Speaker 1: Happy Saturday, everybody. We have a brand new show launching
Speaker 1: on our network called Everywhere. It's hosted by Daniel Scheffler,
Speaker 1: and it's all about travel and not just the places
Speaker 1: to go and the sites to see, but also it's
Speaker 1: focused on Daniel's travel commandments. These are things like thou
Speaker 1: shalt travel with the conscience and thou shalt be polite
Speaker 1: and how these things can become an ideal travel strategy.
Speaker 1: And I am on this show as well. Daniel and
Speaker 1: I do a segment together where usually we talk about
Speaker 1: the history of something that came up over the course
Speaker 1: of him discussing his travels because he has led a
Speaker 1: wildlife and has traveled all the places and done some
Speaker 1: amazing things that you would never expect. Uh. And Daniel
Speaker 1: and I are rather fond of each other, so it
Speaker 1: sometimes dissolves into giggles or snarkiness, but we both have
Speaker 1: a really, really good time, and I hope you have
Speaker 1: a great time listening to it. So to go along
Speaker 1: with the travel theme of Everywhere, today, we are revisiting
Speaker 1: our previous episode on famed traveler Ibn Batuta, which originally
Speaker 1: came out in August of seventeen, so enjoy and stay
Speaker 1: tuned at the end for a peek at Everywhere. Welcome
Speaker 1: to Stuff You missed in History Class, a production of
Speaker 1: I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hello, and welcome to
Speaker 1: the podcast. I am Tracy V. Wilson and I'm Holly Frying.
Speaker 1: So back in the spring of we did a podcast
Speaker 1: on Jungha. Remember Jengha I do? Indeed, Jengha led a
Speaker 1: fleet of treasure ships on huge and far reaching voyages
Speaker 1: from China to Southern Asia, the Arabian Peninsula and eastern
Speaker 1: Africa in the fifteenth century. And one of the points
Speaker 1: we made in that episode was that it wasn't necessarily
Speaker 1: accurate to call Jungha an explorer, because he wasn't so
Speaker 1: much exploring as following roots that were known already, and
Speaker 1: we said that in some cases they were actually roots
Speaker 1: that a man named Ibn Batuta had traveled from the
Speaker 1: op Sit direction a century before. Today, we are finally
Speaker 1: going to talk about about Abdellah, Mahabad Eben Abdellah, even
Speaker 1: Ibraheim Alawatti Altanji iban Batuta, who has been requested by
Speaker 1: some listeners, including Julie and Jennifer, and he's commonly just
Speaker 1: known as Ibn Batuta, like Jungha, Hibn Batuta wasn't so
Speaker 1: much an explorer. His travels took him to places that
Speaker 1: were already known within the Muslim world, and they were
Speaker 1: part of that world. Mostly he traveled along well traveled roots,
Speaker 1: but these travels were extensive. He was away from home
Speaker 1: for roughly twenty four years and during that time traveled
Speaker 1: through virtually every Muslim nation and territory, becoming the traveler
Speaker 1: of the age. Ibn Batuta was born on February four,
Speaker 1: which was the year seven oh three in the Islamic calendar.
Speaker 1: We found multiple different conversions of the exact date in
Speaker 1: the Islamic calendar, so keep that in mind. They offered
Speaker 1: by one to two days, and I don't trust my
Speaker 1: own conversion enough to rely on that. He was born
Speaker 1: in Tangier, which is a port city in Morocco, and
Speaker 1: although it wasn't Morocco's busiest port, Tangier's position between the
Speaker 1: Mediterranean and the Atlantic meant that it was a frequent
Speaker 1: departure point for ships bound across the Strait of Gibraltar
Speaker 1: to the Iberian Peninsula or to other parts of Europe
Speaker 1: and Africa. And this meant that although Tangier was a
Speaker 1: Muslim city, it also saw lots of Christian visitors and
Speaker 1: merchants who arrived from places like Genoa, Marseilles and Majorca.
