The Travels of Ibn Battutah

| 4.15 | 1,772 ratings and reviews

Recommended by Tim Mackintosh-Smith, Ziauddin Sardar, and 2 others. See all reviews

Ranked #42 in Islamic History, Ranked #52 in Travelogue

Ibn Battutah was just 21 when he set out in 1325 from his native Tangier on a pilgrimage to Mecca. He did not return to Morocco for another 29 years, traveling instead through more than 40 countries on the modern map, covering 75,000 miles and getting as far north as the Volga, as far east as China, and as far south as Tanzania. He wrote of his travels, and comes across as a superb ethnographer, biographer, anecdotal historian, and occasional botanist and gastronome. With this edition by Mackintosh-Smith, Battuta's Travels takes its place alongside other indestructible masterpieces of... more
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We've comprehensively compiled reviews of The Travels of Ibn Battutah from the world's leading experts.

Tim Mackintosh-Smith If you read this book, it seems quite chaotic, but there is an underlying structure to it. I think there are two elements to this structure. (Source)

Ziauddin Sardar Travel is both a physical and a mental exercise – it is about immersing yourself in another culture. Travelling is the process of letting go of yourself and immersing yourself into different ways of knowing and seeing. If you cannot do this, you haven’t travelled. It’s certainly not a holiday – travelling is not staying in five-star hotels.   (Source)

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