Ibn Battuta: From Tangier to China

Ibn Battuta was born in Tangier in 1304 into a family of Berber legal scholars. On 14 June 1325, aged 21, he set out for Mecca, a journey that normally took about sixteen months, travelling overland along the North African coast. He would not see Tangier again until 1349, nearly a quarter of a century later, and arrived to find that his mother had died a few months before.

Location precision: His birthplace isn't known; the pin marks the small tomb in Tangier's medina traditionally said to be his.

Visitor guidance: The reputed tomb is in the medina; Tangier's airport and stadium are also named after him.

After some 3,500 kilometres he reached Alexandria in spring 1326, then went on to Cairo, capital of the Mamluk sultans. He spent about a month there before trying the least-used route to Mecca, up the Nile and across the desert to the Red Sea port of ʿAydhab, but had to turn back. He went to Mecca by way of Damascus instead, after a holy man had foretold that he would only reach it through Syria.

Location precision: The pin marks central Cairo.

From Damascus he joined a caravan south to Medina and then to Mecca, where he completed his first pilgrimage in November 1326 and earned the title al-Hajj. Instead of going home, he went on with a pilgrim caravan into Iraq and Iran, reaching Baghdad and Tabriz. He then returned to Mecca and, by the account in the Rihla, spent about three years there studying, which later qualified him to serve as a judge.

Location precision: The pin marks the Great Mosque of Mecca.

Sailing south from Aden, he visited Zeila and Mogadishu and reached the island city of Kilwa, a hub of the gold trade, around 1331. He called it one of the most beautiful cities in the world and praised the generous, humble sultan al-Hasan ibn Sulaiman — while noting that he raided the interior for slaves and plunder. The sultan's palace of Husuni Kubwa and the domed extension of the Great Mosque, built of coral stone, date from this time; their ruins still stand.

Location precision: The ruins are spread across the island; the pin marks Kilwa Kisiwani.

Visitor guidance: Kilwa Kisiwani is a UNESCO World Heritage Site; boats cross from Kilwa Masoko, and visitors need a permit from the tourist office there.

After crossing Anatolia, the steppe of the Golden Horde and Central Asia, he reached Delhi and the court of Sultan Muhammad bin Tughluq, then thought the richest man in the Muslim world. The sultan, a generous patron of scholars, made him a qadi, a judge, though Islamic law was hard to apply outside the court. He stayed for years, until in 1341 the sultan sent him as his envoy to the Mongol emperor of China.

Location precision: The pin marks central Delhi.

The embassy to China came to grief on the Indian coast, and, afraid to go back to Delhi, he drifted south and sailed to the Maldives. The islands had recently become Muslim, and their rulers wanted a judge who knew Arabic and the Qur'an. He became chief qadi, married into the ruling family and took four wives, but his strict rulings soon set him at odds with the court. He resigned before he could be dismissed and sailed on, by way of Sri Lanka and its sacred peak, Adam's Peak.

Location precision: The pin marks Malé, the islands' capital.

In 1345, after Bengal and Sumatra, he landed at Quanzhou, which Muslims called Zaitun, "olive" — though, he complained, there were no olives anywhere. The leaders of the Muslim merchant community met him with flags, drums and trumpets. He admired the great ships built in the port, travelled on to Hangzhou and, he said, to the Yuan capital at Beijing. Some of his China chapters seem borrowed from other writers. Quanzhou, then one of the world's greatest ports, is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Location precision: The pin marks the Qingjing Mosque, founded in 1009 and now a museum, in the old city of Quanzhou.

Visitor guidance: The Qingjing Mosque, the Kaiyuan Temple and the Maritime Museum are the main sights of Quanzhou's World Heritage listing.

After returning home in 1349 through a Middle East ravaged by the Black Death, and a trip to Granada, he made one last great journey. In 1351–1352 he crossed the Sahara with a caravan by way of the salt town of Taghaza and Oualata to the capital of the Mali Empire, then rode by camel to Timbuktu and went down the Niger to Gao in a dugout canoe. His account includes the earliest description of the Mande xylophone, alongside harsh remarks about the people he met. He was back in Morocco early in 1354.

Location precision: The capital of Mali he visited is not securely located; the pin marks Timbuktu.

At the request of the Marinid sultan Abu Inan Faris, Ibn Battuta dictated his travels to the young scholar Ibn Juzayy, whom he had met in Granada. The book, finished in 1355, is titled A Gift to Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Travelling. Ibn Juzayy lifted some descriptions from older writers, but later research has confirmed parts of the story. Ibn Battuta became a judge in Morocco and died around 1368. The same sultan was then building the Bou Inania madrasa in Fez.

Location precision: Where the book was dictated isn't recorded; the pin marks the Bou Inania madrasa, built by the sultan who commissioned it.

Visitor guidance: The Bou Inania madrasa (1350–1355) in the Fez medina is open to visitors; its prayer hall is reserved for Muslims.