Speaker 1: Apart from the father and grandfather, who were referenced in
Speaker 1: his name even means son of we don't really know
Speaker 1: a lot about Ibn Batuta's family. They were Sunni Muslims
Speaker 1: who were of an indigenous North African people known as
Speaker 1: the Latta, and several were kadi's or judges, or they
Speaker 1: were otherwise scholars of Islamic law. Even Betuta's upbringing was
Speaker 1: probably typical for a Muslim child living in Northern Africa
Speaker 1: in the fourteenth century. He would have attended school, either
Speaker 1: at a mosque or through a private tutor. His early
Speaker 1: education would have focused on the Koran, along with subjects
Speaker 1: like arithmetic and grammar, and literature and history. For students
Speaker 1: from more prominent families, which Ibban Batuta was more advanced,
Speaker 1: study followed as children got older. We do know for
Speaker 1: sure that Iban Batuta's study of the Koran and of
Speaker 1: Islamic law were really lifelong. He learned the whole Koran
Speaker 1: by heart, and he wrote of reciting it to himself
Speaker 1: from beginning to end, as he traveled, sometimes twice when
Speaker 1: he felt like he needed to bolster himself up a
Speaker 1: little more. And when he was twenty one by the
Speaker 1: Gregorian calendar and twenty two by the Islamic Lunar calendar,
Speaker 1: ibn Batuta began preparing for the Hajj, the pilgrimage to
Speaker 1: Mecca that is one of the five pillars of Islam,
Speaker 1: and this was for him a religious duty. It's an
Speaker 1: obligation for all Muslims who are physically in fine, financially
Speaker 1: able to go, and whose families won't be harmed by
Speaker 1: their being away, And it was also something he genuinely
Speaker 1: wanted to do, describing himself as quote swayed by an
Speaker 1: overmastering impulse within me and a desire long cherished in
Speaker 1: my bosom to visit these illustrious sanctuaries. Ibn Batuta's pilgrimage
Speaker 1: was also an opportunity to further his education. Although Tangier
Speaker 1: was a notable ports city, it wasn't particularly known for
Speaker 1: its scholars and it didn't have a college. So Ibn
Speaker 1: Batuta's pilgrimage would allow him to study with legal scholars
Speaker 1: and with Sufi mystics and cities like Tunas, Alexandria, and
Speaker 1: Cairo along the way. Studying with more prominent scholars was
Speaker 1: an opportunity for Ibn Batuta to deepen his own knowledge
Speaker 1: of Islamic law. It's the body of guiding rules and
Speaker 1: principles that govern Muslims daily lives and worship, also known
Speaker 1: as Sharia, and enhancing his legal training would give him
Speaker 1: access to more prestigious work. But this wasn't simply a
Speaker 1: means to moving up a career ladder, because the law
Speaker 1: ibn Batuta was studying was rooted in the Islamic faith
Speaker 1: and was inseparable from that faith. His religious and legal
Speaker 1: educations were also inseparable from one another. On top of
Speaker 1: the intertwined nature of his religious and legal education, the
Speaker 1: concept of seeking knowledge is an important part of Islam
Speaker 1: in general. Both the Koran and the Hadith, which is
Speaker 1: a record of the sayings and actions of the prophet Mohammed,
Speaker 1: have multiple references to learning and seeking knowledge, including how
Speaker 1: to seek knowledge in a way that's ethical and compatible
Speaker 1: with Islam. So essentially, seeking knowledge is an act of worship,
Speaker 1: and it's incumbent upon all Muslims to learn one hadith
Speaker 1: that frequently comes up in relation to Ibn Batuta is
Speaker 1: seek knowledge even as far as China, although there are
Speaker 1: some questions about whether that one is correctly attributed, those
Speaker 1: same basic concepts are definitely present in others. Iban Batuta
Speaker 1: left for Mecca on June fourteenth of thirteen twenty five,
Speaker 1: which was the year seven twenty five in the Islamic calendar.
