IBN BATTUTA
(d. 779H/1377 A. D)
THE GREAT ARAB EXPLORER |
Ibn Battuta and the 14th Century Muslim World |
The Moroccan Ibn Battuta left his parental
home for pilgrimage to Mecca in 1325:
`I left Tangiers, my birth place on Thursday
2 Redjeb, 725 (H) with the intention of going
on pilgrimage to Mecca. I was alone, without
companions, not in a caravan, but I was stirred
by a powerful urge to reach my goal [ i.
e. Mecca]… I left my friends and my home,
just as a bird leaves its parental nest.
My father and mother were still alive, and
with great pain, I parted with them. For
me as for them, it was [a] cause of insufferable
illness. I was then only twenty two' .
Ibn Battuta narrated his travels as the 'Rihla'.
His work was then well translated into French
by Defremery and Sanguinetty , while a large
portion of the Rihla was also translated
into English by H. R. Gibb . A very recent
English translation by a current English
academic however is so dire and imbecilic
it is considered best to be avoided. The
Rihla is an account of Ibn Battuta's travels
that took him from Tangiers through North
Africa, Syria, Iraq, Iran, reaching India
in 1325. In India Ibn Battuta occupied an
important official position . Then, by sea
he travelled to China, Java and the Maldives.
We find Ibn Battuta in Mecca where he spent
two year (728-730 h), living piously in the
company of devout men. He says:
`The life I lead is one of the most agreeable.
I was always part of the processions around
the Kaaba, in the service of God, and in
the closeness of the Holy sites'. The serene
spirit and atmosphere must have certainly
contributed to his recovery from the illness
he had previously suffered' .
In this work we will now follow Ibn Battuta
on his way to Cairo, where we not only gain
an excellent first impression of Cairo, but
we also learn a great deal about the historical,
economic, social, political, ecological,
and technological characteristics of the
city. Before beginning his journey towards
Cairo, he tells of a remarkable dream:
`That night, while I was sleeping on the
roof of the cell, I dreamt that I was on
the wing of a great bird which was flying
with me towards Mecca, then to Yemen, then
eastwards, and thereafter going towards the
south, then flying far eastwards, and finally
landing in a dark and green country, where
it left me. I was astonished at this dream
and said to myself "If the Shaykh can
interpret my dream for me, he is all that
they say he is". The next morning, after
all the other visitors had gone, he called
me and when I had related [to him] my dream,
he interpreted it to me saying: "You
will make the pilgrimage [to Mecca] and visit
[the tomb of] the Prophet, and you will travel
through Yemen, Iraq, the country of the Turks,
and India. You will stay there for a long
time and meet there my brother Dilshád the
Indian, who will rescue you from a danger
into which you will fall". Then he gave
me travelling provisions of small cakes and
money, and I bade him farewell and departed.
Never since parting from him have I met on
my journeys aught but good fortune, and his
blessings have stood me in good stead.
'We rode from here to Damietta through a
number of towns, in each of which we visited
the principal men of religion. Damietta lies
on the bank of the Nile, and the people in
the houses next to the river draw water from
it in buckets. Many of the houses have steps
leading down to the river. Their sheep and
goats are allowed to pasture at liberty day
and night. For this reason the saying goes
of Damietta [that] "Its walls are sweetmeats
and its dogs are sheep". Anyone who
enters the city may not afterwards leave
it except by the governor's seal. Persons
of repute have a seal stamped on a piece
of paper so that they may show it to the
gatekeepers; other persons have the seal
stamped on their forearms. In this city there
are many seabirds with extremely greasy flesh,
and the milk of its buffaloes is unequalled
for sweetness and pleasant taste. The [city's]
fish, named buri is exported thence to Syria,
Anatolia, and Cairo. The present town is
of recent construction; the old city was
that destroyed by the Franks in the time
of al-Malik as-Sálih (during the 5th crusade).
'From Damietta I travelled to Fáriskur, which
is a town on the bank of the Nile, and halted
outside it. There I was overtaken by a horseman
who had been sent after me by the governor
of Damietta. He handed me a number of coins,
saying to me, "The Governor asked for
you, and on being informed about you, he
sent you this gift" may God reward him!
'Thence I travelled to Ashmün, a large and
ancient town on a canal derived from the
Nile. It possesses a wooden bridge, at which
all vessels anchor, and in the afternoon
the baulks are lifted and the vessels pass
up and down. From here I went to Samannud,
whence I journeyed upstream to Cairo, between
a continuous succession of towns and villages.
The traveller on the Nile need take no provision
with him because whenever he desires to descend
on the bank he may do so for ablutions, prayers,
provisioning, or any other purpose. There
is an uninterrupted chain of bazaars from
Alexandria to Cairo, and from Cairo to Assuan
in Upper Egypt.
