Page 129 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol III

948 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

A traveller must have the back of an ass to bear all, a tongue
like the tail of a dog to flatter all, the mouth of a hog to eat
what is set before him, the ear of a merchant to hear all
and say nothing. • Thomas Nashe (1567–1601)

■ 1351–1354. Sijilmasa on the northern fringe of the heart of Tangier.The Moroccan scholar Abelhadi al-Tazi
Moroccan Sahara to the West African Sudan, and has recently reported documentary evidence suggesting
back to Fez. that the traveler’s bones may rest in Anfa, a port town
that today lies beneath modern Casablanca.
The relatively stable political conditions that prevailed Ibn Battuta identified himself with the Muslim learned
in many parts of Afro-Eurasia in the second quarter of the class (ulama), and that status, which he displayed in piety,
fourteenth century no doubt facilitated Ibn Battuta’s dress, social manners, and religious knowledge, gained
prodigious journeys. This was the twilight of the age of him entry to the homes and princely courts of the pow-
Mongol dominance.When he began his traveling career, erful and rich. We have no evidence, however, that he
four great Mongol states, three of them Muslim, ruled the was an especially accomplished intellectual. When he
greater part of Eurasia. Among other large and flourish- ended his traveling career in Fez, he wrote the account of
ing states were the Mamluk empire in Egypt and Syria, his adventures in collaboration with Muhammad Ibn
the Sultanate of Delhi in North India, and the Mali Juzayy (1321–1356 or 1358), a young Moroccan scholar,
empire in West Africa—all Muslim.Typically, the rulers of who had skills Ibn Battuta did not possess to compose
these states encouraged long-distance trade and provid- the travels in proper literary form.
ed security for the interurban journeys of Muslim diplo- Formally titled “A Gift to the Observers Concerning the
mats, preachers, and scholars, including Ibn Battuta. Curiosities of the Cities and the Marvels Encountered in
Ibn Battuta’s motives for travel were many. First, he Travels,” the Rihla circulated in manuscript form among
journeyed as a religious pilgrim. He took part in the rit- educated North Africans in the fourteenth century and in
uals of the hajj in Mecca six or seven times during his West Africa, Egypt, and possibly Syria in subsequent cen-
career, and indeed the Holy City became the central hub turies. In the mid-nineteenth century, French scholars dis-
of his peregrinations. Second, he traveled to pursue covered manuscript copies of the Rihla in Algeria and
advanced studies in Islamic law, though he attended lec- prepared both a printed Arabic text and a French trans-
tures, as far as we know, only in Damascus and Mecca. lation. Since then, the account has been translated into
Third, he traveled as a devotee of Sufism, the mystical English, Spanish, German, Persian, and several other lan-
dimension of Islam. He visited a number of cities and guages. In recent years, Ibn Battuta has become more
Sufi lodges specifically to pay his respects to living widely known in Western countries owing to publication
scholar-saints or to the tombs of deceased ones, thus of popular articles about him and to his inclusion in
sharing in the aura of divine grace associated with them. most encyclopedias and world history textbooks.
Fourth, he journeyed to seek employment. In Delhi, he The Rihla is of immense documentary value, partly
received generous salaries and honors for serving the because it illuminates the values, customs, and cosmo-
Muslim Turkic government as both a judge and a royal politanism of educated Muslims in the late Mongol era
mausoleum administrator. For several months he held a and partly because Ibn Battuta recorded observations of
judgeship in the Maldive Islands. We must also accept nearly every conceivable facet of life in Muslim and in
that his motive for visiting some places, tropical East some measure non-Muslim societies. His subjects of live-
Africa, for example, was simply that these were parts of ly and sometimes critical commentary include religion,
the Muslim world he had not yet seen. education, state politics, royal ceremony, law, warfare,
According to the scant references to him that appear gender relations, slavery, trade, agriculture, cuisine,
in other Arabic texts of the fourteenth and fifteenth cen- manufacturing, geography, transport, and the achieve-
turies, he died in 1368 or 1369, after serving in his later ments and failings of numerous jurists, theologians,
years as a judge in an unidentified Moroccan town. A monarchs, and governors. The Rihla is the only surviv-
tomb where tradition says he is buried still stands in the ing eyewitness account from the fourteenth century of