Speaker 1: Although many pilgrims traveled to Mecca as part of an
Speaker 1: official organized caravan, and iban Batuta may have been planning
Speaker 1: to join a caravan later on in the journey, he
Speaker 1: initially set off alone over land, following the North African coast,
Speaker 1: and even though iban Batuta embarked alone, the Hajj is
Speaker 1: an annual religious observance, so other Muslims were also setting
Speaker 1: out for Mecca on their own pilgrimages, generally following the
Speaker 1: same roads and routes through northern Africa. So after about
Speaker 1: three weeks he fell in with two companions, although they
Speaker 1: separated after they both got sick due to the severe
Speaker 1: summer heat. One companion actually died and the other returned
Speaker 1: that person's body home. A little later in the journey
Speaker 1: across northern Africa, ibn Batuta fell ill as well, one
Speaker 1: of several serious illnesses he contracted during his travels. When
Speaker 1: someone suggested he stay in a town for a while
Speaker 1: to recover, ibban Batuta replied, if God decrees my death,
Speaker 1: it shall be on the road with my face set
Speaker 1: towards the land of Hijas. As he traveled, Ibban Batuta
Speaker 1: would stop for a time in cities and towns, and
Speaker 1: the length of his stay would depend on everything from
Speaker 1: his health to the travel conditions to whether there were
Speaker 1: important scholars in residents. For example, he spent two months
Speaker 1: in Tunas studying at the College of the Booksellers and
Speaker 1: being appointed Kadi of a pilgrim caravan. When he left there,
Speaker 1: he also entered into a marriage contract with the daughter
Speaker 1: of a Tunisian official who was part of that caravan.
Speaker 1: The two men eventually had some kind of falling out
Speaker 1: and broke that contract. Shortly thereafter, Ibban Batuta entered into
Speaker 1: a marriage contract with a different woman, the daughter of
Speaker 1: another pilgrim who was a scholar from Fizz, and she
Speaker 1: would be the first of several wives and concubines, some
Speaker 1: of them enslaved that Ibban Batuta would bring into his life.
Speaker 1: Ibban Batuta and the company of pilgrim he was traveling
Speaker 1: with arrived in Alexandria at the Nile River delta in
Speaker 1: the early spring of thirty six. He stayed there for
Speaker 1: about a month, visiting holy sites, studying, and also doing
Speaker 1: some sight seeing, including touring the city's textile district, but
Speaker 1: eventually he decided it was time to move on again.
Speaker 1: The timing of his journey and the time that he'd
Speaker 1: spent in Alexandria meant that at this point he wasn't
Speaker 1: lined up with the season for pilgrimage caravans anymore, so
Speaker 1: there was no official company for him to join. He
Speaker 1: was once again on his own. His plan was to
Speaker 1: follow the banks of the Nile River south to a
Speaker 1: town near the modern border with Sudan, and from there
Speaker 1: he would travel overland to the Red Sea, board a
Speaker 1: boat to Jetta and travel overland from there to Mecca.
Speaker 1: The trip up the Nile took about three weeks, but
Speaker 1: then when he got to the Red Sea, it turned
Speaker 1: out that most of the boats in the port had
Speaker 1: been destroyed during a dispute between the local ruling family
Speaker 1: and the governor, so he had to turn back. This time,
Speaker 1: taking a boat down the Nile, getting back to Alexandria
Speaker 1: in about eight days, spending one night there before leaving
Speaker 1: for Syria. And the reason he only spent one night
Speaker 1: was that at this point the season for official travel
Speaker 1: to Mecca was approaching, and he thought if he made
Speaker 1: good enough time, he could join a caravan leaving out
Speaker 1: of Damascus. On the way. He stayed for about a
Speaker 1: week in Jerusalem, but even so he got to Damascus
Speaker 1: with enough time to spare that he stayed there for
Speaker 1: nearly a month. Although he had been continuing his studies
Speaker 1: throughout the trip. In Damascus, he continued them formally, earning
Speaker 1: several official certifications in different law texts. In Damascus, Ivan
Speaker 1: Patuta finally did join an official caravan bound for Mecca
Speaker 1: that he stayed with for the rest of the trip there,
Speaker 1: which we will talk about after a quick sponsor break.
