Ibn Battuta in Black Africa

by Ibn Battuta, Noel King, Said Hamdun

Everybody knows the names of European explorers such as Marco Polo and Christopher Columbus, but how many have heard of Ibn Battuta? This intrepid North African scholar first set out for Mecca in the year 1325 A.D. and became so smitten with life on the road that he just kept traveling for the next 29 years. Though Mecca was the object of most of his journeys, Ibn Battuta took different routes each time and thus managed to visit such far-flung places as the Maldive Islands, northern Turkey, and southern China. Ibn Battuta twice traveled south of the Sahara, once visiting the coast of East Africa during a voyage back to Morocco from Arabia, and once journeying to Mali by camel caravan--his last recorded adventure. As with all his journeys, Ibn Battuta kept a detailed account of the places he visited and the people he met. In Ibn Battuta in Black Africa, editors Noel King and Said Hamdun have selected and translated many of Ibn Battuta's writings about his travels in Africa. Anyone interested in the precolonial cultures that thrived in sub-Saharan Africa will find this highly personal account of the private lives and public institutions of the peoples of 14th-century East and West Africa fascinating reading.

Genres: History, Africa, Nonfiction, School, Biography, Travel, Medieval

150 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1994

About the author

Arabic profile: ابن بطوطة

Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn ِAbdullah Al Lawati Al Tanji Ibn Battuta (Arabic: أبو عبد الله محمد ابن عبد الله اللواتي الطنجي ابن بطوطة‎) was a Muslim Marinid Berber scholar and jurisprudent from the Maliki Madhhab (a school of Fiqh, or Sunni Islamic law), and at times a Qadi or judge. However, he is best known as a traveler and explorer, whose account documents his travels and excursions over a period of almost thirty years, covering some 73,000 miles (117,000 km). These journeys covered almost the entirety of the known Islamic world and beyond, extending from North Africa, West Africa, Southern Europe and Eastern Europe in the West, to the Middle East, Indian subcontinent, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and China in the East, a distance readily surpassing that of his predecessors and his near-contemporary Guru Nanak.

Reviews

[John Dishwasher John Dishwasher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating first-hand sample of African cultures of the late 1300s. Made me very curious about Ibn Batuta’s other journeys.

[=====D]

The Muslim world of the 14th century, just like the Roman world of the 2nd century AD or the world of the Fertile Crescent Civilizations 3000-1000 BC, was pretty much just like ours in the ways that count.

The realm of Islam covered much of the known world in the 14th century. Some people traveled around it just for the sake of experience and such, like this guy. He was from Morocco, and made it as far as China, Europe, and Sub-Saharan Africa, this last one being the journey chronicled in this book. Africa had large, rich, and stable kingdoms along the coasts, which grew prosperous by mediating trade between the people living in the interior and traders from far away, Muslims, Europeans and others. Ibn Battuta's account makes it clear that there was no racism of the kind we in the West have come to know so well back then, although there was plenty of pettiness and accusations of provincialism leveled at anyplace that was not Mecca or Medina. There was certainly slavery, but crucially, it was not identified with race.

Pretty interesting book to read, since it is so easy to see oneself as living in those times. I feel like anything that can shake us out of our lazy, complacent ethnocentrism and superior attitudes can only be a good thing. Revealing the past for what it is-- the present of people who lived before-- can only make us aware of our own mortality, fallibility, and profound unremarkable-ness. Our present will be judged by the people who come after us, and have no doubt, they will not think us brilliant for spending all our time figuring out how to "make the economy grow" while destroying the planet that sustains us all at an ever increasing rate. If we don't fuck up so bad there is no "intelligent" life to judge us at all, that is.


On a totally unrelated note: there are color photos of Russia from over 100 years ago that are a life-changing experience, something that will play with your head and leave you unable to think of the past as "The Past" ever again. A number of them are here:

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010...

while the Library of Congress has the collection in its entirety, thousands of pictures and negatives.

[Melissa Jeanette · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very interesting read; especially for anyone interested in anthropology or historical customs. It is an ancient travelogue of a guy named Ibn Battuta. He traveled around the Middle East, Asia Minor, India, and Africa for 29 years! During this time, the majority of the people in these places were Muslim, and this common cultural element is what enabled Ibn Battuta free reign to travel where he pleased. He would stay in places for a few days or a few months. Everywhere he went, he wrote about his activities, people's customs, and his thoughts about what he saw. From the introduction, it sounds like he wrote about all of his travels, but this book only covers his travels across Africa - specifically down the eastern coast along the Indian Ocean, and across the western Sahara. This is not a modern travelogue, so there are portions that are somewhat dry. However, it's also a very fast read and has a lot of fascinating details. It's also a short read. The tale itself is only 75 pages long, with the rest of the book being footnotes and appendixes.

[Hanzalah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting read but was a bit bland at times. Battuta sometimes makes comments which would be distasteful to modern readers.