'I arrived at length in Cairo, mother of
cities and seat of Pharaoh the tyrant, mistress
of broad regions and fruitful lands, boundless
in multitude of buildings, peerless in beauty
and splendour, the meeting—place of comer
and goer, the halting place of feeble and
mighty, whose throngs surge as the waves
of the sea, and can scarce be contained in
her for all her size and capacity. It is
said that in Cairo there are twelve thousand
water carriers who transport water on camels,
and thirty thousand hirers of mules and donkeys,
and that on the Nile there are thirty-six
thousand boats belonging to the Sultan and
his subjects, which sail upstream to Upper
Egypt and downstream to Alexandria and Damietta,
laden with goods and profitable merchandise
of all kinds. On the bank of the Nile opposite
Old Cairo is the place known as The Garden.
This place is a pleasure park and prominade
containing many beautiful gardens, for the
people of Cairo are given to pleasure and
amusements. I witnessed a fete once in Cairo
for the Sultan's recovery from a fractured
hand; all the merchants decorated their bazaars
and had rich stuffs, ornaments and silken
fabrics hanging in their shops for several
days. The mosque of 'Amr is highly venerated
and widely celebrated. The Friday service
is held in it, and a road runs through it
from east to west. The madrasas [college
mosques] of Cairo cannot be counted for multitude.
As for the Máristán [hospital], which lies
between the two castles near the mausoleum
of Sultan Qalá'un, no description is adequate
to its beauties. It contains an impeccable
quantity of appliances and medicaments; and
its daily revenue is put as high as [a] thousand
dinars' .
It is Muslim geographers who offer us the
earliest and most significant accounts of
the Black African continent, and Ibn Battuta,
once more, offers an excellent account of
this. In his account of the people of Mali,
he states:
'The Negroes possess some admirable qualities.
They are seldom unjust, and have greater
abhorrence of injustice than any other people.
Their Sultan shows no mercy to anyone who
is guilty of the least act of it. There is
complete security in their country. Neither
traveller nor inhabitant has anything to
fear from robbers or men of violence.
'They are careful to observe the hours of
prayer, and assiduous in attending them in
congregations, and in bringing up their children
to them. On Fridays, if a man does not go
early to the mosque, he cannot find a corner
to pray in, on account of the crowd. It is
a custom of theirs for each man to send his
boy [to the mosque] with his prayer-mat;
the boy spreads it out for his master in
a place befitting him [and remains on it]
until he comes to the mosque. Their prayer—mats
are made of the leaves of a tree resembling
a date-palm, but without fruit.
'Another of their good qualities is their
habit of wearing clean white garments on
Fridays. Even if a man has nothing but an
old worn shirt, he washes it and cleans it,
and wears it to the Friday service. Yet another
is their zeal for learning the Qur'an by
heart. They put their children in chains
if they show any backwardness in memorizing
it, and they are not set free until they
have it by heart. I visited the Qadi in his
house on the day of the festival. His children
were chained up, so I said to him "Will
you not let them loose?" He replied
"I shall not do so until they learn
the Qur'an by heart".
'Among their bad qualities are the following.
The women servants, slave-girls, and young
girls go about in front of everyone naked,
without a stitch of clothing on them. Then
there is their custom of putting dust and
ashes on their heads, as a mark of respect,
and the grotesque ceremonies we have described
when the poets recite their verses. Another
reprehensible practice among many of them
is the eating of carrion, dogs, and asses.
'The date of my arrival at Mali was 14th
Jumada 753 (28th June 1352) and of my departure
from it 22nd Muharram of the year 54 (27th
February 1353). I was accompanied by a merchant
called Abü Bakr ibn Ya'qub. We took the Mima
road. I had a camel which I was riding, because
horses are expensive, and cost a hundred
mitqals each. We came to a wide channel which
flows out of the Nile and can only be crossed
in boats. The place is infested with mosquitoes,
and no one can pass that way except by night.
We reached the channel three or four hours
after nightfall on a moonlit night. On reaching
it I saw sixteen beasts with enormous bodies,
and marvelled at them, taking them to be
elephants, of which there are many in that
country. Afterwards I saw that they had gone
into the river, so I said to Abü Bakr "What
kind of animals are these?" He replied
"They are hippopotami which have come
out to pasture ashore." They are bulkier
than horses, have manes and tails, and their
heads are like horses' heads, but their feet
like elephants' feet. I saw these hippopotami
again when we sailed down the Nile from Tumbuktü
to Gawgaw. They were swimming in the water,
and lifting their heads and blowing. The
men in the boat were afraid of them and kept
close to the bank in case the hippopotami
should sink them.
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