Speaker 1: Ivan Patuta set out with a large caravan of pilgrims
Speaker 1: from Damascus on September one, thirty six. This was more
Speaker 1: than a year after leaving his home in Tangier. He
Speaker 1: doesn't specifically say how many people were in this caravan,
Speaker 1: but it was likely several thousand. Official caravans traveling to
Speaker 1: Mecca were in our very large. First they went to Medina,
Speaker 1: which is about eight hundred twenty miles or roughly hundred
Speaker 1: kilometers away from Damascus, and the travel there took about
Speaker 1: fifty days. Once they're pilgrims took part in several days
Speaker 1: of religious rituals, including at the Mosque of the Profit,
Speaker 1: and then from Medina it was another two hundred miles
Speaker 1: or three hundred twenty kilometers to Mecca, where Ibn Batuta
Speaker 1: finally arrived in October of thirteen twenty six. After the Hajj,
Speaker 1: which involves several days of religious observances and rituals, most
Speaker 1: pilgrims returned home, but even Batuta did not. Early in
Speaker 1: his journey, he'd had a dream of a great bird
Speaker 1: sweeping him away over a far day stints. He had
Speaker 1: also meant an ascetic who told him that he would
Speaker 1: meet and offer greetings to the ascetics three brothers, one
Speaker 1: in India when in sind and one in China. Sind
Speaker 1: is now Pakistan. But aside from these more romantic ideas,
Speaker 1: Ibn Batuta thought that if he continued to travel, he
Speaker 1: could continue to learn and to find work as a Kadi,
Speaker 1: and instead of turning west toward home, he went north
Speaker 1: and then east toward what's now a Rock in the
Speaker 1: company of returning pilgrims from that region. Although he did
Speaker 1: make several stops along him away, his primary goal at
Speaker 1: this point was to visit the city of Baghdad. Baghdad
Speaker 1: had been besieged and then sacked during the Mongol invasion
Speaker 1: in twelve fifty eight, and that was a little less
Speaker 1: than seventy years before Ivan Batuta's arrival. That sacking is
Speaker 1: generally considered to be the end of the Islamic Golden Age,
Speaker 1: so when Iban Batuta went there, he was envisioning it
Speaker 1: as sort of witnessing one of the great cities that
Speaker 1: had been He also stopped in most of the major
Speaker 1: cities in the area and took a tour up the
Speaker 1: Tigris River. From there, he returned to Mecca with another
Speaker 1: Hajj caravan, this time staying for at least a year,
Speaker 1: during which time he both studied and performed the rituals
Speaker 1: associated with the lesser pilgrimage a number of times. He
Speaker 1: left Mecca again in either thirteen twenty eight or thirteen
Speaker 1: thirty exactly when is a little bit unclear, but whichever
Speaker 1: it was. He spent the next two years traveling mainly
Speaker 1: by boat to cities along the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf,
Speaker 1: and the Arabian Sea. He went as far south as
Speaker 1: Kilwa on the African coast in what's now Tanzania, but
Speaker 1: was at the time part of the Kilwa sultan It.
Speaker 1: After two years of mostly seafaring wandering, he once again
Speaker 1: joined a pilgrimage caravan Sebecca, traveling over land across the
Speaker 1: entirety of the Arabian Peninsula before observing the Hajj for
Speaker 1: a third time. By this point, Ivan Batuta had learned
Speaker 1: that the Alton of Delhi, Mohammed Togluk, had invited scholars
Speaker 1: to India, and that many who made their way there
Speaker 1: were finding themselves with prestigious appointments that came along with
Speaker 1: lavish gifts. The Sultan had made a practice of specifically
Speaker 1: filling posts with foreign visitors, and even Batuta hoped to
Speaker 1: be one of them. But to get there and to
Speaker 1: get an appointment, he needed a guide who spoke Persian
Speaker 1: New India well and had contacts there who could help
Speaker 1: Ibn Batuta on his way. His initial plan seems to
Speaker 1: have been to try to find such a guide in
Speaker 1: Jetta and then to have a relatively straightforward sea voyage
Speaker 1: to India. But he couldn't find someone with the skills
Speaker 1: and connections that he needed, so instead he set off
Speaker 1: on a much much more circuitous route overland, perhaps thinking
Speaker 1: that he might meet someone along the way. He first
Speaker 1: made his way back to Cairo and from there to
Speaker 1: the port city of Latakia on the Syrian coast, before
Speaker 1: taking a ship across the Mediterranean Sea to Alanna in
Speaker 1: Anna Tolia on the coast of what is now Turkey,
Speaker 1: and he then undertook a very roundabout two year trek
Speaker 1: that went to Constantinople, through the Byzantine Empire, across the
Speaker 1: Asian Step, and then through Afghanistan, finally crossing the Indus
Speaker 1: River in thirty three or thirty five. He essentially went
Speaker 1: quite far to the north, following a zigzagging path between
Speaker 1: the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea before dropping southeast
Speaker 1: into India. If you look at a map, this was
Speaker 1: not just an indirect way to go. Crossing the Asian
Speaker 1: Step was also far more difficult than going by sea
Speaker 1: or by following some of the other overland routes. Taking
Speaker 1: the path that was both the long way and the
Speaker 1: hard way may have been because Matuta had already seen
Speaker 1: several of the cities along the Arabian Sea that they
Speaker 1: would have passed through if he had gone that way instead,
Speaker 1: he had resolved to never travel a path that he
Speaker 1: had traveled before if there was some other option available.
