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In the early 1300s, most people never left their hometown. Journeys were dangerous and slow, and travel across continents was rare.
Yet in 1325, a 21 year old law student from Tangier, Morocco, set out to make the pilgrimage to Mecca. His name was Ibn Battuta.
What began as a religious duty became a lifetime of wandering. Over nearly three decades, he crossed North Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, India, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia, China, al Andalus, and West Africa.
By the time he finally returned home, he had traveled an estimated 75,000 miles, farther than Marco Polo.
Who was Ibn Battuta?
Ibn Battuta was trained in Islamic law, a qadi or judge in the making.
Like every able Muslim, he was obligated to make the Hajj, the sacred pilgrimage to Mecca.
The journey was meant to be a spiritual duty, not an adventure.
Yet for him the road quickly became more than a religious requirement.
He found in travel a way to expand his education, meet other scholars, and live out the ideals of faith in far away lands.
Why continue beyond Mecca?
The Hajj introduced him to a vast network of routes, caravans, and ships that tied together the Islamic world.
Once his pilgrimage was complete, he realized that those same paths could carry him farther.
Curiosity, ambition, and opportunity drew him onward. Across continents he served in royal courts, taught law, and exchanged ideas with scholars.
He married in some of the places he stayed, sailed with merchants across the Indian Ocean, and crossed deserts with caravans.
His destinations stretched from West Africa to China, but what mattered most was not the list of cities.
It was that a man of his time could move through such a wide world and be welcomed by shared faith and tradition.
Why so few know his story
Despite the scale of his travels, Ibn Battuta’s name is less familiar than explorers like Marco Polo.
One reason is that his account, the Rihla (The Journey), was dictated late in life and never circulated widely outside the Islamic world.
Parts of it mix firsthand description with reports he heard along the way, which has led some to doubt or downplay his experiences.
Yet historians agree that he did complete extraordinary journeys and that his record remains one of the richest portraits of the 14th century.
Why his journey still matters
Ibn Battuta’s life shows that global travel did not begin with European explorers.
Long before the age of sail, the world was linked by religion, trade, and scholarship.
What makes his story remarkable is that he kept moving, choosing discovery over return, until he had crossed more miles than any traveler of his era.
His Rihla preserves that legacy and reminds us how connected the medieval world already was.
Until next time,
Emails From Afar Team
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