A recent visit to Tangier, the city in Morocco that lies at the crossroads of Africa and Europe, revived memories of probably the world’s greatest traveler, Ibn Battuta. He was born in Tangier and belonged to Morocco, from where he embarked on his travels in the 14th century, traversing 75,000 miles during travel, covering 29 years spanning 40 countries, both land and sea. His journeys took him to Africa and Asia, including as far East as China. His book on travels is a unique mystical mixture of a world of sultans, snake charmers, slave girls, traders, Sufis, saints, scholars, and magicians who could conjure up mind-boggling and eye-popping tricks before bewildered audiences.

This tricontinental journey, including parts of Europe, Africa, and Asia, provides unique insights of Ibn Battuta, who started his journey in 1325 when he was just 21, starting on a pilgrimage to Mecca. Appropriately, Ibn Battuta calls his odyssey “traveling in search of knowledge.” And the impact and imprint of his travels is even felt today, as was evident in the speech of President Xi Jinping during the conference on Dialogue among Civilizations, which he delivered in Beijing in May 2019 when he referred to Ibn Battuta’s travels along the Silk Road as a symbol of connectivity among countries, continents, and cultures.

Three aspects are unique about the travels of Ibn Battuta as he methodically documented the lifestyles, the cultures, the cuisines, and the various rulers and scholars that he interacted with on his travels. First, more than any other traveler of his time, including Marco Polo, who preceded him by almost half a century, Ibn Battuta is the first traveler of globalization, given the extent, the depth, and the vastness of his travels over an extended period of nearly three decades. No other traveler has been able to compete with him in that respect in terms of contrast and diversity in disseminating knowledge about the world of that period.

Second, Ibn Battuta is an amazing storyteller, with an eye for detail, providing documentation of events, people, and places with amazing precision in memory, which also shows his curiosity about learning and quest for knowledge.

Third, Ibn Battuta is the true globalist with an inclusive approach willing to assimilate with other cultures and with an ability to adapt to the environment he is living in, often marrying into other cultures, given his extended stays in different parts of the world during his journeys.

For example, his description of two major Asian countries, namely, India and China, is reflected in the graphic picture of the cultures, way of life, and even governance of that period, since he had the rare opportunity to interact both with the rulers as well as the people that were ruled. Ibn Battuta was also a lucky traveler because he survived shipwrecks, as well as the famous Black Plague of 1348, which killed nearly half of the population of Europe and the Middle East. He visited India and lived in Delhi when Sultan Muhammad Tughluq was the ruler in 1334. Two anecdotes about the humility of Sultan and his sense of equity and justice are amazing, which are documented in his travelogue:

  • One of the Hindu chiefs brought a claim against the Sultan that he had killed the chief’s brother without just cause and urged him to appear before the Qazi (judge). Whereupon, the Sultan went on foot, unarmed, to the Qazi’s tribunal, saluted, and made the sign of homage, having previously sent orders to the Qazi that on his arrival at the tribunal, he (Qazi) should not stand up for him nor move from his place. He walked up to the tribunal and remained standing before the Qazi, who gave judgment against him, decreeing that the Sultan should give compensation to his opponent for his brother’s blood, and he did so.

  • A young boy, one of the sons of the maliks, brought a claim against the sultan that the latter had struck him without just cause and accused him before the Qazi. . Judgment was given against the sultan, to the effect that he should give the plaintiff monetary compensation, if he would accept that, or alternatively, allow him to exercise his right to retaliate in kind. I was present that day when the sultan returned to his audience hall and saw him summon the boy, give him a stick, and say to him, “By my head, you shall strike me just as I struck you.” Whereupon the boy took the stick and gave him twenty-one blows, so that I actually saw his high cap fly off his head.

While visiting Multan, Ibn Battuta discovered the mango fruit. He mentions even in his description of how to eat the mango, which is amazing: ‘When the mango ripens in the season of autumn, its fruit becomes yellow and then is eaten like an apple, some people cutting it with a knife while others simply sucking it, adding that the “fruit is sweet with the little acidity mingled with its sweetness and has a large stone, which they plant, and the mango trees sprout from them.” Ibn Battuta, on his journey from Multan to Delhi, also stopped over in what is now Pakpattan, where he met the descendants of the famous Sufi saint and scholar, Baba Fareed, who had died in 1271.

Ibn Battuta also provides a vivid description of the ancient Hindu ritual of ‘Satti,’ where a widow, after her husband’s death, would also join the cremation of her husband as a mark of fidelity and get burnt alive in the funeral pyre.

Ibn Battuta's description of China is also quite revealing. He has some fascinating observations on China, terming China as the “safest and best country for travellers, as a man may travel for 9 months alone with great wealth and have nothing to fear.” Ibn Battuta is also impressed by Chinese skills and artistic excellence, as he terms it, that China produces the “most superb kind of pottery, and China is rich in resources, fruit, cereal, gold, and silver, as well as a mastery of painting,” and he says that the “Chinese are, of all peoples, the most skillful in crafts and attained the greatest perfection in them.”

Ibn Battuta also describes the rather robust presence and role of Muslims living in different parts of China, adding that Muslims in China are highly regarded and treated with respect, and they live comfortably and with affluence. Among the prominent cities of China that Ibn Battuta visited were Peking and Canton. Ibn Battuta also went to Hangzhou, terming it “the biggest city I have seen on the face of the earth.” Describing Hangzhou, Ibn Battuta writes that this city is “laid out in the Chinese style of building, everyone having his own orchard and house, and he also describes formal banquets and dinners with the rulers of China and India, where he describes in detail the protocol of standing and sitting in terms of rank and seniority. It was a pleasant surprise for Ibn Battuta that when he was a guest of the ruler going on a cruise, he was entertained by singers who sang in Chinese, Arabic, and Persian, including verses by the great Persian poet Saadi:

When we gave our hearts to sorrow.

We sank in an ocean of care,

But we were stalwart in standing,

Upright at the mihrab in prayer.

Some other descriptions of countries are also fascinating. Ibn Battuta, during his visit to Yemen, writes that “the whole city of Sana’a is paved, and when the rain falls, it washes and cleans all its streets,” and he also has strong views about a city on the Somali coast, Zaila, terming it “the dirtiest, most disagreeable, and most sticking town in the world.”.

Ibn Battuta’s fascinating travelogue is still relevant in today’s world, and it is a primer in harmony, coexistence, and respect for “others” irrespective of caste, creed, religion, or race. It is about celebrating diversity, learning from the rich cultures of different regions and countries that Ibn Battuta visited, and being a personal witness to their rituals and customs. Traveling so extensively and seeing all that he saw and wrote is a tribute to harmony, the spirit of adventure, learning, and conquering all kinds of obstacles, both mental and physical, outside the “comfort zone” that we have created for ourselves, finding solace and satisfaction in “traveling in search of knowledge.” Ibn Battuta was truly the harbinger of a globalized world that he discovered during his decades of travel.