Speaker 1: That seems like it would get so problematic in a hurry,
Speaker 1: and apparently it did. There are there are lots of
Speaker 1: maps of his voyages online and there is very little
Speaker 1: like the arrow going two directions on the same bath,
Speaker 1: and when it is it's usually like okay, yeah, that's
Speaker 1: there's not really a different way to go. Iba Batuta
Speaker 1: spent about eight years in India, where he was named
Speaker 1: Cutty of Delhi, although for his first several months there
Speaker 1: he spent his time accompanying the Sultan on hunting expeditions
Speaker 1: rather than hearing legal cases. He also had some trouble
Speaker 1: with money. He had purchased gifts for the Sultan, including horses, camels,
Speaker 1: and enslaved people along the way with the hope that
Speaker 1: it was going to help him secure a good appointment,
Speaker 1: and although his appointment as Cutty came with an income,
Speaker 1: he just didn't have the same pool of wealth as
Speaker 1: many of the other Deli elite to draw from, and
Speaker 1: he was expected to maintain an opulent lifestyle and to
Speaker 1: spend some of his income on gifts and pay to others,
Speaker 1: so he was soon in debt. Apart from his financial problems, says,
Speaker 1: years in India overall also weren't particularly easy due to
Speaker 1: a combination of famines, uprisings, and political intrigue. At this point,
Speaker 1: India had a majority Hindu population that was being ruled
Speaker 1: by a minority Muslim government, which leads to ongoing uprisings
Speaker 1: and religious violence. Around thirteen forty, ibn Batuta was appointed
Speaker 1: to lead an envoy from Delhi to China, and he
Speaker 1: left in the summer of thirteen forty one. He was
Speaker 1: tasked with ensuring the safety of a huge retinue, including
Speaker 1: hundreds of people and gifts including textiles, dishware, and weapons.
Speaker 1: Although they traveled under armed guard, they were attacked by
Speaker 1: Hindu insurgents only a few days out from Delhi. Ibn
Speaker 1: Batuta was attacked and robbed a second time while waiting
Speaker 1: for reinforcements after that first incident, and then he became
Speaker 1: lost for six days after escaping from his captor. After
Speaker 1: this inauspicious beginning, the expedition ended disastrously in early thirty two,
Speaker 1: when the whole fleet of four ships at this point
Speaker 1: they had moved to a sea voyage, was forced aground
Speaker 1: and wrecked in a storm off the port of Calicut
Speaker 1: on the southwestern coast of India. Most of their retinue
Speaker 1: was also killed in this storm and shipwrecks, including the
Speaker 1: other two highest ranking officials that had been dispatched from Delhi.
Speaker 1: Edmund Btuta only survived because he had moved from the
Speaker 1: junk where the diplomatic envoy was supposed to be sleeping,
Speaker 1: to another ship because the room that was assigned to
Speaker 1: him on the diplomatic junk was just too small for
Speaker 1: his taste. Although he wanted to return to Delhi and
Speaker 1: tell the Sultan what had happened, he didn't feel like
Speaker 1: he could, at least not right away. Not only had
Speaker 1: the entire retinue and all of its goods been lost
Speaker 1: on his watch, but he would also have to explain
Speaker 1: why he had survived while the other officials had not.
Speaker 1: He had also lost nearly everything he had in that storm.
