Synopses & Reviews
'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 twenty-one, he left home to make the holy pilgrimage to Mecca. This was only the first of a series of extraordinary journeys that spanned nearly three decades and took him not only eastward to India and China but also north to the Volga River valley and south to Tanzania. The narrative of these travels has been known to specialists in Islamic and medieval history for years. Ross E. Dunn\'s 1986 retelling of these tales, however, was the first work of scholarship to make the legendary traveler\'s story accessible to a general audience. Now updated with revisions, a new preface, and an updated bibliography, Dunn\'s classic interprets Ibn Battuta\'s adventures and places them within the rich, trans-hemispheric cultural setting of medieval Islam.'
Review
"It is not surprising that this book was required reading."--Pragati: the Indian National Interest Review
Synopsis
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 twenty-one, he left home to make the holy pilgrimage to Mecca. This was only the first of a series of extraordinary journeys that spanned nearly three decades and took him not only eastward to India and China but also north to the Volga River valley and south to Tanzania. The narrative of these travels has been known to specialists in Islamic and medieval history for years. Ross E. Dunn's 1986 retelling of these tales, however, was the first work of scholarship to make the legendary traveler's story accessible to a general audience. Now updated with revisions, a new preface, and an updated bibliography, Dunn's classic interprets Ibn Battuta's adventures and places them within the rich, trans-hemispheric cultural setting of medieval Islam.
Synopsis
Ross Dunn here recounts the great traveler's remarkable career, interpreting it within the cultural and social context of Islamic society and giving the reader both a biography of an extraordinary personality and a study of the hemispheric dimensions of human interchange in medieval times.
About the Author
Ross E. Dunn is Professor of History at San Diego State University.
Table of Contents
LIst of Maps
Preface
Acknowledgements
The Muslim Calendar
A Note on Money
List of Abbreviations Used in Footnotes
Introduction
1. Tangier
2. The Maghrib
3. The Mamluks
4. Mecca
5. Persia and Iraq
6. The Arabian Sea
7. Anatolia
8. The Steppe
9. Delhi
10. Malabar and the Maladives
11. China
12. Home
13. Mali
14. The Rihla
Glossary
Bibliography
Index