Saturday, November 19, 2011

Ibn Battuta (1304 - 1368)

Imagine the 1300's.  No trains, no cars, no cruise ships.  Now imagine traveling the breadth of the known world, around 75K miles (121K km), through Europe, Middle East, Persia, India, Far East, and Africa.  On camels, donkeys, horses, boats, and your own two feet--in about 30 years.  That is serious, serious traveling.

Ibn Battuta was a Moroccan Berber who held the record as the most well-traveled man for about say, 450 years (with the advent of the steam engine).  His story as written in his book, al Rihla (The Travels), was lost for centuries before being rediscovered in Algeria in the 1830's.  (See a map comparing his travels with those of the more famous Marco Polo and Zheng He.)

Wikipedia

Islam for Today

Fordham University

Time magazine

Saudi Aramco World

Ibnibnbattuta

No comments:

Post a Comment