Speaker 1: He wound up stranded for months before finally finding passage
Speaker 1: to Honavar on the western coast of India on a
Speaker 1: fleet of ships that belonged to the Sultan. Once he
Speaker 1: got there, though, the situation was not much better. He
Speaker 1: had hoped to find a patron and some kind of
Speaker 1: appointment that would allow him the time and the resources
Speaker 1: to figure out what he should do next, and perhaps
Speaker 1: even to recoup some of his lost income. Instead, he
Speaker 1: wound up spending most of the summer of thirteen forty
Speaker 1: two and devotional seclusion, praying and reciting the Koran twice
Speaker 1: through every day. He was basically offered housing in a
Speaker 1: like this one person's room, and he was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't really have work for you. You can stay here, though,
Speaker 1: so he basically stayed there in prayer for months, and
Speaker 1: finally he decided to go to China on his own,
Speaker 1: staying for a time in the Maldives and acting again
Speaker 1: as Cutty before going on to China by sea. By
Speaker 1: this point he had been to so many places and
Speaker 1: could tell stories of so many other courts that he
Speaker 1: was received enthusiastically and he was compensated generously. Once he
Speaker 1: left the Maldives. There's some dispute about exactly how far
Speaker 1: into China he did go, in part because he didn't
Speaker 1: give a lot of detail about China when he wrote
Speaker 1: about his travels. This lack of detail has led some
Speaker 1: critics to suggest that he did not go to China
Speaker 1: at all. And while he probably did not get nearly
Speaker 1: as far as the account of his trip suggests, with
Speaker 1: some of that probably being embellished when it was being written,
Speaker 1: he almost certainly did visit the more southeastern parts of China.
Speaker 1: His lack of detail is more likely because the Muslim
Speaker 1: population there was relatively small, and that was really what
Speaker 1: he was most interested in learning from and writing about.
Speaker 1: So he just had a lot less interest in China
Speaker 1: and a lot less to say about it. And it
Speaker 1: was after visiting China that iban Batuta decided at last
Speaker 1: to return home after undertaking the Hajj one last time.
Speaker 1: We're going to talk about all of that after we
Speaker 1: have a little sponsor break. Finally abandoning the idea of
Speaker 1: returning to India to explain what had happened to the convoy,
Speaker 1: Ibn Matuta began working his way toward home in thirteen
Speaker 1: forty seven by way of one last pilgrimage to Mecca
Speaker 1: that would be his fourth during his lifetime. Rather than
Speaker 1: waiting for the next pilgrimage season, he took a wandering
Speaker 1: route through Persia, Iraq, Syria, and Egypt, and in Damascus, Syria,
Speaker 1: he learned that his father had died about fifteen years before.
Speaker 1: He decided to travel to Aleppo in the summer of
Speaker 1: which turned out to be just as the Black Death
Speaker 1: began moving through the region, and for the next several months,
Speaker 1: his travels took him through cities and towns that were
Speaker 1: ravaged by the plague. For a time, he got ahead
Speaker 1: of the spread of the disease, but it caught up
Speaker 1: with him again in Mecca, where he spent four months
Speaker 1: awaiting the Hajj. After his fourth hodge, he began traveling
Speaker 1: finally towards Tangier, but once he arrived there after his
Speaker 1: decades of absence, he learned that his mother had died
Speaker 1: of the plague only about six months before. Iban Batuta
Speaker 1: didn't stay at home for long. He soon set out
Speaker 1: once again for a brief tour of Granada across the
Speaker 1: Strait of Gibraltar, followed by a return to Africa and
Speaker 1: a tour to the south, crossing the Sahara Desert to
Speaker 1: the Kingdom of Mali and the city of tim bucktwo.
