Elon Musk, the brilliant American businessman and president of X (Twitter), Tesla, SpaceX and many other large corporations, is especially amazed by the life of the famous Moroccan explorer Ibn Battuta.
In a tweet posted Wednesday — which generated about 13 million impressions — Musk wrote that he's currently learning about the life of Ibn Battuta, whom he calls "an amazing and well-traveled Muslim explorer."
The world's richest man discovered the Moroccan mega-novel through "The Explorers," a series of podcasts about stories of exploration through the ages. This includes seven episodes on the adventures of Ibn Battuta, from India to Mali, passing through Anatolia, Persia, Iraq, China and Mecca.
Born in February 1304 in Tangiers, Ibn Battuta is considered the greatest Muslim traveler. He is also the author of one of the most popular travel books, The Trip.
His famous works describe how he covered a distance of 120,000 km between 1325 and 1349, "from the territory of the former Volga Bulgarian Khanate in the north to Timbuktu in the south, and from Tangier in the west to Quanzhou in the far east".
Ibn Battuta in brief
Ibn Battuta was born in 703 AH, corresponding to 1304 AD, in the city of Tangier in northern Morocco, to a family from the Berber Luwata tribe, whose roots go back to the Cyrenaica region in Libya.
The name "Ibn Battuta", according to some sources, is due to the fact that it is derived from the name of his mother, who was called Fattouma.
His family was famous for studying law, and the judiciary was professional during the time of the Marinid state.
Ibn Battuta grew up on a love of science and reading because he is the descendant of a scholarly family, and he received an Islamic education.
Trips
Some researchers say that his trip to Hajj was not only aimed at Hajj, as it was also aimed at learning, meeting scholars, sitting with them, and learning from them, especially with regard to legal sciences, in addition to visiting all the regions that Islam reached.
During his journey, he faced hardships and challenges, some of which almost cost him his life, including the kidnapping of pirates and his severe illness.
His physical immunity was weak to resist diseases, but that did not deter him from moving forward in order to achieve his goal.
In the year 1325 AD, Ibn Battuta's journey set off from the Moroccan city of Tangier in the direction of Mecca, and passed through Algeria, Tunisia and Libya until he reached Alexandria, which he described in his book.
And he says about it, "The guarded gap and the familiar country, the wondrous affair, the authentic structure, with whatever you want of improvement and fortification, worldly exploits and religion, and it combined the enormity and precision of its buildings, which is bright in its beauty and the university of all virtues because it mediates between the East and the West."
After Alexandria, Ibn Battuta went to Cairo, which at that time consisted of 4 cities: Fustat, which was founded by Amr ibn al-Aas, al-Askar, which was founded by Saleh ibn Ali al-Abbasi, and al-Qata’i’, which was established by Ahmed ibn Tulun. Fatimid.
He continued his journey through the Egyptian lands until he stopped at the Red Sea, then headed to Palestine, where he visited Bethlehem and Jerusalem, and described Al-Aqsa Mosque.
He said about Al-Aqsa, "It is one of the wondrous, elegant, and exceedingly beautiful mosques. It is said that there is no mosque on the face of the earth larger than it."
Then he said, describing the Dome of the Rock, “It is one of the most amazing, perfected, and strangest buildings in shape. It has its share of virtues, and it was taken from every magnificent part, and it is based on a niche in the middle of the mosque, ascending to it in a marble staircase, and it has four doors, and the circle in it is also furnished with marble.” The fine workmanship, as well as its interior, exterior, and interior are of the types of galleys, and the workmanship is elegant, which the description cannot, and most of that is covered with gold; it sparkles with light, and shines with the brilliance of lightning.
He also stopped at the city of Acre, which was destroyed as a result of the Crusades, which did not pass for a long time after its end.
Ibn Battuta left Palestine to Damascus, where he spent months studying, before leaving all of the Levant towards the Hijaz, and exactly Mecca to perform Hajj and Umrah.
After the end of the Hajj season, Ibn Battuta did not think of returning to his country, Morocco. Rather, he continued his journey towards Iraq, accompanying the Iraqi pilgrimage procession to the city of Najaf, then he visited southern Iraq and the city of Wasit, whose people he admired.
Then he entered the city of Basra and described it as "one of the mothers of Iraq, well-known in the horizons, spacious in areas, elegant courtyards, with many orchards and favorite fruits, providing its portion of freshness and fertility, when it was the complex of two seas: brackish and sweet, and there is no more palm tree in the world than it."
