TheAdventuresofIbnBattuta

TheAdventuresofIbnBattutaAMuslimTravelerofthe14thCentury

UPDATEDWITHA2012PREFACE

ROSSE.DUNN

IbnBattutaStreetinTangier.ThesignisinFrench,Spanish,andArabic.PhotobytheAuthor.

UniversityofCaliforniaPressBerkeleyandLosAngeles,California1986,2005,2012byRossE.DunnFirstPaperbackPrinting1989

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Dunn,RossE.TheadventuresofIbnBattuta,aMuslimtravelerofthefourteenthcentury/RossDunn.Rev.

ed.withanewpref.p.cm.

Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex(p.).ISBN978-0-520-27292-7(pbk.:alk.paper)1. Ibn Batuta, 1304-1377. 2. TravelersIslamic EmpireBiography. 3. Travel, Medieval. I.

Title.G93.I24D862005910.91767dc22

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ForJordanandJocelynAndtotheMemoryofC.F.Beckingham

I met in [Brusa] the pious shaykh Abdallah al-Misri, thetraveler, and a man of saintly life. He journeyed through theearth,butheneverwentintoChinanortheislandofCeylon,northeMaghrib,noral-Andalus,northeNegrolands,sothatIhaveoutdonehimbyvisitingtheseregions.

IbnBattuta

Contents

ListofMapsPrefacetothe2012EditionPrefacetotheRevisedEditionPrefacetotheFirstEditionAcknowledgmentsTheMuslimCalendarANoteonMoneyListofAbbreviationsUsedinNotesIntroduction1.Tangier2.TheMaghrib3.TheMamluks4.Mecca5.PersiaandIraq6.TheArabianSea7.Anatolia8.TheSteppe9.Delhi

10.MalabarandtheMaldives11.China12.Home13.Mali14.TheRihlaGlossary

BibliographyIndex

Maps

1.CitiesofEurasiaandAfricaintheFourteenthCentury2.RegionoftheStraitofGibraltar3.IbnBattutasItineraryinNorthernAfrica,1325264.IbnBattutasItineraryinEgypt,SyriaandArabia,1325265.IbnBattutasItineraryinPersiaandIraq,1326276.IbnBattutasItineraryinArabiaandEastAfrica,132830(133032)7.IbnBattutasItineraryinAnatoliaandtheBlackSeaRegion,133032(133234)

8.IbnBattutasItineraryinCentralAsiaandAfghanistan,133233(133435)

9.IbnBattutasItineraryinIndia,CeylonandtheMaldiveIslands,133345

10.IbnBattutasItineraryinSoutheastAsiaandChina,13454611.IbnBattutasReturnItineraryfromChinatoNorthAfrica,13464912.IbnBattutasItineraryinNorthAfrica,SpainandWestAfrica,1349

54

Prefacetothe2012Edition

In the seven years since the revised edition of this book appeared, theacademicandpopularmediahavecontinuedtopolishthereputationofIbnBattuta, the fourteenth-century Moroccan traveler. Scholars have beenwriting about him and his extraordinary globetrotting career since thenineteenth century. But in the last couple of decades, he has becomesomethingofaniconofglobalization.Foronething,hisBookofTravels,or Rihla, completed in 1355, demonstrates that economic and culturalinterrelations among societies even thousandsofmiles fromone anotherweremuchmorecomplexsevenhundredyearsagothanweusedtothink.And they have become progressively more complex ever since. IbnBattutas narrative also offers a glimpse of the origins of the planet-girdling flow of information that characterizes the human communitytoday.ThisisbecausetheRihlashowstheremarkableworld-mindednessofeducatedMuslimsinthefourteenthcentury,perhapsthefirstgroupofpeopleinhistorycapableofthinkingoftheentireEasternHemisphereasasinglegeographicalspacewithinwhichscholars,merchants,missionaries,anddiplomatsinteractedwithoneanotherandsharedknowledge.Today,students inschoolsanduniversitiesarebeingasked tostudymoreworldhistory.When they explore premodern centuries, they almost inevitablymeetIbnBattutabecausehewitnessedeventsanddescribedwaysoflifeinsomanydifferentplaces.Hereisthissameguy,studentsdiscover,turningup in Iraq,Russia, India,China,Mali, andSpain.Classroom encounterswithIbnBattuta,amanwhowalked,rode,andsailed(andatafewpointsstaggered) thousandsofmiles,might even inspire someyoungpeople tofindoutmoreaboutthewider,profoundlyintermeshedworldaroundthemandtodosomeserioustraveling.

Apartfromdozensoftextbooksonworld,regional,andIslamichistory,wherehas IbnBattutabeenmakinganame forhimself in the last sevenyears?TwoscholarsinBritainhavepublishedinsightfulcommentarieson

his travels.1Aportionof theRihla translated fromArabic toEnglishbySamuelLeebackin1829hasappearedinanewedition.2AprofessorofArabic in Uzbekistan has published an English edition of Ibn BattutasjourneysthroughCentralAsiaalongwithlearnedcommentary.3GooglingIbn Battuta pulls up several educational and cultural web sites thatdescribehiscareerandsinghispraises.

Thegreatjourneyeralsocontinuestogainatleastmodestnotorietyasaworld pop-culture figure. In 2005,Dubai, one of the sevenUnitedArabEmirates,opened the IbnBattutaMall,a shoppingplaygroundorganizedaround six courts. Each one has an architectural and decorative themeevoking places that theMoroccan visitedTunisia,Egypt, Persia, India,China,andAndalusia.In2008,TimMackintosh-Smith,anArabicscholarandtravelwriter,hostedTheManWhoWalkedacrosstheWorld,aseriesoffilmsforBBCFourthattracedIbnBattutastravels.ThefollowingyearCosmic Pictures and SKFilms premiered Journey toMecca, a dramaticand documentary feature that tells the storyongiant Imax screensofIbnBattutasoverlandtriptotheholycityofMecca.Thefilmalsogivesviewers spectacular images of the Islamic pilgrimage, the object of theyoung Moroccans first journey in 132426. In 2011, Time magazinepublisheda special issue that exploredways inwhich theMuslimworldhas changed since the era when Ibn Battuta traveled.4 Finally, hisadventureswillbedramatizedinafull-lengthfeaturefilmthat,asofthiswriting,isinpreproduction.

Asallscholarsof theRihlaknow,IbnBattutahimself,alongwith theMuslimgentlemanfromAndalusia(southernSpain)whohelpedhimwritehis story, tells us almost everything we know about his life andpersonality.Independentsourcesdatingfromhisownerathatattesttohisexistence are few and brief. When I published the first edition of TheAdventuresof IbnBattuta in1987, Iassumed thatadditionalevidenceofhis career was unlikely ever to turn up. In 2010, however, TimMackintosh-Smith completed his scholarly andmarvelously entertainingthree-volume narrative of his several years spent visiting dozens of IbnBattutas old haunts from China to West Africa.5 In the final volume,

Mackintosh-Smith reports on three additional documents in which thetravelercomestolifeindependentlyoftheRihla.

OnebitofevidenceisaletterthattheeminentAndalusianscholarIbnal-Khatib wrote to Ibn Battuta in the early 1360s, that is, several yearsafter thetravelerhaddefinitivelyreturnedhome,onthemundanesubjectofalandpurchase.Fromthistestimony(whichIalsonotedintheprefaceto the revised edition), we learn that the aging Ibn Battuta served as ajudge inTamasna, an old place name associatedwith the region aroundmodern Casablanca. This letter is the only source that reveals anythingconcreteaboutIbnBattutaslaterlife.Mackintosh-SmithlearnedabouttheletterfromAbdelhadiTazi,MoroccosmosteminentIbnBattutascholar.

Thesecondrevelationisasetoftwomanuscripts,thesecondandthirdvolumes of a work on Islamic law housed in the library of Cairos Al-Azhar University. As Mackintosh-Smith writes. Professor Tazi showedhimtwophotocopiedpagesfromthesedocuments.Thesewerecolophons,or descriptions placed at the end of the manuscripts indicating when,where, and by whom the work was copied. Ibn Battuta, definitely ourjourneyer,istheauthorofbothcolophons.Theytellusthathecopiedthemanuscripts inDamascus.Eachcolophonhas adifferentdate in1326, ayear when Ibn Battuta was by his own account in Syria. The twocolophonstogetherdemonstratefirstthatIbnBattutavisitedthecitywhenhe says he did.The twodates,which are independent of theRihla, alsoopenupnewquestionsand solveapuzzleor twoabout the complicatedchronologyofhisperegrinationsinSyriaandPalestine.

The third piece of evidence is arresting, though speculative. Ibn al-KhatibslettertoIbnBattutasuggeststhatthetwomenbecamefriendsinMoroccoforafewyears.Mackintosh-Smithreportsthathefoundandreada book that Ibn al-Khatib published on topographical subjects. In it, hedescribesinrhymingproseafictionalizedencounteratacaravanstopwitha gray-headed old traveler. This man boasts of his journeys to manycountriesbutlamentsthathislifeisendinginpovertyandfriendlessness.InIbnal-Khatibsstory,theoldmanrevealspersonalitytraitsthatarealsoevidentintheRihlaanattractiontoSufimysticism,anabilitytocharm,a

tendency to pontificate, and a love ofmoney.Mackintosh-Smith is surethatIbnBattutainspiredIbnal-Khatibsfictionalportrait.

Wedonotknowthattherealtraveler,asopposedtotheold-timerinthestory,endedhis life insuchaforlornstate.But the talesuggests thathisreturnhomelefthimnotateaseandsatisfied,butmalcontent,restless,andregretful,stillyearningfortheroad.ThestoryaddsapoignanttouchtotheportraitofIbnBattutawegetintheRihla,notonlythedescriptionsofhisthrillingadventuresbutalsohisopinionsandfeelingshislikes,dislikes,pious prejudices, physical courage, sexual appetites, and cravings forfriendshipwithpowerfulpeople.Anepicmovieabouthimisagoodidea,and it could be donewithout inventing a single scene not taken directlyfromhisownamazingnarrative.

November2011

Notes

1. L. P. Harvey, IbnBattuta (London: I.B.Tauris in association with the Oxford Center forIslamicStudies,2007);DavidWaines,TheOdysseyofIbnBattuta:UncommonTalesofaMedievalAdventurer(Chicago:UniversityofChicagoPress,2010).

2. Ibn Battuta, The Travels of Ibn Battuta in the Near East, Asia and Africa, 13251354(Mineola,NY:Dover,2004).

3. IbrahimovNematulla Ibrahimovich,TheTravelsof IbnBattuta toCentralAsia(Princeton,NJ:MarkusWiener,2010).

4.SummerJourney2011,TimeSpecials,July2011.5. Tim Mackintosh-Smith, Travels with a Tangerine: A Journey in the Footnotes of Ibn

Battutah(London:JohnMurray,2001);TheHallofaThousandColumns:HindustantoMalabarwithIbnBattutah(London:JohnMurray,2005);Landfalls:OntheEdgeofIslamwithIbnBattutah(London:JohnMurray,2010).

PrefacetotheRevisedEdition

Theyear2004marksthesevenhundredthanniversaryofthebirthofAbuAbdallah ibn Battuta, theMuslim lawyer who crisscrossed the EasternHemisphere in thesecondquarterof thefourteenthcenturyand,with thehelpofaliterarycollaborator,wrotealengthyaccountofwhathesawanddid. Theworld should take note of the septicentenary of this pious andeducatedMoroccantraveler.Notonlydidhegiveusapreciousdescriptionofplaces,people,politics,andlifewaysinnearlyalltheurbanizedlandsofEurasia and Africa in the later medieval era, he also exposed thepremodern roots of globalization.His tale reveals that by the fourteenthcenturytheformationofdensenetworksofcommunicationandexchangehadlinkedinonewayoranothernearlyeveryoneinthehemispherewithnearly everyone else. From Ibn BattutasRihla, orBook of Travels, wediscover thewebs of interconnection that stretched fromSpain toChinaand from Kazakhstan to Tanzania, and we can see that already in theMoroccanstimeaneventoccurringinonepartofEurasiaorAfricamightreverberate,initseffects,thousandsofmilesaway.

