The Adventures of Ibn Battuta: A Muslim Traveler of the Fourteenth Century, Revised Edition, with...
Known as the greatest traveler of premodern times, Abu Abdallah ibn Battuta was born in Morocco in 1304 and educated in Islamic law. At the age of ...
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Oct 17, 2011
Mohamed Yasir
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The Adventures of Ibn Battuta provides in vivid detail all the countries he had visited, including Egypt, Hijaz (present day Saudi Arabia) as well as his home country, the Maghrib (present day Morocco). The most significant part of his Rihla (journey) would have to be his stay at Mecca to perform Hajj (the pilgrimage to Mecca which a Muslim must perform at least once in their life) where he performed all the religious rites necessary alongside thousands of Muslims from all over the world. What I
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Jan 19, 2011
Jonathan
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On the one hand, Ibn Battuta's journey throughout the medieval Muslim world was fascinating and the author does a nice job of capturing the flavor of the mosaic of ruling powers throughout the Near, Middle and Far East.
The drawbacks are the way Ibn Battuta's journeys were chronicled a couple of years after he returned from over 20 years of traveling. There is some doubt as to some of his journeys and there are references from scholars of Ibn Battuta's time that cast him as a liar.
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The drawbacks are the way Ibn Battuta's journeys were chronicled a couple of years after he returned from over 20 years of traveling. There is some doubt as to some of his journeys and there are references from scholars of Ibn Battuta's time that cast him as a liar.
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Jul 26, 2010
Rowland
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Ibn Battuta set off from Tangier in 1325, visiting Egypt, Mecca, Syria, Iraq, Anatolia, the Central Asian steppe, India, the Maldives and possibly China before returning home nearly twenty five years later. After additional trips to Spain and West Africa he settled down and his story was turned into a Rihla (travel narrative) by Ibn Juzayy.
The Adventures of Ibn Battuta follows Ibn Battuta's travels chronologically, but doesn't stay narrowly focused on the details of his career. It of More...
The Adventures of Ibn Battuta follows Ibn Battuta's travels chronologically, but doesn't stay narrowly focused on the details of his career. It of More...
Sep 12, 2010
Heman
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When I first started reading this book I was very disappointed; it was a generally paraphrased scholarly treaty of the original work and the the history and geography of the places mentioned in the book with little or no direct quotes from the original. I got so upset that I skipped the first chapter after a few pages and went straight to the third chapter hoping that it gets better and it actually grew on me. After finishing the third chapter I went back to first and read steadily til the end o
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Jan 23, 2012
Kevin
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Ross Dunn presents an absolutely fascinating window into the Muslim world of the 14th century through a novel-esque retelling of Ibn Battuta's travel journals. While Ibn Battuta struck me as something of a jerk, his travels throughout the Muslim world were fascinating. Islam may have spread West by the sword, but it spread East by the trading-ship. The legal scholar from Western Africa follows trade routes from Morocco to the Middle East to India and possibly beyond, finally returning home to wr
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Jan 28, 2011
Claire
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I was enchanted by the description of an era of peace and prosperity whereby a young man full of education and not sure that he wants to 'settle down' yet -- my, how nothing much changes under the sun! -- could safely travel the entire Muslim world, most of Africa, pretty much all of the middle east, and even India, and be recieved wherever he went by the local head mogul who would treat him with respect and a generous welcome. Ibn Battuta himself seemed so ordinary. No hero or whiz kid at all
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Dec 25, 2010
Z
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dense and for an individual that hasnt had prior knowledge regarding Middle East History is a very hard read. The book is in a constant state of "this possibly happened" blah blah blah yes, i do understand it is date from the 14th century, but still...I wouldnt reccomend this book to anyone.
Jul 17, 2008
Katherine
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I thought this would be much easier to read than the original I had to slog through in college, and it was, but expectedly it's not nearly as exciting. And I was let down by the author's use of the original text. This should have been either a breezy travelogue or a hard-core academic book. It falls uncomfortably in between. And if Ibn Battuta lied about his travels as much as Marco Polo did, then I wanted some more explanation for that, and maybe a comparison to the works of the people who didn
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Nov 24, 2009
Scott
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So far, a little too negative regarding the Mongols. Of course, written from the Muslim perspective, there is a lot of culture destroyed, but referring to them as basically evil does kind of set a certain orientation that is hard to dismiss.
May 29, 2008
Kashif
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Ibn Battuta was an amazing man who with very few possessions and only trust in Almighty God travelled half the world and came back to describe it. People mention Marco Polo as the first great explorer in world history however they dismiss Ibn Batuta at their peril.
Ibn Battuta was before Marco Polo by a few hundred years. So by my reckoning Ibn Battuta should be regarded in the West and around the world as the first real great explorer, however because he was a Muslim it seems as tho More...
Ibn Battuta was before Marco Polo by a few hundred years. So by my reckoning Ibn Battuta should be regarded in the West and around the world as the first real great explorer, however because he was a Muslim it seems as tho More...
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Jan 08, 2009
John
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A good introduction to the Islamicate world and beyond in the 14th century, following the travels of Ibn Battuta. Dunn offers great context, and the story of Ibn Battuta's travels makes this read almost like fiction.
Sep 22, 2009
John
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A truly amazing story when taken in the context of the culture and time of the adventure. Ibn Battuta starts and ends in Northern Morocco, and travels further than Marco Polo through Africa, the Middle East, the Balkans, India, China, and the south Pacific. His travels through Moorish Andalucia are the most familiar part of the book to me. Highly recommended.
Aug 30, 2009
Tahany
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I was amazed how the author related all events together!!! I highly recomand this book :D
Apr 11, 2008
Nicholas
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I took a World History survey course as a sophomore in college and this was the textbook. Really opens your eyes to society and culture in the ancient world. We're so used to learning the Western tradition in our educational system that to see the world from a Muslim's perspective was enlightening, especially with the emphasis on Asia and Africa.
Feb 09, 2007
ryan
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Like the travels of Marco Polo, but better, as this account isn't nearly as biased and explains much more of the history of the areas this constant traveller visited. Thats not to say that Ibn Battuta himself wasn't as ignorant as Polo was; just that, thankfully, he didn't write his own book or have someone of his time write one for him.
Oct 19, 2007
Rebekah
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I read this book in college, and when I met my husband, found out that he owned a copy. It was meant to be. It's an incredible story about a traveler I had never heard of before. It's amazing to read about how a culture spanned such a huge distance, making travel like this easy and even comfortable for the time.
Jun 18, 2007
Chris
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This was a really fun book, with a touch of dry humor to it. It's actually a really good introduction to Islam as well. For Muslims, it's hard to believe what the world was once like, and it's harder to believe Ibn Battuta traveled across it all before the advent of cars, rails, and planes.
Jan 06, 2008
Zoe
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This was informative in terms of learning about the Arab world's equivalent of Marco Polo. However, it was a book that I could certainly put down. Although there were certainly some episodes that grabbed my attention, in general I didn't find it super engaging.
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Feb 10, 2009
Dan
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Unbelievable story of a man's journey. I am surprised and let down that I did not learn about him during my k-12 public school education in the States.
Dec 16, 2009
haha, my mom always makes jokes about Ibn Battuta but I never really knew what she was talking about. . .i'm definitely gonna have to check this bad boy out
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