Facts about Ibn Battuta
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Born in Tangier in 1304, Ibn Battuta came from a family of Islamic legal scholars, which shaped his lifelong interest in Muslim law and governance across his travels.
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Battuta's visit to Granada in 1350 provided him firsthand observations of Muslim Al-Andalus during its final century before Christian reconquest of Iberian territories.
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At age 21 in 1325, Battuta departed his Moroccan birthplace of Tangier on hajj, eventually extending his pilgrimage into a three-decade expedition across Asia and Africa.
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Ibn Battuta's detailed account of his travels, the Rihla, was compiled by the Moroccan scholar Ibn Juzayy in 1356, two years after the explorer returned from his 29-year journey.
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Moroccan traveler Ibn Battuta spent eight years in China during the 1340s, visiting the port city of Quanzhou and observing Chinese maritime trade before returning westward across the Indian Ocean.
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The 14th-century Moroccan traveler Ibn Battuta documented detailed accounts of the Mali Empire's Islamic practices and gold-based economy in his written travel narrative, the Rihla.
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After leaving Delhi in 1342, Ibn Battuta traveled to the Maldive Islands where he served as qadi and married four local women during his nine-month residency.
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During his 1342 voyage to Mali, Ibn Battuta documented the Niger River's flow direction, initially believing it ran eastward rather than the actual westward course.
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In 1331, Ibn Battuta reached Delhi and was appointed qadi by Sultan Muhammad bin Tughluq, serving as the Islamic judge for the Indian capital.
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Over 29 years, the Moroccan explorer Ibn Battuta traveled approximately 75,000 miles across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East between 1325 and 1354.