SailingtheArabianSeainatwo-masteddhoworleadinghishorseovera snow-covered pass in the Hindu Kush, Ibn Battuta could not havedreamed of the speed and intensity of human interchange today. Evensince1987,when the first editionof thisbookappeared,humankindhasmadeastonishing advances in electronic technologyand communication.OnesmallironyofthisinformationrevolutionisthatIbnBattutahimselfhas journeyed deeper into the popular imagination. He is today a morefamiliar historical figure amongbothMuslims andnon-Muslims thanhewas twenty-fiveyearsago.Thishashappened, I think,partlybecauseoftheincreasingintensityofpoliticalandculturalrelationsbetweenMuslimand Western countries and partly because of the broadening ofinternationalcurriculumsinschoolsanduniversities,notablyintheUnitedStates,toembraceAsianandAfricansocieties,includingfamousmenand

womenoftheMuslimpast.IntheUnitedStates,virtuallyallhighschoolandcollegeworldhistory

textbooks introduce IbnBattuta,and in thepast severalyears Ihavehadnumerous invitations to talk about his adventures withmiddle and highschool teachersandstudents. In1994, theHakluytSocietypublished thefourthandfinalvolumeoftheEnglishtranslationoftheRihla,bringingtoconclusion a project that began in 1929!1 Other publications of recentyears include a travel writers account of journeys tracing Ibn Battutaspath across the EasternHemisphere, an abridged edition of theHakluytSociety translation, a new edition of an English translation of theMoroccans East and West African trips, and an attractively illustratedcommentaryinDanish.2

Several popular magazines have featured Ibn Battuta, includingNational Geographic.3 A Spanish-Moroccan production team made adocumentaryfilmabouthimin themid-1990s,andcurrentlyat least twofilmprojects are in theworks. In1993,Moroccan scholarsorganizedaninternationalconferenceon theirnative son inTangier,hisbirthplace. In1999,theIslamicMuseumofKuwaitproducedanenchantingone-manactand multimedia show called The Travels of Ibn Battuta. Severalpublications for young people have appeared in English, including ateaching unit for high school students, an issue of the world historymagazineCalliope,andafantasyoftheIndianaJonesvarietytitledIbnBattutaintheValleyofDoom.4InSanFranciscoamiddleschoolteacherhasdevelopedadetailedIbnBattutawebsite.5Finally,Imustmentionthatin 1976, the International Astronomical Union honored the traveler bynaming a lunar crater after him. It is eleven kilometerswide and on thenearsideofthemoon.

IwaspleasedindeedwhentheUniversityofCaliforniaPressagreedtopublish this new edition, a seven-hundredth-birthday present to IbnBattuta.Ihavemadelimitedchanges.IhavetakenaccountofthescholarlyliteratureinWesternlanguagesthathasappearedsince1987,aswellastheinsightsandcorrectionspublishedinreviewsofthefirstedition.Withtheexceptionof an essaybyAmikamElad,whodemonstrates thatmuchof

IbnBattutasdescriptionofSyriaandPalestine iscopied from the travelaccount of the thirteenth-century travelerMuhammad al-Abdari, I haveseen no new research that significantly alters what we know about theRihlaorIbnBattutaslife.6Somenewwork,however,hasofferedinsightsontheRihlaschronology,itinerary,andreliability.Myreferencestonewworkaremainlyinthechapterendnotes.

Theonly change Ihavemade to thebibliography is the additionof anew section, Supplemental Sources for the 2004 Edition. I have alsoretained the same sources of translations from theRihla, which mainlymeans that I have not quoted from volume four of the Hakluyt Societyedition. I have made certain spelling changesfor example, QuraninsteadofKoranandIhavereplacedtheWade-Gileswith thepinyinsystemforromanizingChineseplacenames.

I am indebted to reviewerswhopointedoutmistakesand interpretiveflawsinthefirstedition,andIwouldliketothankTimMacintosh-Smithformeticulouslyrereadingthebookandsendingmevaluablecomments.IgreatlyappreciatetheeffortsofMariCoates,myUniversityofCaliforniaPress editor,whose enthusiasm for the new edition helpedmemeet hertimetableforrevisions.Finally,IthankLauraRyanforresearchassistance.

RossE.DunnMarch2004

Notes

1.See thebibliography for the complete citation.TheHakluytSocietyhas alsopublished anindex to theRihla in a fifth volume. C. F. Beckingham intended to produce a sixth volume, anextendedcommentaryonIBsitineraryandchronology.Sadly,Prof.Beckinghampassedawayin1998.

2. Tim Mackintosh-Smith, Travels with a Tangerine: A Journey in the Footnotes of IbnBattutah(London,2001);TimMackintosh-Smith,ed.TheTravelsofIbnBattutah(London,2003);SaidHamdunandNoelKing,IbnBattutainBlackAfrica(Princeton,NJ,1994);andThygeC.Bro,IbnBattuta:Enarabiskrejsendefradet14.rhundrede(Oslo,2001).

3.ThomasJ.AbercrombieandJamesL.Stanfield,IbnBattuta:PrinceofTravelers,NationalGeographic180(Dec.1991):449.Also,DouglasBullis,TheLongestHajj:TheJourneysofIbn

Battuta,SaudiAramcoWorld51(July/Aug.2000),239.4.JoanArnoandHelenGrady,IbnBattuta:AViewoftheFourteenth-CenturyWorld(National

Center for History in the Schools, University of California, Los Angeles, 1998); Ibn Battuta:MuslimScholarandTraveler,Calliope9(April1999);Abdal-RahmanAzzam,IbnBattutaintheValleyofDoom(London,1996).

5.NickBartel,TheTravelsof IbnBattuta:AVirtualTourwith the14thCenturyTraveler,http://www.sfusd.k12.ca.us/schwww/sch618/Ibn_Battuta/Ibn_Battuta_Rihla.html.

6.AmikamElad,TheDescriptionoftheTravelsofIbnBattutainPalestine:IsItOriginal?,Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1987), 256272. Also, Dr. Abdel-hadi Tazi, the leadingMoroccanauthorityonIB,hasfounddocumentaryevidencesuggestingthathediedinthetownofAnfa,notTangier,wherehisputativetombislocated.

PrefacetotheFirstEdition

Staringat thewallofmywindowlessofficeoneday in1976,Isuddenlygot the idea to write this book. I was teaching world history toundergraduatesand trying togive theman ideaof Islam in themedievalage as a civilizationwhose cultural dominance extended far beyond theMiddleEastorthelandsinhabitedbyArabs.Itoccurredtomethatthelifeof Abu Abdallah ibn Battuta, the famous Moroccan traveler of thefourteenth century, wonderfully illustrated the internationalist scope ofIslamic civilization.He toured not only the central regions of Islam butalsoitsfarfrontiersinIndia,Indonesia,CentralAsia,EastAfrica,andtheWestAfricanSudan.Thetravelbookheproducedattheendofhiscareerisbothataleofhighadventureandanexpansiveportraitoftheeminentlycosmopolitan world of Muslim princes, merchants, scholars, andtheologianswithinwhichhemovedduring29yearsontheroad.

Since the mid nineteenth century, when translations of his ArabicnarrativebegantoappearinWesternlanguages,IbnBattutahasbeenwellknownamongspecialistsinIslamicandmedievalhistory.Butnoscholarhadattemptedtoretellhisremarkablestorytoageneralaudience.Forthenon-specialist interested in medieval Islam and the attitudes andpreoccupationsofitsintellectualclassthenarrativecanbeabsorbing.Butthemodern reader is also likely to find it puzzlingly organized, archaic,and to some degree unintelligible.My idea, therefore, has been to bringIbn Battutas adventure to general readers and to interpret it within therich,trans-hemisphericculturalsettingofmedievalIslam.Myhopeisnotonly that the Moroccan journeyer will become as well known in theWesternworldasMarcoPolo isbut that readerswillalsogainasharperandmorepanoramicviewof the forces thatmade thehistoryofEurasiaandAfricainthefourteenthcenturyaninterconnectedwhole.IbnBattuta,weshallsee,wasakindofcitizenoftheEasternHemisphere.Theglobalinterdependenceofthelatetwentiethcenturywouldbelessstartlingtohim

thanwemightsuppose.AlmosteverythingweknowaboutIbnBattutathemanistobefoundin

hisownwork,calledtheRihla,whichisreadilyavailableinprintedArabiceditions,aswellas translations inEnglishandseveralother languages. Ihave not rummaged about ancient manuscript collections in Fez,Damascus, orDelhi to piece his life together since, in so far as anyoneknows,no suchmanuscripts exist. Indeed, thisbook,part biographyandpart cultural historyof the secondquarter of the fourteenth century, is aworkofsynthesis.IntracingIbnBattutasfootstepsthroughtheequivalentofsome44moderncountries,Ihavereliedonawiderangeofpublishedliterature.

IfirstbecameinterestedinIbnBattutawhenIspentthebetterpartofayeartranslatingportionsofthenarrativeinagraduateschoolArabicclass.I have come to this project, however, with a modest training in thatbeautifulandintractablelanguage.IhaveusedprintedArabiceditionsoftheRihlatoclarifyvariousproblemsofnomenclatureandtextualmeaning,butIhavelargelydependedonthemajorEnglishorFrenchtranslationsinrelatingandinterpretingIbnBattutascareer.

TheRihla isnotadailydiaryoracollectionofnotes that IbnBattutajotted in the course of his travels. Rather it is awork of literature, partautobiography and part descriptive compendium, thatwaswritten at theendofhiscareer.Incomposingthebook,IbnBattuta(andIbnJuzayy,theliteraryscholarwhocollaboratedwithhim)tookfarlesscarewithdetailsofitinerary,dates,andthesequenceofeventsthanthemodernscientificmindwouldconsideracceptablepracticeforatravelwriter.Consequently,the historian attempting to reconstruct the chronology of Ibn Battutasjourneysmustconfrontnumerousgaps,inconsistencies,andpuzzles,someof them baffling. Fortunately, the textual problems of the Rihla havesustained the attention of historians, linguists, philologists, andgeographers formore than a century. In trying to untangle IbnBattutasmovements fromoneendof theEasternHemisphere to theother, Ihavetherefore relied heavily on the existing corpus of textual commentary.Giventhescopeandpurposeofthisbook,Icouldnotdootherwise,since

any further progress in solving remaining problems of chronology,itinerary, authenticity, and place name identification would requirelaborious research in fourteenth-century documentary sources. I have,however, tried to address the major difficulties in using the Rihla as abiographicalrecordofevents.Mostofthisdiscussionhasbeenconfinedtofootnotesinordertoavoiddigressionsintotechnicalitiesthatwouldbreakannoyinglyintothestoryortaxtheinterestofsomegeneralreaders.

In this ageof the docu-dramaand the non-fictionnovel, I shouldalso state explicitly that I have in no deliberate way fictionalized IbnBattutaslifestory.Thewordsthathespeaks, theattitudesthatheholds,theactionsthathetakesareeitherdrawndirectlyfromtheRihlaorcanbereasonablyinferredfromitorotherhistoricalsources.