After the city of Basra, he entered Baghdad, which the Mongols had destroyed a century before his arrival there, and he stopped at its buildings and the remains of its effects.
After that, he visited Persia and the city of Tabriz, then returned to Mosul, Iraq, and then decided to return to Mecca to perform the Hajj for the second time.
He stayed in Mecca for a while until he recovered from an illness that afflicted him at the time, then he went to Jeddah, and then visited the city of Sana'a in Yemen.
In the year 1328 AD, Ibn Battuta undertook a sea voyage from Aden in the direction of Mogadishu, Somalia, and then the city of Kilwa of Tanzania on the coasts of the countries of the Horn of Africa.
From Kilwa, he sailed back in the direction of Dhofar, and from there to Oman, and from there to Hormuz, back to Persia, and going again to Mecca in 1330 AD.
After that, Ibn Battuta visited the Levant again, and headed north until he entered Asia Minor, and reached Sinop on the coasts of the Black Sea, then crossed the sea to the Crimea Island.
After that, he visited southern Russia, and then left for Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine state, and from there he returned again to Persia, and continued his journey east until he entered India on the eighth of September 1333.
He spent nearly 10 years there, during which he visited many regions, and worked as a judge for Muhammad Tughlaq, the ruler of India or the Tughlaq state.
Then he wanted to get out of India, but its ruler was not ready to abandon him, so he invoked his desire to perform Hajj, but Muhammad Tughlaq refused him that.
In the year 1345 AD, Muhammad Tughlaq suggested to him that he be sent as his ambassador to China, and he agreed immediately after he saw that it was an appropriate opportunity to leave India on the one hand, and to discover new regions and places on the other hand.
Thus, Ibn Battuta went as an ambassador for Muhammad Tughlaq to China and was appointed as a judge there as well, and on his way he passed the coasts of Burma (Myanmar) towards the island of Sumatra, and then to Guangzhou, where he arrived in China.
The Hindu pirates had attacked his ships and those with him while they were traveling across the Indian coast, and kidnapped him, but he succeeded in escaping, then he found himself stuck in a storm that sank many of his ships, and killed many of his men, as he tells in his book.
On his way before all of that, he decided to visit the islands of "Dhiba Al-Mahli" (currently the Maldives) located in the Indian Ocean, south of India and Sri Lanka, after he heard about them.
He landed there 10 days after leaving the coast of southern India, and was welcomed by its inhabitants, who hosted him and appointed him as a judge over them, and made him in a high position.
A year after his entry into China, Ibn Battuta returned again to Makkah Al-Mukarramah, and he remained there for a while before returning to his native country, Morocco, in 1349 AD.
He arrived in the capital, Fez, and then entered the city of Tangier, and found that his mother had died months before his arrival, while his father had died years before that.
A year after his arrival from his first trip, Ibn Battuta made a second trip, but it was short compared to the previous one, so he traveled to Granada, Andalusia, across the Strait of Gibraltar.
In the year 1353 AD, he undertook a third trip that lasted two years, in which he traveled to the Kingdom of Mali in western Sudan, across the Sahara desert.
He reached the Niger River, then to Timbuktu in Mali, before returning to his country in 1355 AD, at the request of the Marinid Sultan Abi Inan bin Abi Al-Hassan, in order to record what he lived in those travels.
In a tweet posted Wednesday — which generated about 13 million impressions — Musk wrote that he's currently learning about the life of Ibn Battuta, whom he calls "an amazing and well-traveled Muslim explorer."
Born in February 1304 in Tangiers, Ibn Battuta is considered the greatest Muslim traveler. He is also the author of one of the most popular travel books, The Trip.
His famous works describe how he covered a distance of 120,000 km between 1325 and 1349, "from the territory of the former Volga Bulgarian Khanate in the north to Timbuktu in the south, and from Tangier in the west to Quanzhou in the far east".
Ibn Battuta in brief
Ibn Battuta was born in 703 AH, corresponding to 1304 AD, in the city of Tangier in northern Morocco, to a family from the Berber Luwata tribe, whose roots go back to the Cyrenaica region in Libya.
The name "Ibn Battuta", according to some sources, is due to the fact that it is derived from the name of his mother, who was called Fattouma.
His family was famous for studying law, and the judiciary was professional during the time of the Marinid state.
Ibn Battuta grew up on a love of science and reading because he is the descendant of a scholarly family, and he received an Islamic education.