[Esma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ibn Battuta (which means 'son of Battuta') is a Moroccan Muslim scholar and traveler who visited many different parts of globe, specifically the Muslim world in the 1300s during its sunshiny Golden Age. Ibn Battuta’s sentiments and opinions towards many aspects of black culture and leadership were often shaped by his religious knowledge about prayers, generosity, modes of dress, and the treatment of rulers - which makes it a work addressed specifically to Muslims, although it is interesting and insightful enough to be read by everyone. His list of ‘good’ qualities and ‘bad’ qualities which he found specifically in the Malli kingdom during the reign of Mansa Suleiman was sculpted by his background knowledge as an Islamic learner and scholar. Among the good qualities he observed, for example, were the prevalence of peace in their country, the meticulous observance of the prayers and the memorization of the Quran by heart. On the other hand, the qualities Ibn Battuta did not like, were the ways that slave girls dressed -- or rather, did not dress at all -- and the practice of eating animals (that was not prescribed in the Quran to eat) and the practice of dusting one’s head in front of the Mansa (ruler). On many occasions, he had a laughable amount of self-esteem which prompted him to deliberately expect a certain degree of hospitality. When he did receive that, he would praise the (black) person profusely. Hence, most of the practices that Ibn Battuta expressed distaste for, fundamentally refuted Islamic teachings, while practices for which he expressed adoration and amazement, are in sync with the teachings of his religion or his Arab culture. He was a curious observant man, and this book reveals a lot about Islam in Africa during the 1300s, including trade, culture, food, clothing, entertainment e.c.t. I also personally would like to do more research about slavery that existed in Africa at this time.

[Fernando Kaiowá · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extremely interesting first documented report by a traveler in Western and Eastern Africa. It provides a rare non-racist and non-european insight to the cultures and realities of Mali and the Swahili coast 700 years ago. Especially interesting if the reader has some degree of relationship or affinity with the continent.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I concluded this 14th C travel journal and found myself a little let-down, I had to remind myself that our contemporary genre of "travel writing" had yet to be. All the minutely-described details of daily life and customs of a foreign place and its inhabitants that began to be of interest to a growing reading public over the past couple of centuries were as yet unconceived. This book, which is ibn Battuta's travel notes of his 2 journeys into sub-saharan Africa, is a rather spare record of his observations. That he adds more detail to his notes than most of his fellow travellers, who were mostly merchants and less interested in lifestyle than in finding good markets, is a huge plus for academics but not immediately impressive to the casual reader.

I was hoping to be better informed on African civilizations farther back than Victorian England's numerous accounts as colonialism spread. As a young man ibn Battuta visited many cities along the eastern coast of Africa, down as far as now-abandoned Kilwa, and years later travelled down to the kingdom of Mali in west Africa. Both of these trips went through mainly Islamic-influenced areas, unlike his other travels that took him as far as China, just mentioned in the introduction to this book.

He did encounter and record customs that, being followed by a people of the Book, were astonishing to him, such as the freedom of association of their women, matriarchal societies, general female nudity and the like, and he did record "anecdotes" that were told him by various people, sometimes through a translator, that includes an account of cannibals and their cheerful consumption of a gifted slave woman. It was interesting to learn of the commonality of slavery throughout the areas he visited and how the custom of not only welcoming the traveler but gift-giving included slaves among other valuables such as gold and livestock.

I began reading this book hoping to find more information in detail about the various civilizations in interior Africa, not just the mainly-Islamic converts, but I appreciate that ibn Battuta recorded these journeys at all.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting for widening history perspective

[Alex H · Rating 2 out of 5]

I quite honestly feel like I only gained anything valuable/retainable from maybe 20 pages of this. Quick read tho. Early World History = not my cup of tea (womp womp)

[Q]

Interesting. No rating.

[Stephen Giannou · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was okay. Not much more to say.

[Hans · Rating 1 out of 5]

No storyline. Badly written . Little of interest.

[Liam · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The reason he was not eaten by the unbelievers was his whiteness for they say that eating a white man is harmful because he is not ripe. The black man however is ripe according to them. ... It was mentioned to me ... that the tastiest meat in the flesh of women is in the palm and the breast." (62)

[Abdullahi]

i leanrned ibnu batttuta then i was research

[Hildegart · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. I wish it had been longer, though. It is fascinating to see how societies incorporated Islam beliefs in to their cultures.

[Bunza · Rating 3 out of 5]

The actual text of Ibn Battuta was excellent. Some of the supplementary material by the editors were extraneous at best and misleading at its worst.

[M · Rating 4 out of 5]

This gives you a good picture of how Islam was being incorporated in to different cultures across northern and western Africa.

[Emily]

a book about non western history
a book you were supposed to read in school but didn't

#paideia #luthercollege

[Marie · Rating 2 out of 5]

No.