ThisbookismyinterpretationofIbnBattutaslifeandtimesandnotapicture of the fourteenth century through his eyes. It is not acommentaryonhisencyclopedicobservations,not,inotherwords,abookabouthisbook.Itssubjectmatterdoes,however,largelyreflecthissocialexperienceandculturalperceptions.Hewasa literate,urbanegentlemaninterested for the most part in the affairs of other literate, urbanegentlemen.ThoughasapiousMuslimhebynomeansdespisedthepoor,hedidnotoftenassociatewithpeasants,herdsmen,orcityworkingfolk.Nor does he have much to say about them in the Rihla. Moreover, hetraveled in thecirclesofworld-mindedpeople forwhom theuniversalistvaluesandcosmopolitaninstitutionsofIslamthemosques,thecolleges,the palaces were more important than the parochial customs andloyalties that constricted the cultural vision of the greatmajority. Somereaders,therefore,willnotfailtonoticetwoconceptualbiases.Oneisthatpolitical and cultural elites dominate the story at the expense of themasses,eventhoughthesocialhistoryofordinaryMuslimfolkisnolessworthy of the historians attention. The other is that the cosmopolitantendencieswithin Islamic civilization are our primary theme rather thantheadmittedlygreatculturaldiversityamongMuslimpeoples,eventhoughoneofthestrengthsofanexpandingIslamwasitssuccessfuladaptabilitytolocalpatternsofculture.

Afewtechnicalmattersneedtobementioned.Inordertosimplifythefootnote apparatus, I have not for themost part given page citations fordirect quotes from English translations of the Rihla. Unless otherwisenoted, quotations are taken from the published translations as follows:Chapters 18 and 14, H. A. R. Gibb, The Travels of Ibn Battuta A.D.13251354,3vols.;Chapters911,AghaMahdiHusain,TheRehlaofIbnBattuta;andChapter13,N.LevtzionandJ.F.P.Hopkins(eds.),Corpusof Early Arabic Sources for West African History. For the sake ofuniformityIhavemadeafeworthographicchangesinquotationsfromtheRihla translations. I have americanized the spelling of a number ofEnglishwords(e.g.,favorratherthanfavour),andIhavechangedthespelling of a fewArabic terms (e.g., Koran rather than Quran andvizier rather thanviziror wazir). In transliteratingArabic terms, Ihave eliminated all diacritical marks, excepting to indicate the twoArabiclettershamzaandayn.

Acknowledgements

IbnBattutahasledmesofarandwideintheEasternHemispherethatinthecourseofwritingthisbookIhaveaskedforadviceandcriticismfroman unusually large number of scholars and colleagues. I cannotmentionthemall, but Iwould like to thank the following individuals for readingandcriticizing,sometimesingreatdetail,allorpartofthemanuscript:JereBacharach,EdmundBurke,P.C.Chu,JuliaClancy-Smith,MichaelDols,JeanneDunn,RichardEaton,G.S.P.Freeman-Grenville,KathrynGreen,David Hart, James Kirkman, Howard Kushner, Ira Lapidus, MichaelMeeker,DavidMorgan,WilliamPhillips,CharlesSmith,RaySmith,PetervonSivers, andRobertWilson. Iamespeciallygrateful for theenduringsupport of Professor C. F. Beckingham, aman of learning and urbanitywithwhomIbnBattutawouldhavefoundmuchincommon.IfIfailedtounderstandorheedgoodadvicetheseindividualsgaveme,Ialonebeartheresponsibility.

I am grateful to the National Endowment for the Humanities forawardingme a fellowship that funded research andwriting in 198081.DuringthatyearIenjoyedtheprivilegeofaffiliationwiththeMiddleEastCentreatCambridgeUniversity,thankstoProfessorR.B.SerjeantandDrRobin Bidwell. I am also indebted to the Fellows of Clare Hall forextending me membership in the college as a Visiting Associate. SanDiegoStateUniversitygenerouslysupportedthisprojectwithasabbaticalleaveandseveralsmallgrants.ForresearchassistanceortypingservicesIwould like to express my appreciation to Lorin Birch, Veronica King,RichardKnight,HelenLavey,andJillSwallingHarrington.Finally,IwanttothankBarbaraAguadoformakingthemaps.

TheMuslimCalendar

Ibn Battuta reports the dates of his travels according to the Muslimcalendar,which isbasedon thecyclesof themoon.TheMuslimyear isdivided into twelve lunar months of 29 or 30 days each. The year isapproximately 354 days long, that is, ten or eleven days shorter than asolar year. Consequently, dates of the Muslim calendar have no fixedrelationship either to dates of the Gregorian (Western) calendar or toseasonsoftheyear.Forexample,ChristmasisalwayscelebratedinwinterinEuropeandtheUnitedStates.Bycontrast,aMuslimreligiousholidaywill,overtime,occurinallfourseasonsoftheyear.Thebase-yearoftheMuslim calendar is 622 A.D., when the Prophet Muhammad and hisfollowers made the hijra, or migration, from Mecca to Medina. Theabbreviation A.H., for anno Hejirae, denotes years of the Muslimcalendar.InthisbookIhavegivenkeydatesaccordingtobothcalendars.Convertingprecisedatesfromonesystemtotheotherrequirestheuseofaformulaandaseriesof tables.ThesemaybefoundinG.S.P.Freeman-Grenville,TheMuslimandChristianCalendars(London,1963).

TheMuslimlunarmonthsareasfollows:

Muharram RajabSafar ShabanRabial-awwal(RabiI) RamadanRabial-thani(RabiII) ShawwalJumadal-ula(JumadaI) Dhul-QadaJumadal-akhira(JumadaII) Dhul-Hijja

ANoteonMoney

InthecourseofhiscareerIbnBattutareceivednumerousgiftsandsalarypaymentsingoldorsilvercoins.Heusuallyreferstothesecoinsasdinars,though sometimes distinguishing between gold dinars and silverdinars.IntheearlyIslamiccenturiestheweightofagolddinarwassetat4.25 grams. In Ibn Battutas time, however, the weight and fineness ofboth gold and silver coins, as well as the exchange rate between them,variedgreatly fromoneperiodorcountry to thenext. Itwouldbe futile,therefore, toexpress thevalueofmoneyhe received in termsofmoderndollarsorpoundssterling.Infourteenth-centuryIndia,wherehewaspaidlargesumsfromthepublictreasury,asilverdinar(orsilvertanka)wasvaluedataboutone-tenthofagolddinar.

AbbreviationsUsedinFootnotes

D&SC.DfrmeryandB.R.Sanguinetti (trans.andeds.),VoyagesdIbn Battuta, 4 vols. (Paris 185358; reprint edn., VincentMonteil(ed.),Paris,1979)

EI1 EncyclopaediaofIslam,1stedn.,4vols.(Leiden,191338)

EI2Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edn., 5 vols. (Leiden, 1954;London,1956)

GbH.A.R.Gibb(trans.anded.),TheTravelsofIbnBattutaA.D.13251354. Translated with Revisions and Notes from theArabic Text Edited byC.Dfrmery andB. R. Sanguinetti, 3vols.(CambridgefortheHakluytSociety,1958,1961,1971)

H&K SaidHamdun andNoelKing (trans. and eds.), Ibn Battuta inBlackAfrica(London,1975)

Hr IvanHrbek,TheChronologyofIbnBattutasTravels,ArchivOrientalni30(1962):40986IB IbnBattuta

L&HN.Levtzion and J. F. P.Hopkins (trans, and eds.).CorpusofEarly Arabic Sources for West African History (New York,1981)

MH AghaMahdiHusain(trans.anded.).TheRehlaof IbnBattuta(Baroda,India,1976)

Introduction

Westerners have singularly narrowed the history of the world ingroupingthelittlethattheyknewabouttheexpansionofthehumanrace around the peoples of Israel, Greece and Rome. Thus havethey ignored all those travellers and explorerswho in their shipsploughed theChinaSeaand the IndianOcean,or rodeacross theimmensitiesofCentralAsiatothePersianGulf.Intruththelargerpart of the globe, containing cultures different from those of theancient Greeks and Romans but no less civilized, has remainedunknowntothosewhowrotethehistoryoftheirlittleworldundertheimpressionthattheywerewritingworldhistory.1

HenriCordier

Abu Abdallah ibn Battuta has been rightly celebrated as the greatesttravelerofpremodern times.Hewasborn intoa familyofMuslim legalscholars in Tangier, Morocco, in 1304 during the era of the Mariniddynasty.Hestudiedlawasayoungmanandin1325lefthisnativetowntomake the pilgrimage, orhajj, to the sacred city ofMecca inArabia.Hetook a year and a half to reach his destination, visiting North Africa,Egypt,Palestine,andSyriaalongtheway.Aftercompletinghisfirsthajjin 1326, he toured Iraq and Persia, then returned toMecca. In 1328 (or1330) he embarked upon a sea voyage that took him down the easterncoast of Africa as far south as the region of modern Tanzania. On hisreturnvoyagehevisitedOmanandthePersianGulfandreturnedtoMeccaagainbytheoverlandrouteacrosscentralArabia.

In1330(or1332)heventuredtogotoIndiatoseekemploymentinthegovernmentoftheSultanateofDelhi.Ratherthantakingthenormaloceanroute across the Arabian Sea to the western coast of India, he travelednorththroughEgyptandSyriatoAsiaMinor.Aftertouringthatregion,he

crossedtheBlackSeatotheplainsofWestCentralAsia.Hethen,owingto fortuitous circumstances, made a westward detour to visitConstantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire, in the company of aTurkish princess. Returning to the Asian steppes, he traveled eastwardthroughTransoxiana,Khurasan,andAfghanistan,arrivingatthebanksoftheIndusRiverinSeptember1333(or1335).

Map1:CitiesofEurasiaandAfricaintheFourteenthCentury

Hespenteightyears inIndia,mostof that timeoccupyingapostasaqadi,orjudge,inthegovernmentofMuhammadTughluq,SultanofDelhi.In1341thekingappointedhimtoleadadiplomaticmissiontothecourtofthe Mongol emperor of China. The expedition ended disastrously inshipwreckoffthesouthwesterncoastofIndia,leavingIbnBattutawithout

employment or resources. For a little more than two years he traveledaboutsouthernIndia,Ceylon,andtheMaldiveIslands,whereheservedforabout eight months as a qadi under the local Muslim dynasty. Then,despitethefailureofhisambassadorialmission,heresolvedin1345togoto China on his own. Traveling by sea, he visited Bengal, the coast ofBurma,andthe islandofSumatra, thencontinuedontoGuangzhou.Theextent of his visit toChina is uncertain butwas probably limited to thesoutherncoastalregion.

In 134647he returned toMecca bywayofSouth India, thePersianGulf,Syria, andEgypt.After performing the ceremonies of thehajjonelast time, he set a course for home. Traveling by both land and sea, hearrivedinFez,thecapitalofMorocco,latein1349.ThefollowingyearhemadeabrieftripacrosstheStraitofGibraltartotheMuslimkingdomofGranada. Then, in 1353, he undertook his final adventure, a journey bycamel caravan across the Sahara Desert to the Kingdom ofMali in theWestAfricanSudan.In1355hereturnedtoMoroccotostay.Inthecourseofacareerontheroadspanningalmostthirtyyears,hecrossedthebreadthof the Eastern Hemisphere, visited territories equivalent to about 40modern countries, and put behind him a total distance of approximately73,000miles.2

Early in 1356 Sultan Abu Inan, the Marinid ruler of Morocco,commissioned IbnJuzayy,ayoung literaryscholarofAndalusianorigin,torecordIbnBattutasexperiences,aswellashisobservationsabout theIslamicworldofhisday, in theformofarihla,orbookof travels.Asatype of Arabic literature, the rihla attained something of a flowering inNorthAfricabetweenthetwelfthandfourteenthcenturies.Thebestknownexamples of the genre recounted a journey from theMaghrib toMecca,informing and entertaining readers with rich descriptions of the piousinstitutions, public monuments, and religious personalities of the greatcities of Islam.3 Ibn Battuta and Ibn Juzayy collaborated for about twoyearstocomposetheirwork,thelongestandintermsofitssubjectmatterthemostcomplexrihla tocomeoutofNorthAfricainthemedievalage.His royal charge completed, Ibn Battuta retired to a judicial post in a

Moroccanprovincialtown.Hediedin1368.Written in the conventional literary style of the time, Ibn Battutas

Rihlaisacomprehensivesurveyofthepersonalities,places,governments,customs,andcuriositiesoftheMuslimworldinthesecondquarterofthefourteenthcentury.It isalsotherecordofadramaticpersonaladventure.InthefourcenturiesafterIbnBattutasdeath,theRihlacirculated,mostlyin copied manuscript abridgments of Ibn Juzayys original text, amongpeopleoflearninginNorthAfrica,WestAfrica,Egypt,andperhapsotherMuslimlandswhereArabicwasread.

