Birth: Ibn Battuta, Muhammad ibn Abd Allah

All stops in this story

1. Birth: Ibn Battuta, Muhammad ibn Abd Allah — 1304 CE · 703 AH

   A Moroccan traveller from Tangier who visited many lands of the Islamic world and wrote his famous travelogue.

2. Ibn Battuta sets out for the pilgrimage — 1325 CE · 725 AH

   In 1325, aged 21, Ibn Battuta left Tangier on the pilgrimage to Mecca, the start of his travels.

3. Ibn Battuta completes his first pilgrimage — 1326 CE · 726 AH

   In 1326 Ibn Battuta completed the pilgrimage, having come through Egypt and Syria with a caravan to Mecca; he then crossed the desert to Iraq.

4. Ibn Battuta named envoy to China — 1342 CE · c. 742 AH

   In 1342 the Delhi sultan Muhammad ibn Tughluq appointed Ibn Battuta his envoy to the Chinese emperor, after years at his court.

5. Ibn Battuta returns to Fez — November 1349 CE · 750 AH

   In November 1349 Ibn Battuta reached Fez, capital of the Marinid sultan Abu Inan, after sailing from Alexandria to Tunisia, Sardinia and Algiers.

6. Ibn Battuta travels to Mali — 1352 CE · c. 753 AH

   In 1352, at the sultan's command, Ibn Battuta crossed the Sahara to the western Sudan and spent a year in the empire of Mali under Mansa Sulayman.

7. Ibn Battuta dictates his travels — c. 1353 CE · c. 754 AH

   Towards the end of 1353 Ibn Battuta returned to Morocco and, at the sultan's request, dictated his memories to the writer Ibn Juzayy; they became the Rihla.

8. Death: Ibn Battuta, Muhammad ibn Abd Allah — 1374 CE · 776 AH

   A Moroccan traveller from Tangier who visited many lands of the Islamic world and wrote his famous travelogue.