Trips
Some researchers say that his trip to Hajj was not only aimed at Hajj, as it was also aimed at learning, meeting scholars, sitting with them, and learning from them, especially with regard to legal sciences, in addition to visiting all the regions that Islam reached.
During his journey, he faced hardships and challenges, some of which almost cost him his life, including the kidnapping of pirates and his severe illness.
His physical immunity was weak to resist diseases, but that did not deter him from moving forward in order to achieve his goal.
In the year 1325 AD, Ibn Battuta's journey set off from the Moroccan city of Tangier in the direction of Mecca, and passed through Algeria, Tunisia and Libya until he reached Alexandria, which he described in his book.
And he says about it, "The guarded gap and the familiar country, the wondrous affair, the authentic structure, with whatever you want of improvement and fortification, worldly exploits and religion, and it combined the enormity and precision of its buildings, which is bright in its beauty and the university of all virtues because it mediates between the East and the West."
After Alexandria, Ibn Battuta went to Cairo, which at that time consisted of 4 cities: Fustat, which was founded by Amr ibn al-Aas, al-Askar, which was founded by Saleh ibn Ali al-Abbasi, and al-Qata’i’, which was established by Ahmed ibn Tulun. Fatimid.
He continued his journey through the Egyptian lands until he stopped at the Red Sea, then headed to Palestine, where he visited Bethlehem and Jerusalem, and described Al-Aqsa Mosque.
He said about Al-Aqsa, "It is one of the wondrous, elegant, and exceedingly beautiful mosques. It is said that there is no mosque on the face of the earth larger than it."
Then he said, describing the Dome of the Rock, “It is one of the most amazing, perfected, and strangest buildings in shape. It has its share of virtues, and it was taken from every magnificent part, and it is based on a niche in the middle of the mosque, ascending to it in a marble staircase, and it has four doors, and the circle in it is also furnished with marble.” The fine workmanship, as well as its interior, exterior, and interior are of the types of galleys, and the workmanship is elegant, which the description cannot, and most of that is covered with gold; it sparkles with light, and shines with the brilliance of lightning.
He also stopped at the city of Acre, which was destroyed as a result of the Crusades, which did not pass for a long time after its end.
Ibn Battuta left Palestine to Damascus, where he spent months studying, before leaving all of the Levant towards the Hijaz, and exactly Mecca to perform Hajj and Umrah.
After the end of the Hajj season, Ibn Battuta did not think of returning to his country, Morocco. Rather, he continued his journey towards Iraq, accompanying the Iraqi pilgrimage procession to the city of Najaf, then he visited southern Iraq and the city of Wasit, whose people he admired.
Then he entered the city of Basra and described it as "one of the mothers of Iraq, well-known in the horizons, spacious in areas, elegant courtyards, with many orchards and favorite fruits, providing its portion of freshness and fertility, when it was the complex of two seas: brackish and sweet, and there is no more palm tree in the world than it."
After the city of Basra, he entered Baghdad, which the Mongols had destroyed a century before his arrival there, and he stopped at its buildings and the remains of its effects.
After that, he visited Persia and the city of Tabriz, then returned to Mosul, Iraq, and then decided to return to Mecca to perform the Hajj for the second time.
He stayed in Mecca for a while until he recovered from an illness that afflicted him at the time, then he went to Jeddah, and then visited the city of Sana'a in Yemen.
In the year 1328 AD, Ibn Battuta undertook a sea voyage from Aden in the direction of Mogadishu, Somalia, and then the city of Kilwa of Tanzania on the coasts of the countries of the Horn of Africa.
From Kilwa, he sailed back in the direction of Dhofar, and from there to Oman, and from there to Hormuz, back to Persia, and going again to Mecca in 1330 AD.
After that, Ibn Battuta visited the Levant again, and headed north until he entered Asia Minor, and reached Sinop on the coasts of the Black Sea, then crossed the sea to the Crimea Island.
After that, he visited southern Russia, and then left for Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine state, and from there he returned again to Persia, and continued his journey east until he entered India on the eighth of September 1333.
He spent nearly 10 years there, during which he visited many regions, and worked as a judge for Muhammad Tughlaq, the ruler of India or the Tughlaq state.
Then he wanted to get out of India, but its ruler was not ready to abandon him, so he invoked his desire to perform Hajj, but Muhammad Tughlaq refused him that.
