Who is Ibn Battuta? Abu Abdallah Ibn Battuta (shortly known as Ibn Battuta) was born in 1304 in Tangier, Morocco, in a Muslim family. He studied law as a young man. By the time, he was about 20 years old, he decided to go to “hajj,” a sacred place in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Instead of taking a shorter route to go to “hajj,” he took the longer route because he loved to travel and wanted to observe different cultures. After he arrived back home, after 29 years of journey, the Sultan of the Morocco, Abu Inan, insisted Ibn Battuta tell the story of his journey, especially about his experiences and his observations of the Islamic world of his day, to a scholar, Ibn Juzayy. Ibn Battuta is also known as the “Marco Polo of the Muslim world.” Although …show more content…
This depicts that cultures are diffusing within societies through religion. The Sultan Muhammad Tughluq needed judges, scholars, and administrators for his province, instead of hiring local people, the Sultan turned to outsiders to fill these position because Sultan did not trust Hindu people, thinking they would go against him and throw him from his crown. Thus, he hired foreigners and rewarded them with luxury gifts and high salary. Ibn Babutta saw this as a perfect opportunity to live and observe the Indian culture. When he came to India, he brought a lot of gifts such as “a load of arrows, several camels, more than thirty horses and…white slaves and other goods” for Sultan because he knew Sultan would give him, even more, gifts in return. Ibn Battuta received 2,000 silver dinars and a comfortably furnished house in return. Ibn Battuta got a job as a quid, or judge, and his annual salary was 5,000 silver dinars. He also received 12,000 dinars in cash as an advance bonus and a horse with saddle and bridle. Since Ibn Battuta did not speak Persian well enough, he was given two assistants as translators. Ibn Battuta knew the culture of Sultan. Whenever he meets sultan, he would kiss sultan’s hand whenever sultan says something nice to him until he kisses him seven times and receives a “robe of honor.” This shows that Ibn Battuta was …show more content…
But all of his observations and experiences matched with many scholarly written textbook. One such textbook is Worlds Together, Worlds Apart A History of the World From the Beginnings of Humankind to the Present by Robert Tignor and eleven of his colleagues. For example, in the book, Indians would wear “their distinctive trousers and robes.” When Ibn Battuta kissed Sultan Muhammad Tughluq seven times for praising him with his words, he was given a robe as a gift. Indians were known for “their horse-riding skills.” We can see that when the Sultan Muhammad Tughluq was coming to Delhi from a war, he was being carried on a horse and later Ibn Battuta demanded a horse in Maldives. Also in the textbook, it says, “although the sultans spoke Turkish languages, they regarded Persian literature as a high cultural achievement and made Persian their courtly and administrative language.” It is also true as we can see that when Ibn Battuta was a judge, he was given two assistants as a translator and the Sultan himself spoke
Ibn Munqidh, Usama. "From Memoirs." McNeill, William and Marilyn Robinson Waldman. The Islamic World. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1973. 184-206.
...ng religion and foreign to the people of India, yet there is a defied truth that Islam’s spread peacefully throughout India with the alliances formed between the Indian people, the Turks, and the Mongols. The encounters that the ancient Indian people had to endure with the Turks, Mongols, and Islam have had the most memorable impact and impression on Indian culture and other societies throughout the east. Ancient Indian history is often overlooked within our society, but perhaps there should be a second look at how the Indian people have became who they are today, what attributes that have given society, and what pandemonium they have overcame as a civilization to stay in existence and stand against the test of time.