The book was unknown outside Islamic countries until the earlynineteenth century, when two German scholars published separatelytranslations of portions of the Rihla from manuscripts obtained in theMiddle East. In 1829 Samuel Lee, a British orientalist, published anEnglish translation based on abridgments of the narrative that JohnBurckhardt, the famous Swiss explorer, had acquired in Egypt.4Aroundthe middle of the century five manuscripts of the Rihla were found inAlgeriafollowingtheFrenchoccupationofthatcountry.ThesedocumentsweresubsequentlytransferredtotheBibliothqueNationaleinParis.Twoof them represent themost complete versions of the narrative that haveever come to light. The others are partial transcriptions, one of whichcarries the autograph of Ibn Juzayy, Ibn Battutas editor.Working withthese five documents, two French scholars, C. Dfrmery and B.R.Sanguinetti, published between 1853 and 1858 a printed edition of theArabictext,togetherwithatranslationinFrenchandanapparatusofnotesandvarianttextualreadings.5

Since then, translations of the work, prepared in every case fromDfrmery and Sanguinettis printed text, have been published in manylanguages,includingSpanish,Italian,German,Russian,Polish,Hungarian,Persian, and Japanese. In1929SirHamiltonGibbproducedan abridgedEnglish translation and began work on a complete edition of the workundertheauspicesoftheHakluytSociety.6Thelastofthefourvolumesinthis series appeared in1994, andan indexcameout in2001.7However,EnglishtranslationsofvariousportionsoftheRihlahaveappearedinthe

pastcenturyasbooksorasarticlesinanthologiesandscholarlyjournals.The numerous translations of the Rihla, together with the extensive

corpus of encyclopedia articles, popular summaries, and criticalcommentarieson IbnBattuta andhis career thathave accumulated sincethe eighteenth century, are a tribute to the extraordinary value of thenarrative as a historical source on much of the inhabited EasternHemisphereinthesecondquarterofthefourteenthcentury.Thebookhasbeen cited and quoted in hundreds of historical works, not only thoserelating to Islamic countries but to China and the Byzantine empire aswell.Forthehistoryofcertainregions,SudanicWestAfrica,AsiaMinor,or theMalabar coast of India, for example, theRihla stands as the onlyeye-witness report on political events, human geography, and social oreconomicconditionsforaperiodofacenturyormore.IbnBattutahadnoprofessionalbackgroundorexperienceasawriterofgeography,history,orethnography, but hewas, asGibb declares, the supreme example of legographemalgrlui,thegeographerinspiteofhimself.8

The Western world has conventionally celebrated Marco Polo, whodiedtheyearbeforeIbnBattutafirstlefthome,astheGreatestTravelerinHistory. Ibn Battuta has inevitably been compared with him and hasusually taken secondprize as theMarcoPolo of theMuslimworld orthe Marco Polo of the tropics.9 Keeping in mind that neither manactually composed his own book (Marcos record was dictated to theFrenchromancewriterRusticelloinaGenoeseprison), there isnodoubtthat the Venetians work is the superior one in terms of the accurate,precise,practical information it contributesonmedievalChinaandotherAsian lands in the latter part of the thirteenth century, information ofprofound value to historians ever since.Yet IbnBattuta traveled to, andreports on, a greatmanymore places thanMarco did, and his narrativeoffers details, sometimes in incidental bits, sometimes in longdisquisitions,onalmosteveryconceivableaspectofhumanlifeinthatage,fromtheroyalceremonialoftheSultanofDelhitothesexualcustomsofwomen in the Maldive Islands to the harvesting of coconuts in SouthArabia.Moreover his story is farmorepersonal andhumanely engaging

thanMarcos. SomeWesternwriters, especially in an earlier timewhenthe conviction of Europes superiority over Islamic civilization was apresumptionofhistoricalscholarship,havecriticizedIbnBattutaforbeingexcessively eager to tell about the lives and pious accomplishments ofreligioussavantsandSufimysticswhenhemighthavewrittenmoreaboutpracticalpoliticsandprices.TheRihla,however,wasdirectedtoMuslimmen of learning of the fourteenth century for whom such reportage, soreconditetothemodernWesternreader,waspertinentandinteresting.

As in Marcos case, we know almost nothing about the life of IbnBattutaapart fromwhat theautobiographicaldimensionofhisownbookreveals.AsidefromthreeminorreferencesinMuslimscholarlyworksofthe fourteenth or fifteenth century that attest independently to theMoroccansexistenceandtohisachievementsasatraveler,nodocumenthas ever come to light from his own age that mentions him.10 Tounderstand his character, his aspirations, his social attitudes andprejudices,hispersonalrelationswithotherpeopleand,finally,thewayhefits into fourteenth-centuryMuslim society and culture, we must relyalmostexclusivelyontheRihlaitself.Fortunately,byexpressinghereandthereinitspageshisreactionstoevents,hisannoyances,hisanimosities,andthedetailsofhispersonalintrigues,herevealssomethingofhisowncharacter.

Westernwriters have sometimes characterized IbnBattuta as a braveexplorer likeMarcoPolo, riskinghis life todiscover terra incognitaandbringknowledgeofittopublicattention.InfactIbnBattutasexperiencewasdrasticallydifferent from thatof theVenetian.Marco traveledasanalien visitor into lands few Europeans had ever seen and whose peopleknew little, and cared toknow little, aboutEurope.Hewas anoddity, astrangerinastrangeland,whowasgiventheopportunitytovisitChinaonlybecauseoftheveryspecialpoliticalcircumstancesthatprevailedforashorttimeinthethirteenthandearlyfourteenthcenturies:theexistenceofthegreatMongolstatesofAsiaandtheirpolicyofpermittingmerchantsofall origins and religions to travel andconductbusiness in theirdomains.MarcodoesindeedheraldtheageofEuropeandiscovery,notbecausethe

peoples of Asia somehow needed discovering to set themselves on acourse into the future, but because his bookmade an extraordinary andalmostimmediateintellectualimpactonayoungWesterncivilizationthatuntilthattimehadacrampedandfaultyvisionofwhatthewiderworldoftheEasternHemispherewasallabout.

IbnBattuta, by contrast, spentmost of his traveling careerwithin theculturalboundariesofwhatMuslimscalledtheDaral-Islam,orAbodeofIslam.Thisexpressionembraced the landswhereMuslimspredominatedin the population, or at least whereMuslim kings or princes ruled overnon-Muslimmajorities andwhere in consequence the sharia, orSacredLaw,ofIslamwaspresumably thefoundationof thesocialorder. In thatsenseIslamiccivilizationextendedfromtheAtlanticcoastofWestAfricatoSoutheastAsia.Moreover,importantminoritycommunitiesofMuslimsinhabited cities and towns in regions such asChina, Spain, and tropicalWestAfricathatwerebeyondthefrontiersoftheDaral-Islam.Thereforealmost everywhere Ibn Battuta went he lived in the company of otherMuslims,menandwomenwhosharednotmerelyhisdoctrinalbeliefsandreligious rituals, but his moral values, his social ideals, his everydaymanners.Althoughhewasintroducedinthecourseofhistravelstoagreatmany Muslim peoples whose local languages, customs, and aestheticvalueswereunfamiliarinhisownhomelandatthefarwesternedgeofthehemisphere,heneverstrayedfarfromthesocialworldofindividualswhosharedhistastesandsensibilitiesandamongwhomhecouldalwaysfindhospitality,security,andfriendship.

Today,wecharacterizethecosmopolitanindividualinseveralways:theadvocate of international cooperation or world government, thesophisticated city-dweller, the jet-setter. TheMuslim cosmopolite of thefourteenth century was likewise urbane, well traveled, and free of thegrosser varieties of parochial bigotry. But, above all, he possessed aconsciousness,moreorlessacutelyformed,oftheentireDaral-Islamasasocialreality.Healsobelieved,atleastimplicitly,intheSacredLawastheproperandeminentlyworkablefoundationofaglobalcommunity.

Tounderstand the intellectualbasisof IbnBattutascosmopolitanism,

wemustre-orientourselvesawayfromtheconventionalviewofhistoryasprimarily the study of individual nations or discrete cultures. In theirwritings more than twenty years ago the world historians MarshallHodgson and William McNeill introduced and developed the globalconceptoftheEurasian,orpreferablyAfro-Eurasian,Ecumene,thatis,thebeltofagrarianlandsextendingwesttoeastfromtheMediterraneanbasintoChina.11ItwaswithinthisregionthatthemajorsedentarycivilizationsoftheEasternHemispherearose,wheremostcitiessprangup,andwheremostimportantculturalandtechnologicalinnovationsweremade.

Beginning in ancient times, according toMcNeill, theEcumenewentthrough a series of closures which involved increasingly complexinterrelations among the civilizations of the hemisphere. Thus thereevolvedacontinuousregionofintercommunication,or,aswewillcallitinthis book, the intercommunicating zone,which joined the sedentary andurbanizing peoples of the Mediterranean rim, the Middle East, GreaterIndia, andChina into a single field of historical interaction and change.Importantinnovationsoccurringinonepartofthezonetendedtospreadtotheotherpartsofitthroughtrade,militaryconquest,humanmigration,orgradualdiffusion.Moreover,theintercommunicatingzonegrewoverthecourseoftimebyincorporatingpeoplesinperipheralareassub-SaharanAfrica,SoutheastAsia,CentralAsia,EuropenorthoftheAlpsintothewebofinterrelations.Thus,thehistoryofAfricaandEurasiainpremoderntimesbecomesmorethanthestoriesofindividual,geographicallyboundednations, cultures, or empires. It is also the history of the unconsciouslyinter-regionaldevelopments,toquoteHodgson,whichconvergeintheireffectstoalterthegeneraldispositionoftheHemisphere.12

One of the most important dimensions of this hemispheric historywas the role of pastoral populations who inhabited the great arid beltwhich ran diagonally from southwest to northeast across theintercommunicating zone, that is the chain of steppes and desertsextendingfromtheSaharathroughtheMiddleEastandCentralAsiatotheGobi.Contactbetweentheherdingpeoplesofthearidzoneandsedentarysocietiestendedinnormaltimestobemostlybeneficialtoboth,involving

theexchangeofgoodsandelementsofculture.However,thepastoralists,owing to their mobility and ethos of martial strength, were always apotential threat tothefarrichersettledcivilizations.Atperiodicintervalsbeginning in the eighteenth century B.C. or earlier, nomadic invaderspoured into neighboring agrarian lands, pillaging cities, terminatingdynasties, and generally upsetting prevailing cultural and social patternsoverwideareasofEurasiaandAfrica.Thelastgreatnomadicmovementoccurred in the thirteenth century,when theMongols and theirTurkish-speakingallieseruptedoutofCentralAsiaandconqueredChina,Russia,and most of the Middle East, creating the largest territorial empire theworldhaseverknown.

