Travels

Travels, classic travel account by Ibn Baṭṭūṭah of his journeys through virtually all Muslim countries and many adjacent lands. The full title means “The Gift of the Beholders on the Peculiarities of the Regions and the Marvels of Journeys.” The narrative was dictated in 1353 to Ibn Juzayy, who embellished the simple prose of Ibn Baṭṭūṭah with an ornate style and fragments of poetry.

Travels is an important document shedding light on many aspects of the social, cultural, and political history of a great part of the Muslim world. A curious observer interested in the ways of life in various countries, Ibn Baṭṭūṭah describes his experiences with a human approach rarely encountered in official historiography. His accounts of his travels in Asia Minor, East and West Africa, the Maldives, and India form a major source for the histories of these areas, whereas the parts dealing with the Arab and Persian Middle East are valuable for their wealth of detail on aspects of social and cultural life.