Speaker 1: Iban Batuta finally returned to Fez, which was then the
Speaker 1: capital of Morocco, in thirteen fifty four, and as far
Speaker 1: as we know, he spent the rest of his life
Speaker 1: in or near Morocco. The Sultan Abu Nan asked him
Speaker 1: to write an account of his journey, and in doing this,
Speaker 1: iban Batuta worked with an amanuensis ibban Juse, who was
Speaker 1: also a court poet. Iban Jus made his language poetic,
Speaker 1: added some actual poems, and probably embellished a few things,
Speaker 1: while also bringing iban Matucha's account in line with literary
Speaker 1: standards of the time. The end result of all this
Speaker 1: work was finished on December fifty five. It's full Arabic
Speaker 1: title roughly translates to a gift to those who contemplate
Speaker 1: the wonders of cities and the marvels of traveling. It's
Speaker 1: more commonly known as the RelA, although RelA is really
Speaker 1: a genre essentially a travelog within Islamic literature. Given Matuta's
Speaker 1: RelA Chronicles has traveled through essentially the entire fourteenth century
Speaker 1: Muslim world. He had gone seventy five thousand miles or
Speaker 1: a hundred and twenty thousand kilometers, that is three times
Speaker 1: farther than Marco Polo's journeys and three times the circumference
Speaker 1: of the Earth. Along the way, he visited what's now
Speaker 1: forty different modern countries. He met at least sixty heads
Speaker 1: of state and a wealth of lesser leaders and dignitaries,
Speaker 1: and he served as an advisor to at least twelve
Speaker 1: different rulers. He also met all three brothers of the
Speaker 1: Ascetic that he had heard about so early in his journey,
Speaker 1: and did indeed offer them greetings. The RelA is about
Speaker 1: one thousand pages long, and since he was reconstructing it
Speaker 1: from memory after the end of his travels, it's chronology
Speaker 1: is sometimes a little bit mixed up or vague, but
Speaker 1: otherwise it stands as a wide ranging account of what
Speaker 1: the Islamic world was like in the fourteenth century. The
Speaker 1: world was and still is huge, but it is not
Speaker 1: at all monolithic. It's people are united by the core
Speaker 1: belief in the Koran and by the idea that the
Speaker 1: tenets of Islam create a bond that is greater than ethnicity.
Speaker 1: Or race. Yeah, if you're if you're looking at the
Speaker 1: chronology of his travels and you kind of go, does
Speaker 1: that make sense? You may have even thought, does that
Speaker 1: make sense? In some of this episode so far? It's
Speaker 1: because he was basically reconstructing it later on, and and
Speaker 1: sometimes I was talking about places that he passed through
Speaker 1: more than one time, So sometimes a little seems a
Speaker 1: little mixed up. As iban Batuta traveled, he observed the
Speaker 1: diversity of Islam, seeing how it was filtered through Arab, Persian, Turkish,
Speaker 1: and Mongol cultures. He wrote about how people worshiped, how
Speaker 1: they interpreted the law, and what their holy sites were like,
Speaker 1: along with describing the cities themselves, in their cuisine and
Speaker 1: their environment, and things like whether they were clean. The
Speaker 1: book gradually reveals some of iban Batuta's personality and tells
Speaker 1: us a little about the worldview of an educated, devout
Speaker 1: fourteenth century Muslim. He was a pious man who could
Speaker 1: sometimes come off as a bit of a busybody, even
Speaker 1: beyond what might be expected of a man whose job
Speaker 1: was to be a judge. But he was also gregarious
Speaker 1: and highly curious about the world. Otherwise, though there's really
Speaker 1: very little about his personal life. For example, he married
Speaker 1: at least seven women, and he had children with at
Speaker 1: least some of them, in addition to having new risk concubines,
Speaker 1: although none of these people play a part in the
Speaker 1: text beyond the mention of their marriage or occasionally their death.
Speaker 1: And we also get nothing about his homecoming and what
Speaker 1: happened when he met friends and family that he'd been
Speaker 1: separated from for almost a quarter of a century, or
Speaker 1: when he learned how many of them had died in
Speaker 1: the Black Death. And this was really typical of writing
Speaker 1: at the time. It was not considered really appropriate to
Speaker 1: be talking about your personal business in public anyway, so
Speaker 1: it would have been doubly inappropriate if he had filled
Speaker 1: his book up with a lot of personal details about
Speaker 1: his life. So like that is not a typical at all. Also,
Speaker 1: when we say he comes off sometimes it's a bit
Speaker 1: of a busy body. The story that to me typ
Speaker 1: of eyes at the best is there was there's one
Speaker 1: part in his relo or he writes about going into
Speaker 1: a bath house and some of the men didn't have
Speaker 1: waste coverings on, and his response to this was to
Speaker 1: go to the governor of the town and to tell
Speaker 1: the governor of the town that there were some men
Speaker 1: in the bath house that didn't have waste coverings on,
Speaker 1: and then get the governor all riled up about it,
Speaker 1: followed by a crackdown on whether there were waste coverings
Speaker 1: in the bath houses. On the one hand, there was
Speaker 1: just expected that men would have waste coverings on. On
Speaker 1: the other hand, there were definitely a lot of people
Speaker 1: involved in the situation who were like man Ivan Batuda business.