Islam had come upon the world scene in the seventh century inconnectionwiththeexplosionofArabic-speaking,horse-mountedwarriorsoutoftheArabiandesertundertheleadershipoftheProphetMuhammadand his successors.Western historical writing has given a great deal ofattention to the early evolution of Islamic civilization, that is, theclassicalageof theAbbasidCaliphate (orHighCaliphate)centeredonBaghdad between the eighth and tenth centuries. For this period theastonishing contributions of Muslims to world history in art, science,medicine,philosophy,andinternationalcommercehavebeenrecognized,especiallyinsofarastheywereamajorformativeinfluenceontheriseofChristian European civilization in the earlyMiddle Ages. But preciselybecause historians of theWest have been interested in Islammainly interms of its effects on the development of European institutions, thesubsequentperiodsofIslamichistoryuptomoderntimeshavebeengivenlessheed.Indeed,theconventionalperspectiveinEuropeanandAmericantextbook writing has been that Islamic civilization reached its peakduring theAbbasidageandthereafterwent intoagradualbut inexorabledecline. This notion that Islam somehow atrophied after the tenth oreleventh century has largely turned on the Western perception(considerablyexaggerated) thatMuslimsrejected the intellectualheritageof Hellenistic rationalism about the same time that Europeansrediscovered it.Consequently, so the argument runs, theWest, having

adoptedascientificandrationalviewofthenaturalworld,wasabletoprogress in the direction of world dominance, while traditionalcivilizationssuchasIslamlanguishedandfellfurtherandfurtherbehind.

Infact,theperiodofhemispherichistoryfrom1000to1500A.D.,whatwewillcalltheIslamicMiddlePeriod,witnessedasteadyandremarkableexpansion of Islam, not simply as a religious faith but as a coherent,universalistmodelofcivilized life.Tobesure, the intense,concentrated,innovative brilliance of theAbbasidCaliphatewas not to be repeated inthe subsequenthalfmillenniumof Islamichistory.Yet ifmanyMuslimsdid turn intellectually conservative by the standard of modern scientificrationalism, the religion nonetheless pushed outward from its MiddleEasterncoreasanattractive,satisfying,cohesivesystemforexplainingthecosmos and for ordering collective life among ever- larger numbers ofpeople, both sedentary and pastoral, both urban and rural, all across theintercommunicatingzone.

ThespreadofIslamintonewareasofthehemisphereduringtheMiddlePeriod was given impetus by two major forces. One of these was theadvance ofTurkish-speakingMuslimherding peoples fromCentralAsiainto theMiddle East, a movement that began on a large scale with theconquestsoftheSeljukTurksintheeleventhcentury.Intheensuing300years Turkish cavalry armies pushed westward into Asia Minor andsouthernRussiaandeastwardintoIndia.ThesecondforcewasthegradualbutpersistentmovementofMuslimmerchantsintothelandsrimmingtheIndian Ocean, that is, East Africa, India, Southeast Asia, and China, aswellasintoCentralAsiaandWestAfricasouthoftheSahara.

Yet the principal contribution of both warriors and merchants,establishinginsomeplacesMuslimmilitarydominanceandinotherplacesonlycommunitiesofbelieversundernon-Muslimauthority,wastopreparethegroundforinfluxesofMuslimreligiousandintellectualcadres.Itwasthey,over the longer term,who founded thebasic institutionsof Islamiccivilization in these new areas and who carried on the work of culturalconversionamongnon-Muslimpeoples.

Acloselookatthepatternsoftravelandmigrationinthepost-Abbasid

centuries reveals a quiet but persistent dispersion of legal scholars,theologians,Sufidivines,belle-lettrists, scribes,architects,andcraftsmenoutwardfromtheoldercentersofIslamtothesenewfrontiersofMuslimmilitary andcommercial activity.At the same time, themembersof thiscultural elite who were living and traveling in the further regionsconsistently maintained close ties with the great cities of the centralIslamic lands, thereby creating not merely a scattering of literate andskilledMuslims across the hemisphere, but an integrated, growing, self-replenishingnetworkofculturalcommunication.

Moreover,themostfundamentalvaluesofIslamtendedtoencourageahigherdegreeof socialmobilityand freermovementof individuals fromonecityandregiontoanotherthanwasthecaseintheothercivilizationsof that time. Islamic culture put great stress on egalitarian behavior insocialrelationsbasedontheidealofacommunityofbelievers(theumma)havingacommonallegiancetooneGodandhisSacredLaw.Tobesure,agreatgulfseparatedtherichandpowerfulfromthepoorandweak,aswasthe case in all civilized societies until very recent times. But Islammightily resisted the institutionalizing of ascribed statuses, ethnicexclusivities, or purely territorial loyalties. The dynamics of social lifecentered,notonrelationsamongfixed,rigidlydefinedgroupsaswasthecaseinHinduIndiaoreven,toalesserdegree,themedievalWest,butonwhatHodgsoncallsegalitariancontractualism,therelativelyfreeplayofrelationsamongindividualswhotendedtosizeoneanotherupmainlyintermsofpersonalconformitytoIslamicmoralstandards.13Consequently,wherever in theDaral-Islaman individual traveled,pursuedacareer,orboughtandsoldgoods,thesamesocialandmoralrulesofconductlargelyapplied,rulesfoundedonthesharia.

The Islamic world in Ibn Battutas time was divided politically intonumerous kingdoms and principalities. Rulers insisted that theiradministrative and penal codes be obeyed, but they made no claims todivineauthority.For themostpart,Muslimson themovemerchants,scholars, and skilled, literate individuals of all kinds regarded thejurisdictions of states as a necessary imposition and gave them as little

attentionaspossible.TheirprimaryallegiancewastotheDaral-Islamasawhole.Thefocalpointsoftheirpublicliveswerenotcountriesbutcities,whereworld-mindedMuslimscarriedontheirinter-personalaffairsmainlywithreferencetotheuniversalistanduniformstandardsoftheLaw.

The terrible Mongol conquests of Persia and Syria that occurredbetween 1219 and 1258 appeared to Muslims to threaten the veryexistence of Islamic civilization. Yet by the time Ibn Battuta began histraveling career Mongol political dominance over the greater part ofEurasiawasproving conducive to the further expansionof Islamand itsinstitutions. The powerful Mongol khans of Persia and Central Asiaconverted to the faith, and the conditions of order and security thatattended the Pax Mongolica of the later thirteenth and early fourteenthcenturiesgavefreerplaythanevertothemovementofMuslimsbackandforthacrossEurasia.

ItwasinthelatedecadesofthePaxMongolicathatIbnBattutamadehis remarkable journeys. In a sense he participated, sometimessimultaneously,infourdifferentstreamsoftravelandmigration.First,hewasapilgrim,joiningthemarchofpiousbelieverstothespiritualshrinesofMeccaandMedinaat least four times inhiscareer.Second,hewasadevotee of Sufism, ormystical Islam, traveling, as thousands did, to thehermitages and lodges of venerable individuals to receive their blessingand wisdom. Third, he was a juridical scholar, seeking knowledge anderuditecompanyinthegreatcitiesoftheIslamicheartland.Andfinally,hewas a member of the literate, mobile, world-minded elite, an educatedadventurer as it were, looking for hospitality, honors, and profitableemploymentinthemorenewlyestablishedcentersof Islamiccivilizationin the further regionsofAsiaandAfrica. Inanyof these traveling roles,however, he regarded himself as a citizen, not of a country calledMorocco, but of theDar al-Islam, towhose universalist spiritual,moral,and social values hewas loyal above any other allegiance. His life andcareer exemplify a remarkable fact ofAfroEurasian history in the laterMiddlePeriod,that,asMarshallHodgsonwrites,Islamcamecloserthananyothermedievalsocietytoestablishingacommonworldorderofsocial

andevenculturalstandards.14

Notes

1.HenriCordier,quotedinJosephNeedham,ScienceandCivilizationinChina,vol.4,part3:CivilEngineeringandNautics(Cambridge,1971),p.486.

2. Approximate. Henry Yule estimates that IB traveled more than 75,000 miles during hiscareer,notcountingjourneyswhilelivinginIndia.CathayandtheWayThither,4vols.(London,191316),vol.4,p.40.MahdiHusain(MH,p.liii)suggests77,640miles.

3.OnrihlaliteratureinNorthAfricaseeM.B.A.Benchekroun,LaVieintellectuellemarocainesouslesMerinidesetlesWattasides(Rabat,1974),pp.911,25157;AndrMichel,IbnBattuta,trenteannesdevoyagesdePekinauNiger,LesAfricains1 (1977):13436;A.L.dePrmare,MaghrebetAndalousieauXIVesicle(Lyon,1981),pp.34,9293.

4.SamuelLee,TheTravelsofIbnBattuta(London,1929).SeealsoD&S,vol.1,pp.xiiixxvi.5.C.DfrmeryandB.R.Sanguinetti(trans.andeds.).VoyagesdIbnBattuta,4vols.(Paris,

185358;reprintedn.,VincentMonteil[ed.],Paris,1979).6.H.A.R.Gibb,TheTravelsofIbnBattutaA.D.13251354,TranslatedwithNotesfromthe

ArabicTextEditedbyC.DefremeryandB.R.Sanguinetti,5vols.Vols.13:CambridgeUniversityPress for the Hakluyt Society, 1958, 1961, and 1971. Vol. 4: Translation Completed withAnnotationsbyC.F.Beckingham.London:HakluytSociety,1994.Vol.5:Index,A.D.H.Bivar,Compiler,Aldershot,England:AshgatePublishing,2001.

7.ThefinalvolumewastranslatedbyC.F.Beckingham,Gibbsformerstudent.8.Gibb,TravelsinAsiaandAfrica,p.12.9.A.G.Hopkins,AnEconomicHistoryofWestAfrica(NewYork,1973),p.78.10.OnthemedievalsourcesthatmentionIBseeChapter14.11. Marshall G. S. Hodgson, The Venture of Islam: Conscience and History in World

Civilization,3vols.(Chicago,1974);WilliamH.McNeill,TheRiseoftheWest:AHistoryoftheHumanCommunity(Chicago,1963).Theconceptoftrans-regionalintercommunicatingzonesisalsoimportantinthewritingsofPhilipD.Curtin,notablyCross-CulturalTradeinWorldHistory(Cambridge,England,1984).12. Marshall G. S. Hodgson, Hemispheric Inter-regional History as an Approach to World

History,JournalofWorldHistory1(1954):717.13.MarshallG. S.Hodgson, TheRole of Islam inWorldHistory, International Journal of

MiddleEastStudies1(1970):116.14.MarshallG.S.Hodgson,TheUnityofLaterIslamicHistory,JournalofWorldHistory 5

(1960):884.

1Tangier

The learned man is esteemed in whatever place or condition hemaybe,alwaysmeetingpeoplewhoarefavorablydisposedtohim,who draw near to him and seek his company, gratified in beingclosetohim.1

Abdal-Latifal-Baghdadi

ThewhiteandwindycityofTangier lieson thecoastofMoroccoat thesouthwesternendoftheStraitofGibraltarwherethecoldsurfacecurrentoftheAtlanticflowsintothechannel,formingarivertotheMediterranean45milesaway.Accordingtolegend,Herculesfoundedthecityinhonorofhiswife, after he split the continents and built his pillars, themountainknownasJebelMusaon theAfricanshore, theRockofGibraltaron theEuropean. For travelers sailing between Morocco and the IberianPeninsula the strait was indeed a river, only 16 miles across at itsnarrowestpointandtraversedinaslittleasthreehoursinfairweather.Tosail east or west from one sea to the other was a more dangerous andexactingfeatthanthecrossing,owingtocapriciouswindsandcurrentsaswell as reefs and sandbars along the shores. Yet merchant ships weremakingthepassagewithmoreandmorefrequencyinmedievaltimes,andTangierwasgrowingalongwiththeotherportsofthestraitasanentreptbetween the commercial networks of the Mediterranean and the NorthAtlantic.Tangierwasaconvergingpointof fourgeographicalworldsAfricanandEuropean,AtlanticandMediterranean.Itwasaninternationaltown whose character was determined by the shifting flow of maritimetraffic in the strait merchants and warriors, craftsmen and scholarsshuttlingbackandforthbetweenthepillarsorglidingunderthembetweentheoceanandthesea.

