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He was born on 24 February 1304 into a family of Islamic legal scholars in Tangier, known as qadis in the Muslim tradition in Morocco. -
He travelled by camel caravan, foot and ship. -
At first his purpose was to fulfil that religious duty and to broaden his education by studying under famous scholars in Egypt. -
From 1326 - 1327 he travelled to Iraq and Persia. Travel was dangerous by land and by sea. Ibn Battuta travelled overland at first alone riding a donkey. He was also a merchant and contributed in trading gold, spices, pottery and ivory. -
The Red Sea was not easy to navigate with coral reefs and rocks just under the waterline. Storms were common, as were pirates who waited patiently for ships with rich travelers to rob and kill. -
This town, which is in Turkey, was a busy trading port, especially known for its wood which was shipped to Egypt and Syria. -
Ibn Battuta continued on his journey leaving the steppe, the Land of the Golden Horde, and crossed into the land of the Khan of Chagatai, another descendant of Genghis Khan. -
In 1334, he entered India through the high mountains of Afghanistan, following the footsteps of Turkish warriors who, a century earlier, had conquered and established the Sultanate of Delhi. Routes also caused a major contribution to the spread of Islam. According to Ibn Battuta, the Indian cities were full of opportunities for those people who had the zeal, resources and were skillful. He described Delhi as a large and well-populated city in his book. -
He became involved in local wars and was finally shipwrecked near Calicut, losing all his property and the gifts for the Chinese emperor. Fearing the wrath of the sultan, Ibn Battuta chose to go to the Maldives Islands, where he spent nearly two years. -
He admired much that he saw about China. He observed that "silk is used for clothing even by poor monks and beggars" and that the porcelain was "the finest of all made of pottery." Even the poultry amazed him: "The hens ... in China are ... bigger than geese in our country." -
With death all around him, perhaps he felt the need to go home. He was 45 years old and had been gone for 24 years. He again headed west back toward Morocco. -
At the time of his return to Morocco, Al-Andalus (Andalusia or Muslim Spain) was threatened by several Christian rulers who were trying to reconquer the land from the Muslims. -
A trip to Mali, like all other trips, would be made easier because of already established trade routes controlled by Muslims. The rulers and many businessmen of Mali had converted to Islam a generation before and Muslim traders had come to live in Mali's business centers. -
He was the only medieval Muslim traveler of 1300’s who wrote one of the world's most famous travel logs, the Riḥlah before he died. This great work describes the people, places, and cultures he encountered in his amazing journey along some 75,000 miles (120,000 km) across and beyond the Islamic world. -
He died in 1369 (aged 64 - 65) in Morocco.