Speaker 1: He went right to escalation on that one. Yeah. So
Speaker 1: the a lot of people in their descriptions of Ivan
Speaker 1: Beatuda use words like kind of a fuss budget or
Speaker 1: a little judgmental uh, and that that kind of uh.
Speaker 1: That kind of account is why. So this book was
Speaker 1: largely unknown until the nineteenth century and even in the
Speaker 1: Arabic speaking world. Although various additions exist in libraries in
Speaker 1: North Africa and the Middle East dating from the time
Speaker 1: after it was written, it does not seem to have
Speaker 1: been very widely read between the fourteenth and nineteenth centuries. However,
Speaker 1: in a weird turn of events, French scholars found five
Speaker 1: manuscripts in Algeria after the French occupied Algeria in the
Speaker 1: eighteen thirties and these scholars began trying to piece together translations.
Speaker 1: A lot of the first translations in English were very
Speaker 1: heavily abridged, unsurprisingly because it is a thousand pages long
Speaker 1: and a complete English language translation. Projects started in nineteen
Speaker 1: twenty nine the Hackleyott Society, which is an English society
Speaker 1: that publishes scholarly editions of primary source texts about travel
Speaker 1: m geography, which is an amazingly specific mission. UH published
Speaker 1: the first three volumes by the mid twentieth century, but
Speaker 1: the fourth volume didn't come out until I think nine four.
Speaker 1: And it's actually unclear when even Batuta died, although it
Speaker 1: was in the year seven hundred in the Islamic calendar,
Speaker 1: which would have been thirteen sixty eight or thirteen sixty nine.
Speaker 1: A two man tangier is tradeally considered to be his,
Speaker 1: but we don't actually know if that's the case today.
Speaker 1: There's also a shopping mall named for him in Dubai
Speaker 1: and its courts are all themed after places that he went,
Speaker 1: and UH A lot of commentators are like, I'm not
Speaker 1: sure if I Tuda thought would have thought this was
Speaker 1: cool or not? Yeah, he like he did. I mean,
Speaker 1: obviously he traveled for almost a quarter of a century
Speaker 1: in a time when travel was a lot more uncomfortable
Speaker 1: and and time consuming than it is in a lot
Speaker 1: of the world today. But the like the fact that, um,
Speaker 1: he was so particular about things. Uh sometimes people are
Speaker 1: like what I Betuda walk in here and be like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: this is cool. I like to look at this place.
Speaker 1: Or would he be more like, M I'm not sure,
Speaker 1: we don't know, I don't really now. Thank you so
Speaker 1: much for joining us on this Saturday. If you have
Speaker 1: heard an email address or a Facebook you are l
Speaker 1: or something similar over the course of today's episode, since
Speaker 1: it is from the archive that might be out of
Speaker 1: date now, you can email us at history podcast at
Speaker 1: how Stuff Works dot com, and you can find us
Speaker 1: all over social media at missed in History. And you
Speaker 1: can subscribe to our show on Apple podcasts, Google podcast,
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Speaker 1: to podcasts. Stuff You Missed in History Class is a
Speaker 1: production of I Heart Radio's How Stuff Works. For more
Speaker 1: podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app,
Speaker 1: Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Hi,
Speaker 1: I'm Daniel Scheffler and I have some strong feelings about travel.
Speaker 1: I would love you to listen to my new travel podcast,
Speaker 1: Cold Everywhere. I've spent the majority of my life circling
Speaker 1: the globe. I have fed stray dogs in Cairo for
Speaker 1: a day, ben tattooed in the back of a jewelry
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Speaker 1: want to tell you how I travel and how you could.
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Speaker 1: about aspirational luxury nonsense. In fact, let's throw out that
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Speaker 1: you're wealthy or not alone or with your personal people,
Speaker 1: you can always have an amazing adventure. All you need
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