WehaveonlyafaintideaofthelocalhistoryofTangier(Tanja)inthefirst quarter of the fourteenth centurywhen IbnBattutawas growing upthere, being educated, and moving in the secure circles of parents,kinsmen,teachersandfriends.2Butthereisnodoubtthatlifeinthetownwasshapedbythepatternsofhistoryinthewiderworldofthestrait.IftheyoungIbnBattuta,preoccupiedwithhisKoranic lessons,was indifferenttothemomentouscomingsandgoingsintheregionofthechannel,thesemusthavehad,nonetheless,apervading influenceon thedailyaffairsofthecityanditspeople.

Map2:RegionoftheStraitofGibraltar

Theearlyfourteenthcenturywasatimeoftransitionforall thetowns

borderingthestrait,asprevailingrelationshipsbetweenAfricaandEuropeon the one hand and the Atlantic andMediterranean on the other werebeingaltered,insomewaysdrastically.MostconspicuouswastheretreatofMuslim power fromEurope in the face of the Christian reconquista.Duringthehalfmillenniumbetweentheeighthandthirteenthcenturies,alloftheMaghrib(NorthAfricafromMoroccotowesternLibya)andmostofIberiawereunderMuslimrule.Onbothsidesofthestraittheredevelopedasophisticatedurbancivilization,foundedontherichirrigatedagricultureofAndalusia (al-Andalus), asMuslim Iberiawas called, and flourishingamid complex cultural and commercial interchange among cities allaround the rim of the far western Mediterranean. The unity of thiscivilizationreacheditsapogeeinthetwelfthcenturywhentheAlmohads,a dynasty of Moroccan Berbers impelled by a militant ideology ofreligious reform, created a vast Mediterranean empire, whose landsspannedthestraitandstretchedfromtheAtlanticcoasttoLibya.

MarinidMosqueatMansuranearTlemcenPhotobytheAuthor

TheOldCityofTangier.PhotobytheAuthor.

TheAlmohadsultans,however,provedincapableofmanagingsuchanenormous territory for long. Early in the thirteenth century the politicaledificebegantocomeapartamideconomicdecline,religiousquarrels,andcountrysiderebellions.InnorthernIberiaChristiankingdoms,whichuntilthenhadexistedintheshadowofMuslimcivilization,tooktheoffensive.ThevictoryofthecombinedforcesofAragon,Castile,andPortugaloveranAlmohadarmyat theBattleofLasNavasdeTolosa in1212was thefirst of a succession of spectacular Christian advances against Muslimterritory. One by one the great Muslim cities fell, Cordova in 1236,Valenciain1238,Sevillein1248.BymidcenturytheAlmohadswereallbut driven from Iberia, and all that remained of Muslim power on the

northern side of the straitwas themountainous kingdomofGranada. InNorthAfrica theAlmohadstatesplit into threesmallerkingdoms,one intheIfriqiya(theeasternMaghrib,todayTunisiaandeasternAlgeria)ruledby theHafsiddynasty;asecond in theCentralMaghribgovernedby theAbdal-Wadids;andathirdinMoroccounderanomadicwarriortribeofBerbernomadsknownastheBanuMarin,ortheMarinids.

Rough and ready cavalrymenwith no guiding ideology, theMarinidsoverthrew the last of the Almohad rulers, established a new dynasticcapitalatFez,andrestoredameasureofpoliticalstabilitytoMoroccointhe last quarter of the thirteenth century. From the start the new sultansharbored dreams of resurrecting the Mediterranean empire of theirpredecessors,andwiththisinmindrepeatedlywagedwaragainsttheAbdal-Wadids and the Hafsids, their neighbors to the east. Some of theMarinidkingsmountedseabornecampaignsagainsttheIberiancoast,butnone of these invasions seriously threatened the Christian hold on theinterior of the peninsula. In any event the Moroccans were obliged topursue an active policy in the region of the strait, which was far tooimportant strategically to be given up to the Christian states without astruggle.

The contest, however, was no simple matter of Islam versusChristianity. The battle of faiths that had dominated the decades of theAlmohadretreatwaslosingsomeofitsemotionalferocity,andarelativelystablebalanceofpowerwasemergingamongsixsuccessorstates.FourofthemwereMuslimtheMarinids,theAbdal-Wadids,theHafsids,andtheNasrids,whoruledGranadaafter1230.TheothertwowereChristian Castile and AragonCatalonia. From the later thirteenth through thefollowing century these six kingdoms competed in peace and war withlittle regard to matters of religion, which served mainly as ideologicalcoverforutterlypragmaticpoliticalormilitaryundertakings.

WarandpeaceintheStraitofGibraltarconvergedonthefiveprincipaltownswhichfaceditTarifa,Algeciras,andGibraltarontheEuropeanside,CeutaandTangierontheAfrican.Theseportsweretheentreptsoftrade between the continents, the embarkation points for warriors on

crusade,andthebasesforgalleyswhichpatrolledthechannel.Inthelaterthirteenthand the fourteenthcenturies theywere theobjectsof incessantmilitaryrivalryamongthekingsoftheregion.Algeciras,forexample,wascededbyGranada to theMarinids in1275, returned toGranada in1294,taken again byMorocco in 1333, and finally seized byCastile in 1344.Indeed,Tangierwastheonlyoneoftheportstoretainthesamepoliticalmastersthroughoutthisperiod,followingtheMarinidoccupationin1275.Part of the reason was that in the politics of the strait, Tangier was,relatively speaking, the least important of the five cities. The others allfrontedthenarroweasterlyendofthechannelandwerevitaltothetradeandcommunicationof thewesternMediterranean.ButTangier, lying faroff to thesouthwestandalmostfacing theAtlantic,wasaprizeof lessermagnitude.ItwouldbethefortuneofPortugal,anAtlanticpower,towrestthecityfromMoroccancontrol,butnotuntil1471.

Still, Tangier was of considerable strategic value. The lovely bay,whosewhitebeachescurveoff to thenortheastof thecity,was theonlynaturalindentationofanysizeontheentirecoastofMorocco,anditcouldeasily shelter a fleet of warships. Along with Ceuta (Sabta) and somelesser towns on the strait, Tangier had for several centuries served as apointofembarkationfornavalandcargovesselsboundforIberia.In1279SultanAbuYusuf,founderoftheMariniddynasty,supervisedthemassingof a fleet of 72 galleys in the bay in order to send troops to relieve aCastilian siege of Algeciras.3 Aside from the recurrent movement ofMarinidtroops,horses,andmatrielthroughtheport,thecityalsoplayedhost tonumerousbandsofMuslimpirates,whoharassedshipping in thestraitandmaderaidsontheSpanishCoast.4ThehazardousanduncertainconditionofinterstateaffairsnodoubtstimulatedtheTangierianeconomyand gave the population ample employment building ships, runningcargos, hiring out as soldiers and seamen, and trafficking in arms andsupplies.ShortofaChristianattack,thecityhadlittletoloseandmuchtogainfromtheprevailingconditionsofwaranddiplomacyintheregion.

IfthecontinuingprosperityofthecityintheaftermathoftheAlmohadcollapseresultedpartlyfromthevigorouseffortsoftheMarinidstocheck

the reconquista, even more important were developments in trade andseaborne technology. In thecourseof theChristiancrusades toPalestinebetween the eleventh and the end of the thirteenth centuries, Europeanlong-distance shipping took almost full command of theMediterranean.This was the first great age of Europes economic development, andalthough trade between Christian and Muslim states grew by leaps,virtually all of it was carried in Latin vessels. In the western sea theGenoesetookthelead,signingacommercialtreatywiththeAlmohadsin113738andthereafteropeninguptradewithanumberofMaghribiports,including Ceuta, and possibly Tangier, in the 1160s.5 Merchants ofCatalonia,operatingprincipallyfromBarcelonaandprotectedbytherisingpower of the kings of Aragon, extended their commercial operations toNorthAfricabytheearly1200s.TradersfromMarseille,Majorca,Venice,and Pisa also joined in the competition, offering grain, wine, hardware,spices,andweaponry,pluscotton,woolen,andlinentextilesinreturnforthewool,hides,leather,wax,alum,grain,andoilofNorthAfricaandthegold,ivory,andslavesofthelandsbeyondtheSahara.

With commercial traffic in the western Mediterranean growingcontinuallyinthetwelfthandthirteenthcenturies,itwasonlyamatteroftimebeforeitwouldspillthroughthestraitintotheAtlantic.TheGenoese,Catalans,Provenals, andVenetianswere all established in the townsofthestrait in the1300s.But therewerestrongincentives togofurther.Tothesouth lay theAtlanticportsofMoroccoand theprospectnotonlyofexpandingtheMaghribitradebutofdivertingsomeofthegoldbroughtupfromWestAfricabeforeitreachedtheMediterraneanoutlets.Bythelatertwelfth century Genoese vessels were already sailing beyond Tangier,roundthenorthwesterntipofAfrica,anddownthecoasttoSal,Safi,andother Moroccan ports. In 1291 the intrepid Vivaldi brothers of GenoavanishedintoterraincognitaaftersettingsaildownthecoastofMorocco,boundforIndiatwocenturiestoosoon.6

It was also after 1275 that Genoese merchants began sailingnorthwestwardfromthestraitaroundthegreatbulgeofIberiaandintothewatersoftheNorthAtlantic.By1300bothGenoeseandVenetiangalleys

weremakingregulartripstoportsinEnglandandFlanders,carryinggoodsfromalltheMediterraneanlandsandreturningwithwoolens,timber,andotherproductsofnorthernEurope.Herewasoccurringthegreatmaritimelink-upbetween theoceanand the sea thatwouldweigh somuch in thetransformationofEuropeinthelaterMiddleAges.

TheinvasionoftheAtlanticbyMediterraneanshippingmadetheStraitofGibraltar of evengreater strategic importance than it hadbeen earlierand gave the cities along its shore a new surge of commercial vitality.Ceutawasthebusiestandmostprosperousofthetownsoneithersideofthechannelintheearlyfourteenthcentury.7ButTangier,whichlayalongthe southwesterly route from the strait to the ports ofAtlanticMorocco,had itsshareof thenewshipping traffic.8 In fairweathermonthsvesselsfromGenoa,Catalonia,Pisa,Marseille,andMajorcamightallbeseeninTangierbayslendergalleyswhichsatlowonthesurfaceofthewaterandmaneuvered close to shore under the power of their oarsmen; high-sided round ships with their great triangular sails; and, perhapsoccasionallyafter1300,tubby-looking,square-riggedcogsfromsomeporton the Atlantic coast of Portugal or Spain. And in addition to these, aswarmofMuslimvesselsputoutfromtheharbortotramptheMaghribicoast, shuttle cargo to Iberian ports, or fish thewaters of the strait. ThemovementofChristianmerchantsandsailorsinandoutofthetownmusthave been a matter of regular occurrence. And in normal times thesevisitorsmixedfreelywiththelocalMuslimpopulationtoexchangenewsandhaggleoverprices.

Tangierwasindeedafrontiertownintheearlyfourteenthcentury.WithroughBerbersoldierstrampingthroughthesteepstreetstotheirwarships,ChristianandMuslim traders jostlingoneanotheron thewharvesand inthewarehouses, pirates disposingof their plunder in the bazaar, the cityimaged the roisterous frontier excitement of the times. Perched on thewesternedgeoftheMuslimworldandcaughtupinthechangingpatternsoftradeandpowerintheMediterraneanbasin,itwasamorerestlessandcosmopolitan city than it had ever been before. It was the sort of placewhereayoungmanmightgrowupanddevelopanurgetotravel.

