaza: Saharan salt-mining settlement on the caravan route toward Walata.
• Walata: Southern Saharan caravan town marking entry into the Mali Empire’s trading networks.
• Mali imperial capital region: Approximate representation of Mansa Sulayman’s capital; its identification and precise location remain disputed.
• Timbuktu: Niger River trading settlement represented on the late West African itinerary with approximate route certainty.
• Gao: Niger River city visited during the return phase of the Mali journey.
• Fez: Marinid capital where Ibn Battuta returned and was directed to dictate the account later known as the Rihla.

Sources

1. Ibn Battuta’s Rihla, Library of Congress. Digitized Arabic edition and catalogue essay covering Ibn Battuta’s life, journey, return to Morocco, and dictation of the Rihla to Ibn Juzayy.
2. The Travels of Ibn Battuta, Office of Resources for International and Area Studies, University of California, Berkeley. Phase-by-phase chronology and teaching reconstruction based substantially on Ross Dunn’s historical study of the journeys.
3. Ebn Battuta, Encyclopaedia Iranica. Critical biography and itinerary analysis identifying inconsistent dates, borrowed material, disputed movements, Iranian journeys, Central Asian route, India, and the contested China narrative.
4. Voyages d’Ibn Batoutah, Cambridge University Press. Bibliographic record and description of the four-volume Arabic text and French translation, with the opening route from Tangier through Egypt, the Levant, and Mecca.
5. Ibn Battuta: Travels in Asia and Africa, 1325–1354, Internet Medieval Sourcebook, Fordham University. Selected English translation of the Rihla supporting the departure date, pilgrimage purpose, major destinations, and return across the Sahara.
6. The Travels of Ibn Battutah, UNESCO Silk Roads Programme. Overview of the journey’s scale and geographic reach from Tangier through Africa and Asia to China.