Ibn Battuta

Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Battuta (February 24 1304 to 1368 to 1377, year of death uncertain) was born in Tangier, Morocco during the time of Merinid Sultanate rule in the Islamic calendar year 703, into a Berber family. He was a Sunni Islamic scholar and jurisprudent from the Maliki Madhhab (a school of Fiqh, or Sunni Islamic law), and at times a Qadi or judge. However, he is best known as an extensive traveller or explorer, whose account documents his travels and side-excursions over a period of almost thirty years, covering some 75,000 miles (120,700 km). This journeying covered almost the entirety of the known Islamic world, extending also to present-day India, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia and China, a distance readily surpassing that of his prior, near-contemporary and traveller Marco Polo.

References

• {{Book reference | Author=Mackintosh-Smith, Tim (ed.) | Title=The Travels of Ibn Battutah | Publisher=Picador | Year=2003 | ID=ISBN 0-330-41879-3}}