Ibn Battuta, Abu Abd Allah Muhammad
al-Lawati (1304–1377) famous Muslim world
traveler from Morocco
Ibn Battuta was arguably one of the most well-trav-
eled figures of the medieval period, whose journey
spanned almost 30 years and covered three times
the distance of his more famous European coun-
terpart, Marco Polo (d. 1324). He traveled from
West aFrica to china, receiving patronage, hos-
pitality, and occasionally employment from local
rulers and Sufi orders. His extended travels effec-
tively demonstrate the links that tied together pre-
modern Islamicate lands, where a Muslim scholar
could work and wander in many different regions
in a world without firm borders.
Born in Tangiers, Ibn Battuta began his travels
with a pilgrimage to mecca in 1325. From there,
his wanderlust took him throughout most of
Islamdom, through the Arabian Peninsula, egypt,
iraq, Persia, east aFrica, Anatolia, the Asian
steppes, aFghanistan, and india. He also ventured
beyond the realms of Islam, exploring Southeast
Asia, China, Spain, and West Africa before ulti-
mately retiring to the court of the Marinid ruler in
morocco, Abu Inan (r. 1348–58). There the sUlta n
commissioned the Andalusian scholar Ibn Juzayy
to commit Ibn Battuta’s story to paper, and the book
was completed by 1357. In spite of certain sections
borrowed from a previous traveler’s account and
its tendency to exaggerate, this work marks a new
style within the travel literature genre, expanding
on the traditional descriptions of pilgrimage to
include more personal information and a much
larger geographical scope. It is also a testament to
the rich diversity of Islam in this period, with its
verdant blend of Islamic mysticism, religious law,
and local custom. For these reasons, it is consid-
ered a historical treasure trove of information for
Islamicate societies in the 14th century.
Eric StaplesFurther reading: Douglas Bullis, “The Longest Hajj:
The Journeys of Ibn Battuta.” Saudi Aramco World 51
(July/August 2000): 7–39; Ross Dunn, The Adventures of
Ibn Battuta (1986. Reprint, Berkeley: University of Cali-
fornia Press, 2004); Hamilton A. R. Gibb, The Travels
of Ibn Battuta 1325–1354. 5 vols. (Cambridge: Hakluyt
Society at the University Press, 1954–2000).Ibn Hanbal, Ahmad (780–855) leading
Sunni hadith scholar and theologian remembered as
the founder of the Hanbali legal school; a popular
defender of traditional Islamic piety against Muslim
rationalists and the Abbasid Caliphate
Ahmad ibn Hanbal was born in Abbasid baghdad
and lived there most of his life. His family’s ances-
tors had participated in the Arab conquests of Iraq
and northeastern Iran, where his grandfather had
served as a governor and his father as a soldier.
He studied Arabic and Islamic law (fiqh), but
his real passion was for the hadith. Beginning in
795, when he was 14 years old, Ibn Hanbal went
to study hadith with scholars in Kufa and Basra
(leading Iraqi centers of learning). He also stud-
ied in yemen, syria, medina, and mecca. A pious
man, he had made the haJJ to Mecca five times
before he turned 33, and he performed several
religious retreats in Medina. Because of his exper-
tise in the area of hadith studies, he was one of the
leading People of Hadith, a group of traditional-
ist religious scholars who opposed the People of
Opinion (ray), religious scholars who preferred
individually reasoned legal thinking over strict
adherence to precedents expressed in the hadith.
Ibn Hanbal’s most celebrated work was the
Musnad, a multivolume collection of an estimated
27,000 hadith that has been ranked among the six
most authoritative Sunni books of hadith. Unlike
other hadith collections, which were organized
by subject, the Musnad was organized according
to the names of the earliest known transmitters
of each hadith. It began with hadith attributed to
the first four caliphs (abU bakr, Umar, Uthman,
and ali), then other leading companions oF the
prophet, the ansar, Meccans, Medinans, people
of Kufa and Basra, Syrians, and female authori-K 330 Ibn Battuta, Abu Abd Allah Muhammad al-Lawati