In the year 1345 AD, Muhammad Tughlaq suggested to him that he be sent as his ambassador to China, and he agreed immediately after he saw that it was an appropriate opportunity to leave India on the one hand, and to discover new regions and places on the other hand.
Thus, Ibn Battuta went as an ambassador for Muhammad Tughlaq to China and was appointed as a judge there as well, and on his way he passed the coasts of Burma (Myanmar) towards the island of Sumatra, and then to Guangzhou, where he arrived in China.
The Hindu pirates had attacked his ships and those with him while they were traveling across the Indian coast, and kidnapped him, but he succeeded in escaping, then he found himself stuck in a storm that sank many of his ships, and killed many of his men, as he tells in his book.
On his way before all of that, he decided to visit the islands of "Dhiba Al-Mahli" (currently the Maldives) located in the Indian Ocean, south of India and Sri Lanka, after he heard about them.
He landed there 10 days after leaving the coast of southern India, and was welcomed by its inhabitants, who hosted him and appointed him as a judge over them, and made him in a high position.
A year after his entry into China, Ibn Battuta returned again to Makkah Al-Mukarramah, and he remained there for a while before returning to his native country, Morocco, in 1349 AD.
He arrived in the capital, Fez, and then entered the city of Tangier, and found that his mother had died months before his arrival, while his father had died years before that.
A year after his arrival from his first trip, Ibn Battuta made a second trip, but it was short compared to the previous one, so he traveled to Granada, Andalusia, across the Strait of Gibraltar.
In the year 1353 AD, he undertook a third trip that lasted two years, in which he traveled to the Kingdom of Mali in western Sudan, across the Sahara desert.
He reached the Niger River, then to Timbuktu in Mali, before returning to his country in 1355 AD, at the request of the Marinid Sultan Abi Inan bin Abi Al-Hassan, in order to record what he lived in those travels.
Ibn Battuta, a judge and poet
During his long 3-decade journey, Ibn Battuta's mission was not limited to travel and exploration only, but he used to work from time to time in a number of countries he entered.
He was a judge in India and the Maldives, and an ambassador to China. He settled in the Maldives for a while, got married there and worked as a judge over them, and he was magnified by them because he was a Muslim scholar who gained a great position in India.
After his arrival in Morocco, he also worked as a judge, a position he remained in until his death.
In addition, Ibn Battuta, during his travels, praised the sultans, kings, and dignitaries in the countries he reached, relying on his talent for poetry.
In return, he received financial donations and some gifts, and he used them as a resource to finance his travels, as well as who was hosting him for days and who provided him with some jobs to earn his living.
About a year after Ibn Battuta's return from his third trip, and exactly in the year 1356 AD, the ruler of Morocco at the time, the Marinid Sultan Abu Inan bin Abi al-Hasan, asked his writer Muhammad Ibn Juzi al-Kalbi al-Gharnati to record Ibn Battuta's experiences and observations in a book.
Ibn Jazi worked with Ibn Battuta for two years to write what he lived for 30 years, and collected that in the book "The Journey".
And it was narrated on the authority of Ibn Jazi that he said, “And I quoted the words of Sheikh Abi Abdullah (Ibn Battuta) with words that fulfilled the purposes that he intended, explaining the approaches that he adopted, and perhaps I mentioned his word on his status, so I did not violate his origin or branch, and I mentioned all his stories and news, and I did not search for The fact that this is not a test, as it is a wire in the chain of transmission of its soundness, the most correct of paths.
The book "The Journey" was translated into several international languages, including Portuguese, French, English and German. It narrated the events that Ibn Battuta lived through on his journey, the people he met and mixed with, the rulers of the regions he visited and those he worked with.
The book describes the things that aroused his attention, clothing and foods of all kinds, and methods of preparation, in addition to the cities and regions he entered, and the political and economic conditions in which they lived.
After completing the writing of this book, Ibn Battuta retired to a judicial position, in which he completed the remainder of his life.
His death
Historical sources differ in determining the date of the death of the traveler Ibn Battuta. There are sources that suggest his death in the areas of the city of Tangier in northern Morocco in 770 AH, corresponding to the year 1368 AD.
And others talk about his death between the years 777 AH, corresponding to the year 1375 AD, and 779 AH, corresponding to the year 1377 AD, and no one mentioned the cause of his death.
There is a city in Tangier in northern Morocco attributed to him, although there are no sources talking about his death in this city.
Source: websites
The Muslim traveler Ibn Battuta was born in 703 AH in the city of Tangiers in northern Morocco
