Ibn Battuta Essay

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The Travels of Ibn Battuta: A Window into a More Diverse World In analyzing the legacy of the 14th century Islamic traveler Ibn Battuta, it is impossible to ignore the impact that his voyages in the 1350-60s had on the social and cultural devlopment of the Mali Empire and its neigbors, but even more so the significance to the upper classes living in his natice Morocco and in the Arabic birthplace of Islam, who would grow to have great power and prestige across Africa and the East. Several decades after earlier voyages to East Africa, Ibn Battuta made one of his last major voyages – a journey south to the Niger River, then west to the southwest border of modern-day Mali, then back up the Niger through Timbuktu, before finally returning home He was not offered his usual elite treatment upon arrival, and upon appearing to protest this alleged slight, the sultan did not even recognize him. Accordingly, he describes the sultan as “miserly” (Gibb, et al. 957). In constrast, however, he appreciated the devoutness of those Malians who were Muslim (Levtzion and Pouwels 67), and generally praised the region’s wealth and gold reservers (which had, under Musa I, literally placed the region on the Catalan map). 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 As Gibb, et al., point out in their forward to the groundbreaking initial English publication of the Rihla (as The Travels of Ibn Battuta, AD 1325-1354), many of the Arabic sources containing records of the people he mentions and even perhaps corroborating some of his questionable accounts may be lost or simply untranslated. However, additional credence should be lent to Ibn Battuta’s account of Mali for two man reasons: first, Ibn Battuta describes Mali in great detail, mentioning countless names of people he encountered there while relating countless short passages titled, “An Anecdote” (Hamdun and King XIX), and finally, because of the simple fact that Ibn Battuta had to recall details from only a few years back regarding Mali as he dictated the Rihla to his secretary and

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