The Mediterranean in the 14th century

Ibn Battuta

Celebrated Moroccan traveler, born in Tangier in 1304, is considered the “globetrotter” of historic Islam. Author of a Rihla or book of travels, in his narrative he tells of his many adventures.

He left Morocco for Mecca in the year 1325 with the aim of carrying out his pilgrimage. In one year he had reached the sacred cities of Mecca and Medina, thus fulfilling the initial objective of his trip. Shortly thereafter he found himself ranging over the world as no one else had ever done before, undertaking a series of journeys which took him over a period of 20 years to places as far off as India, the Maldives, Ceylan, Bengal, Sumatra, China, Asia Minor, Eastern Russia, Yemen, Somalia, Oman…

He returned to Fes at the end of the year 1349-50, and after making two more trips to al-Andalus and to Mali, he was appointed by the Merinid sultan Abu Inan, to govern a Moroccan province, probably the region of Tamasna, where it is likely that he died in the year 1368-69.