The Travels of Ibn Battuta AD 1325-1354 (In 3 Volumes)

Ibn Battuta was born in Tangier in 1304. Between 1324 and 1354 he journeyed through North Africa and Asia Minor to Mecca, through Central Asia to India and as far as China. On a separate voyage he crossed the Sahara to the Muslim lands of West Africa. His journeys are estimated to have covered over 75,000 miles and he is the only medieval traveller known to have visited every Muslim state of the time, besides the ‘infidel’ countries of Istanbul, Ceylon and China. The first two volumes record Ibn Battuta’s earliest journeys through Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Arabia, Persia, Iraq, Asia Minor and South Russia. The third volume records his visits to Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. There are detailed descriptions of the towns on the way and the customs of the inhabitants. Sir Hamilton Gibb had projected to complete this work in volumes with introduction and full notes. However he could complete only three volumes before his death. The travels are a major source for the political and economic life of large regions of Asia and Africa. The observations of this intelligent representative of Islamic culture on almost the whole known inhabited world beyond Europe provide fruitful comparisons with the life and geographical knowledge of the West.