He describes many other places he travels to in the same way, clearly appreciating a very generous, religious and wealthy host. Later, in West Africa, Ibn Battuta is much more critical and disapproving. He is very offended by the women in Mali and says, “Among the bad things which they do- their serving women, slave women and little daughters appear before people naked, exposing their private parts.” More of their “bad” customs are “putting of dust and ashes on their heads as a sign of respect… their poetic recitals… [and] that many of them eat animals not ritually slaughtered, and dogs and donkeys.” Both of these descriptions show the diversity of customs and values across Africa. Although, it is notable that Ibn Battuta is very biased in the telling of his travels, but no one person is free from
Ibn Battuta, Travels in Asia and Africa 1325-1354, tr. and ed. H. A. R. Gibb (London: Broadway
The importance of Ibn Battuta’s journey to Mali itself was limited. But his journeys, especially this one – to a Islamisized African nation with diverse cultural beliefs, brought home to Morocco and the rest of the Arab world where the Rihla was circulated a view of the wider world, streching out upon a vast east-west axis and incorporating a diverse array of native cultures fused with the mighty force of Islam, for better or
Moroccan traveler, Ibn Battuta, is well-known for being one of the greatest travelers of his time. Battuta’s descriptive account of his travels to East and West Africa in the fourteenth century provides important insight into African Islamic life at that point in time. Although Battuta and the peoples in black Africa shared the same religion, he comes to realize that sharing a religion is not enough to completely relate to a different group of people. The story of Ibn Battuta in Black Africa illustrates the difficulties he faced in relating to these peoples due to the non-traditional role of women, different religious customs, and frequent misinterpretation of situations.
Hourani, Albert. A History of the Arab Peoples. Cambridge, MA: Belknap of Harvard UP, 1991. Print.
Norris, H.T. "The Arabian Nights: A Companion." Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 58 (1995):148-149.
Haddawy, Husain. The Arabian Nights. Rpt in Engl 123 B16 Custom Courseware. Comp. Lisa Ann Robertson. Edmonton, AB: University of Alberta, 2014. 51-64. Print.
Thus, one temperate Friday afternoon, when Khrebat minibus arrived in the neighborhood and stopped at Hajja Nima stop, Mubarak got off and asked a bystander if he knew where the Hajja Nima's residence, which the Sudanese rented, was. “You are precisely at their house,” said the young man amiably, pointing to a dilapidated one floor building atop a flat hill with a red brick fence so low-set that it almost negated the function it was built for. So Mubarak thanked the man and then walked around the fence until he was squarely in front of the dwelling. When he knocked on the half-open improvised wooden gate, a half-asleep and half-naked young man answered. The man welcomed Mubarak graciously and then ushered him into the verandah of their quarters. One thing that attracted Mubarak’s attention instantaneously was the huge number of people insi...
Lane, Edward William. Arabian Society in the Middle Ages. New York: Barnes and Noble, 1971.
Ibn Battuta known for his travels, the only medieval traveler known to have visited the lands of every Muslim ruler of his time. Ibn Battuta traveled for about 27 years. Ibn Battuta was born in February 25, 1304 In Tangier, Morocco. His religion was Islam, he was a Muslim. As a young man, he studied at a Sunni Malkili Madhihab, it was the dominant form of education in North Africa at that time. At a very young age, age of 21, Ibn Battuta set alone on a hajj, in other words pilgrimage to Mecca. This expedition would take sixteen months. This hajj or expedition was his first traveling experience. He must had loved it, because instead of Ibn Battuta returning home, he went or continued with his travels. He traveled to Mecca overland, following the North African coast, he then got married in the town of Sfax, which was his first series of marriages that would feature in his travels. In 1326, Ibn Battuta arrived at the Port of Alexandria. Ibn Battuta spended a couple of weeks at the Port of Alexandria and then headed inland to Cairo, an important city at the time. Later on a local rebellion; an open, armed, and organized resistance to a government forced him to turn back, so he returned back to Cairo, taking a second side trip.
Waïl S. Hassan,(2003). Gender (and) Imperialism: Structures of Masculinity in Tayeb Salih's Season of Migration to the North. Sage publications. Retrieved from jmm.sagepub.com at University of Balamand.Dec, 2013. dio: 10.1177/1097184X02238529.
Ibn al Haytham was a Muslim innovator born in 965 in Basra. He is also known as Alhazen and The First Scientist. In his time, Alhazen was able to invent the first pinhole camera and a camera obscura. Before Alhazen, scientists believed that they did not have to scientifically prove their findings, however, he knew better. Every experiment or hypothesis Alhazen came up with, he submitted it to a physical test and/or proof using mathematic equations. (“Arab Inventors”)
Kenneth Jost. 2005. “Understanding Islam.” Annual Editions: Anthropology 11/12, 34th Edition. Elvio Angeloni. New York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.