2019-10-01 BBC World Histories Magazine

JOURNEYS In the footsteps of Ibn Battuta’s journeys across Africa and Asia

13 or 14 June 1325

The 21-year-old Ibn Battuta

sets off alone from his home

in Morocco on his Hajj

pilgrimage. He first heads

east via Algiers to Tunis,

where he stays till November

E ar ly 1326

Arriving in Cairo, having

toured Alexandria, Ibn Battuta

studies law and enjoys being a

tourist in the “mother of cities”

July 1326

Ibn Battuta departs for Jerusalem,

then a small town of 10,000 people,

where he visits al-Aqsa Mosque

and the Dome of the Rock before

continuing to Damascus

September 1326

Turning south, Ibn Battuta

performs the Hajj pilgrimage,

visiting the Prophet’s

Mosque in Medina and

the holy cit y of Mecc a

1330

Having returned to Mecca to

study, Ibn Battuta sails south

along the east African coast,

visiting Yemen, Mogadishu and

Mombasa before returning north

and travelling across Anatolia

13 32

Ibn Battuta arrives in

Constantinople and meets the

Byzantine emperor Andronikos

III P al aiologos

1352

Hav ing retur ned home to Morocco, Ibn

Battuta departs again for the great

empire of Mali, crossing the Sahara

with a caravan of camels. He meets

Mans a Sul ay man and v isit s T imbuk tu

1354

Now living in Fez, Ibn Battuta

is ordered by the Marinid

Sultan Abu Inan to write his

memoir – the stor y of his

great travels