In the narrative of his world adventures Ibn Battuta tells us virtuallynothing of his early life in Tangier. From Ibn Juzayy, the AndalusianscholarwhocomposedandeditedtheRihla,orfromIbnBattutahimselfinthe most off-hand way, we learn that he was named Abu AbdallahMuhammad ibn Abdallah ibn Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Lawati ibnBattuta on 25 February 1304; that his family was descended from theBerber tribe known as the Lawata; that hismother and fatherwere stillalive when he left Morocco in 1325; and that some members of hisextended family besides himself were schooled in Islamic law and hadpursuedcareersaslegalscholars(faqihs)orjudges(qadis).Beyond theseskimpyfacts,weknowonlywhat theRihla reveals tousby implication:thathe received thebesteducation in lawand theother IslamicsciencesthatTangiercouldprovideandthatduringhisadolescentyearsheacquiredaneducatedmansvaluesandsensibilities.

His familyobviously enjoyed respectable standing asmembersof thecitys scholarly elite. Tangier was not a chief center of learning infourteenth-centuryNorthAfrica;itwasnotaFez,aTlemcen,oraTunis.When Ibn Battuta was growing up, it did not yet possess one of themadrasas, or colleges of higher learning, which the newMarinid rulershad begun founding in their capital.9 But Tangier, like any city ofcommerceintheIslamicworld,requiredliteratefamilieswhospecializedinprovidingavarietyofskillsandservices: theofficersofmosquesandother pious foundations, administrative and customs officials, scribes,accountants,notaries,legalcounsellors,andjudges,aswellasteachersandprofessors for the sons of the affluent families of merchants andlandowners.

TheeducationIbnBattutareceivedwasoneworthyofamemberofalegalfamily.Itiseasyenoughtoimaginetheyoungboy,eagerandaffableas he would be in adult life, marching off to Quranic school in theneighborhoodmosquetohavetheteacherbeat theSacredBookintohimuntil,bytheageoftwelveatleast,hehaditallcommittedtomemory.Theeducation ofmost boyswould go no further than thisQuranic training,plus perhaps a smattering of caligraphy, grammar, and arithmetic.But a

lad of Ibn Battutas family status would be encouraged to move on toadvancedstudyofthereligioussciences:Quranicexegesis,thetraditionsof the ProphetMuhammad (hadith), grammar, rhetoric, theology, logic,and law. The foremost scholar-teachers of the city offered courses inmosquesortheirownhomes.Studentsmightnormallyattendthelecturesofanumberofdifferentmen,sittinginasemi-circleatthemastersfeetashereadfromlearnedtextsanddiscoursedontheirmeaning.

Thepupilstaskwasnotsimplytograspthesubstanceofatextbuttolearn it by heart. The memorization of standard and classical textscomprising the corpusof Islamicknowledgewas central to all advancededucation. Themost respectedmasters in any field of learningwere thepeoplewhohadnotonlycommittedtomemoryandthoroughlyunderstoodthe greatest number of books, but who could recall and recite passagesfromthemwithease inscholarlydiscourseanddebate.AccordingtoIbnKhaldun, the great philosopher and historian of the later fourteenthcentury,memorytrainingwasevenmorerigorouslypursuedinMoroccaneducation than in other parts of the Muslim world.10 The purpose ofeducationintheIslamicMiddlePeriod,itshouldbeunderstood,wasnottoteachstudentstothinkcriticallyabouttheirhumanornaturalenvironmentor to push the frontiers of knowledge beyond the limits of their elders.Rather it was to transmit to the coming generation the spiritual truths,moral values, and social rules of the past which, after all,Muslims hadfound valid by the astonishing success of their faith and civilization.Educationwasineverysenseconservative.

Although the narrow discipline ofmemorization occupiedmuch of astudentstime,anIslamiceducationnonethelessaddressedthewholeman.In the courseof his advanced studies a boywas expected to acquire thevalues and manners of a gentleman. This included his everydayconversation in Arabic. Despite the Berber-speaking heritage of NorthAfrica, including Tangier and its environs, Arabic was the language ofcivilized speech in every Maghribi city. A man of learning, unlike theordinarycitizen,wasexpected toknowthesubtlecomplexitiesofformalArabicgrammar,syntax,andpoeticsandtodecoratehisconversationwith

Quranic quotations, classical allusions, and rhymed phrases.11 IbnBattutasfamilywasofBerberorigin,butwemaysupposethathegrewupspeakingArabicinhisownhouseholdaswellasinthecompanyofothereducatedmenandboys.TheRihlagivesnoevidencethathecouldspeaktheBerberlanguageofnorthernMorocco.

Thenarrativeofhislifeexperiencerevealsthatinhisyouthhemasteredthequalitiesofsocialpolishexpectedoftheurbanescholarandgentleman.

Politeness,discretion,propriety,decency,cleanliness,waysofcooking,table manners and rules of dress all formed part of that extremelyrefinedcodeofsavoirvivrewhichoccupiedsopredominantaplaceinsocial relations and moral judgements. Whatever caused shame andcould irritate or inconvenience someone was considered impolite. Acourteousandrefinedman...evincedinhisbehavioracombinationofattitudes, gestures and words which made his relations with othersharmonious,amiableandsonaturalthattheyseemedspontaneous.12

This description pertains to learned Moroccans in the nineteenthcentury,butitcouldeasilyapplytoIbnBattutaandtothewell-bredmenofhistime.Ifinthecourseofhisworldtravelshewoulddisplaysomelessfortunate traits impatience, profligacy, impetuousness, pious self-righteousness,andaninclinationtobeunctuousinthepresenceofwealthorpowerhewasnonethelessaneminentlycivilized individual.Ashegrew intoadulthoodhis speech,hismanners,his conductwould identifyhimasanalim,amanoflearning,andasamemberofthesocialcategoryofeducatedmencalledtheulama.

Ashiseducationadvanced,hebegantospecializeinthelaw,asothermembers of his familyhaddone.The studyof law (inArabic fiqh)wasone of the fundamental religious sciences. In Islam the Sacred Law, orsharia,wasfoundedprincipallyontherevealedKoranandthewordsandactions of the Prophet. Ideally it was the basis not merely of religiouspractice but of the social order in its broadest expression. AlthoughMuslim kings and princes promulgated administrative and penal

ordinances as occasion demanded (and increasingly so in the MiddlePeriodofIslam),theshariaaddressedthefullspectrumofsocialrelations marriage, inheritance, slavery, taxation, market relations, moralbehavior,andsoon.UnlikethesituationintheChristianworld,noformaldistinctionwasmadebetweencanonandsecularlegalsystems.Therefore,IbnBattutasjuridicaltrainingwasentirelyintegratedwithhistheologicalandliteraryeducation.

In Sunni Islam, that is, mainstream or, perhaps less appropriately,orthodoxIslam,thelegalsystemsembracedfourmajorschoolsoflaw,calledmadhhabs. Theywere theHanafi, theShafii, theMaliki, and theHanbali. The four schools differed in matters of juristic detail, not infundamental legal principles.The school towhich an individual adhereddepended largely on where he happened to have been born, since themadhhabs evolved during the early centuries of Islam along territoriallines.

TheMaliki school, named after its eighth-century founderMalik ibnAnas, has been historically dominant throughout North Africa. TheAlmohad rulers of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries possessed adistinctiveapproach to jurisprudencewhichset themand theminorityofscholars who served them apart from the four schools and involvedvigoroussuppressionoftheMalikidoctors.TherudeMarinidwarcaptainswhoreplacedtheAlmohadshadnothoughtsonthesubjectof lawatall.Theywere, however, quick to distance themselves from the ideology oftheir predecessors by championing the re-establishment ofMalikism. Inthis way they gained status and legitimacy in the eyes of Moroccoseducatedmajorityandenlistedtheirhelpinconsolidatingthenewpoliticalorder.Therefore,IbnBattutagrewupandwenttoschoolduringatimeofrenaissanceinMalikilegalstudies.AndpartlybecauseMalikismhadbeentemporarily out of favor and was now back in, legal education infourteenth century Morocco tended to stress uncritical, doctrinaireacceptance of the interpretations of law contained in the major Malikitexts.13 The law classes he attended in Tangier would have involvedmainly the presentation and memorizing of sections of the corpus of

Maliki fiqh, the professors using summaries and abridgments of majorlegaltextsofthatschool.

As his introductory legal studies proceeded, hewas also assimilatingthe specificcultural styleofaMuslim lawyer.Theeducation, aswell asthe speech and manners, of the juridical class was largely the sameeverywhere in the Muslim world. Therefore, Ibn Battutas particularsocializationwas equipping him tomove easily amongmen of learninganywhere in theDaral-Islam. Ifheaspired tobea jurisprudentoneday,thenhewasexpectedtoexemplifytheprizedqualitiesofmembersofhisprofessionerudition,dignifiedcomportment,moderationinspeechandconduct, and absolute incorruptibility. He also adopted the distinctivedressofthelegalscholar:amoreorlessvoluminousturban;ataylasan,orshawl-likegarmentdrapedovertheheadandshoulders;andalong,wide-sleeved, immaculately clean gown of fine material. Most educated menworebeards.InonepassageintheRihlaIbnBattutamakesanincidentalreferencetohisown.14(Thatreference,itmightbeadded,istheonlycluehe offers anywhere in the narrative as to his own physical appearance.Since the ancestors of a Tangierian might include dark-eyed, olive-skinned Arabs, blue-eyed, fair-haired Berbers, and even black WestAfricans,nothingcanbeassumedaboutthetravelersphysiognomy.)

Another importantdimensionofhis educationwashis introduction toSufism,themysticaldimensionofIslam.ThroughouttheMuslimworldinthe thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, Sufism was addressing populardesiresforanIslamicfaithofwarmth,emotion,andpersonalhope,needsthat outward performance of Quranic duties could not alone supply.Indeed it was during the later Middle Period that Sunni orthodoxyembracedSufismwholeheartedlyandtransformeditintoapowerfulforceforthefurtherexpansionofIslam.

Two ideaswere at the heart of the Sufimovement.Onewas that theindividualMuslimiscapableofachievingdirectandpersonalcommunionwithGod.TheotherwasthatthepathtoGodcouldbefoundthroughtheintermediaryofasaintlymasterorshaykh.Suchanindividualwasthoughttobeawali, afriendofGod,who radiated thequalityofdivinegrace

(baraka)andcould transmit it toothers.With thehelpofhismaster, theSufi initiate immersed himself inmystical teachings, rituals, and specialprayers and strove to inculcate high spiritual qualities in everyday life.Sufismwasalsoasocialmovementbecause it involved theformationofcongregationsof seekerswhogathered round a particularmaster to hearhis teachings and join with him in devotional exercises. All across theIslamicworld in IbnBattutas time these groupswere just beginning tobecome institutionalized as religious orders, each one organized aroundcommondevotion to the spiritual teachings, or path,of the founderoftheorderandhissuccessors.Thesebrotherhoodsandsisterhoodswerealsodeveloping as civic organizations and mutual aid societies and, by thefifteenthcenturyinsomeareas,aslociofconsiderablepoliticalpower.

Sufism had a special appeal for rural folk, whose arduous livesdemandedaconcretefaithofhopeandsalvationandwhowereisolatedtoagreaterorlesserextentfromtheliterate,juridicallymindedIslamofthecities. Sufi lodges, called zawiyas, organized as centers for worship,mysticaleducation,andcharity,werespringingupallacrossNorthAfricainIbnBattutastime,especiallyamongruralBerberpopulationstowhomthey offered a richer, more accessible religion and a new kind ofcommunalexperience.

InMoroccoSufi preacherswerenotably active and successful amongthe Berber-speaking populations of the RifMountains, the region southandeastofTangier.15Yetmysticalideaswerealsopenetratingthetownsin the thirteenthandfourteenthcenturies,perhapsratherearly inTangierbecauseofitsnearnesstotheRif.Moreover,Tangier,forallitsintellectualrespectability, was not one of the great bastions of scriptural orthodoxylike Fez, where the leading Maliki doctors were still inclined to besuspiciousofSufism,oranyotherreligiousideanotdocumentedintheirlawbooksortheologicaltreatises.

Although we have no idea what Ibn Battutas early experience withSufismmay have been, his behavior during his travels is itself evidencethathegrewupinasocialclimaterichinmysticalbeliefsandthat theseideasweretightlyinterwovenwithhisformal,scripturaleducation.Bythe

timeheleftTangier,hewassodeeplyinfluencedbySufiideas,especiallybelief inpersonalbarakaand thevalueofasceticdevotionalism, thathistraveling career turned out to be, in a sense, a grand world tour of thelodgesandtombsoffamousSufimysticsandsaints.Hewasnever,tobesure, a committedSufi disciple.He remained throughouthis life a laySufi, attendingmystical gatherings, seeking the blessing andwisdom ofspiritualluminaries,andretreatingonoccasionintobriefperiodsofasceticcontemplation.But he never gave up theworldly life.Hewas, rather, aliving example of thatmoral reconciliation between popular Sufism andpublic orthodoxy thatwasworking itself out in the Islamicworld of histime.Consequently,heembarkedonhistravelspreparedtoshowasmuchequanimity in the company of holy hermits inmountain caves as in thepresenceoftheaugustprofessorsofurbancolleges.

Aside from the local teachersanddivinesofhisyouth,he is likely tohavehadcontactwithmenof letterswhopassed throughTangieratonetime or another. The scholarly class of the Islamic world was anextraordinarilymobilegroup.IntheMaghribofthelaterMiddlePeriodthelearned,likemodernconference-hoppingacademics,circulatedincessantlyfromonecityandcountrytoanother,studyingwithrenownedprofessors,leading diplomatic missions, taking up posts in mosques and royalchanceries.Scholarsroutinelyshuttledbackandforthacross theStraitofGibraltarbetweenthecitiesofMoroccoandtheNasridSultanate.Indeed,IbnBattutahadacousin (theRihla tellsus)whoservedasaqadi in theAndalusiancityofRonda.

Apartfromthisnormalcirculation,therewasoverthelongrunoftimea pattern of one-way migration of educated people from Andalusia toNorthAfrica,akindofIberianbraindrainwhichacceleratedinresponsetoeachnewsurgeofChristianpowerandconcomitantlossofsecurityandopportunityforMuslimsonthenorthernsideofthestrait.16Iberiasloss,however, was North Africas gain, since Andalusian scholars andcraftsmen,arrivinginsporadicstreamsbetweenthethirteenthandfifteenthcenturies, did much to enliven the cultural life of Maghribi towns. IfTangiertookinfewimmigrantscomparedwithFezorotherpremiercities,

thelegacyofthegreatAndalusianintellectualtraditionmusthaverubbedoffonthecityseducatedclasstoasignificantextent.

Noyoungscholar,howeverwellconnectedhisfamilymightbe,couldexpect to pursue a religious or public vocation until he had undertakenadvancedstudieswithat leasta feweminent teachers.The localmastersandvisitingscholarsofTangiercouldgiveaboyasolidfoundation inthe major disciplines. But any lad with a large intellectual appetite andpersonalambitiontomatchwasobligedtotaketotheroadalongwiththerestofthescholarlycommunity.Fezlayonlyafewdaystravelingtimetothe south, and its colleges, just being built under Marinid sponsorship,wereattractingstudentsfromallMoroccosprovincialtowns.ButthoughFezwas fast gaining a reputation as themost important seat of learningwestofTunis,itlackedtheshiningprestigeofthegreatculturalcentersoftheMiddleEast,notablyCairoandDamascus. In thosecitieswere tobefound themost illustrious teachers, themostvariedcurricula, thebiggestcolleges,therarestlibraries,and,forayoungmanwithacareeraheadofhim,themostrespectedcredentials.

Notes

1.QuotedinGeorgeMakdisi,TheRiseofColleges(Edinburgh,1981),p.91.2. The limited literary sources on Tangier in the Almohad age and later have been brought

togetherinEdouardMichaux-Bellaire,VillesettribusduMaroc:Tangeretsazone,vol.7(Paris,1921).

3.DerekLatham,TheLaterAzafids,RevuedelOccidentMusulmanetdelaMditerrane1516(1973):11213.

4.Charles-EmmanuelDufourcq.LEspagne catalane et leMaghribauxXIIIe etXIVe sicles(Paris.1966),p.575.DufourcqnotesanupsurgeofpiracyemanatingfromMoroccanportsintheearlyfourteenthcentury.

5. Hilmar C. Krueger. Genoese Trade with Northwest Africa in the Twelfth Century.Speculum8(1933):37782.KruegerdoesnotmentionTangierspecifically,butthereisnodoubtthatEuropeansweresailingthereaboutthistimesincetheywerealsobeginningtoputinatAtlanticportssouthwestofTangier.

6.J.H.Parry.TheDiscoveryoftheSea(NewYork,1974),p.75.7.Charles-EmmanuelDufourcq,LaQuestiondeCeutaauXIIIesicle,Hespris42(1955):

67127:DerekLatham,TheStrategicPositionandDefenceofCeutaintheLaterMuslimPeriod,

IslamicQuarterly15(1971):189204;AnnaMascarello,QuelquesaspectsdesactivitsitaliennesdansleMaghrebmdival,RevuedHistoireetdeCivilisationduMaghreb5(1968):7475.

8.Dufourcq,LEspagnecatalane,p.159.9.AmadrasawasfoundedinTangiersometimeduringthereignofAbuIHasan(133151).

HenriTerrasse,HistoireduMaroc,2vols.(Casablanca,194950),vol.2.p.53.10.IbnKhaldun,TheMuqaddimah,2ndedn.,trans.F.Rosenthal,3vols.(Princeton,N.J.,1967),

vol.2,pp.43031.11.Onthecultureofmenoftraditionallearninginnineteenth-andtwentieth-centuryMorocco,

seeDaleF.Eickelman,KnowledgeandPowerinMorocco:TheEducationofaTwentiethCenturyNotable(Princeton,N.J.,1985).

12.KennethBrown,People of Sal: Tradition andChange in aMoroccanCity, 18301930(Cambridge,Mass.,1976),p.103.13.AlfredBel,LaReligionmusulmaneenBerbrie(Paris,1938),pp.32022,327.14.On the dress of legal scholars in bothGranada andMorocco seeRachelAri,LEspagne

musulmaneautempsdesNasrides(Paris,1973),pp.38291.15.Bel,LaReligionmusulmane,pp.35253;Terrasse,HistoiredeMaroc,vol.1.p.81.16.MohamedTalbispeaksofMuslimemigrationfromSpainasafuitedescerveauxinLes

contacts culturels entre lIfriqiya hafside (12301569) et le sultanat nasride dEspagne (12321492)inActasdelIIColoquishispano-tunecinodeestudioshistoricos(Madrid,1973),pp.6390.

2TheMaghrib

Ascholarseducationisgreatlyimprovedbytravelinginquestofknowledgeandmeetingtheauthoritativeteachers(ofhistime).1

IbnKhaldun

Tangierwouldhavecountedamongitsinhabitantsmanyindividualswhohad traveled to theMiddleEast,mostof themwith themainpurposeofcarrying out the hajj, or pilgrimage to the Holy Places of Mecca andMedina in the Hijaz region of Western Arabia. Islam obliged everyMuslimwho was not impoverished, enslaved, insane, or endangered bywarorepidemictogotoMeccaatleastonceinhislifetimeandtoperformtherethesetofcollectiveceremoniesprescribedbythesharia.Eachyearhundreds and often thousands of North Africans fulfilled their duty,joininginagreatritualmigrationthatbroughttogetherbelieversfromthefarcornersof theAfroEurasianworld.A travelerbound for theMiddleEastmighthaveanynumberofmundaneorpurelypersonalgoalsinmindtrade, study,diplomacy,or simplyadventure,but thehajjwasalmostalways the expressed and over-ridingmotive. The high aim of reachingMeccaintimeforthepilgrimageseasoninthemonthofDhul-Hijjagaveshapetothetravelersitineraryandlentaspiritofjubilationtowhatwasalong,exhausting,andsometimesdangerousjourney.

InthefourteenthcenturyanaspiringpilgrimofTangierhadthechoiceoftravelingbylandorsea,oracombinationofthetwo.Europeanvesselswhich put in at Maghribi ports, as well as Muslim coasting ships,commonly took passengers on board and delivered them to some portfurthereastalongtheMediterraneanshore.2

Until the age of the steamship and the charter flight, however, mostpilgrimschose theoverland routeacross theMaghrib,Libya,andEgypt.

This routewas in fact part of anetworkof tracks linking the towns andcitiesofnorthernAfricawithoneanother.AtravelerfromMoroccomightfollow a number of slightly varying itineraries, passing part of the wayalongtheMediterraneancoastandpartofthewayacrossthehighsteppeswhichranwesttoeastbetweenthecoastalmountainsandtheAtlasrangesofthedeepinterior.Or,pilgrimsstartingoutinsouthernMoroccocouldgobywayoftheoasesandrivervalleyswhichwerestrungoutatcomfortableintervals along the northern fringe of the Sahara.Northern and southernroutesalikeconverged in Ifriqiya.Fromthere toEgyptpilgrims took thecoast road, the lifelinebetween theMaghriband theMiddleEast,whichranalongthenarrowribbonofsettledterritorybetweentheMediterraneanandtheLibyandesert.

Map3:IbnBattutasItineraryfromTangiertotheNileDelta,132536

Whetherbylandorsea,gettingtoMeccawasariskyaffair.Ifseafarershad to brave storms, pirates, and hostile navies, overland travelersconfrontedbandits,nomadmarauders,orthepossibilityofstumblingintoawar betweenoneNorthAfrican state and another.Consequently,mostpilgrimsgoingoverlandkept,for thesakeofsecurity, to thecompanyofothers,oftenthesmallcaravansthatshuttledroutinelybetweenthetownsandruralmarkets.Travelerswhohadlittlemoneytostartwithfrequentlytraded a stock ofwares of their own along theway leather goods orprecious stones for example or offered their labor here and there,sometimestakingseveralmonthsorevenyearstofinallyworkorchaffertheirwayasfarasEgypt.

Quite apart from these little bands of pilgrims in the company ofmerchants andwayfarerswas thegreathajj caravan,which ideallywenteveryyear fromMorocco toCairo, and from there to theHijazwith thepilgrims fromEgypt. Starting usually inFez orTlemcen, the processionpickedupgroupsofpilgrimsalongthewaylikearollingsnowball,someofthemwalking,othersridinghorses,mules,donkeys,orcamels.Bythetime the company reachedCairo, itmight in someyearsnumber severalthousand.

Theflowofpilgrimsacrossthenearly3,000milesofsteppe,desert,andmountain separating Morocco from Mecca was one of the mostconspicuous expressions of the extraordinary mobility andcosmopolitanismwithin theDaral-Islam in theMiddlePeriod.AlthoughNorthAfricawasknownastheIslandoftheWest(Jaziratal-Maghrib),amountainous realm separated from the heartland of Islam by sea anddesert,theintercommunciationacrossthebarrengapofLibya,whetherbyhajjcaravanorotherwise,wasnonethelesscontinuousbarringtimesofunusual political instability on one side or the other. And while thecommercial aspect of the linkwas important, its cultural dimensionwaseven more so. If few educated Egyptians, Syrians, or Persians foundreasontotravelwestinthefourteenthcentury(andtendedtothinkoftheMaghrib as Islams back country, itsWildWest), the learned classes ofNorthAfricaandGranadawerealwayssettingoffontourstotheEastin

order to draw spiritual and intellectual sustenance from their scholarlycounterpartsinCairo,Damascus,andtheHolyCitiesoftheHijaz.

For scholarlyNorthAfricans thehajjwasalmost alwaysmore thanajourneytoMeccaandhomeagain.Ratheritwasarihla,agrandstudytourof the great mosques andmadrasas of the heartland, an opportunity toacquirebooksanddiplomas,deepenonesknowledgeoftheologyandlaw,andcommunewithrefinedandcivilizedmen.

Literate Moroccans of the fourteenth c