IBN BATUTA - The World's greatest traveller!!
we all may have heard the song of ibn batuta, but only few knows who he actual was.
introduction:-
ibn batuta was born in tangier a city in morocco in the year 1304.
he was a scholar and completed his islamic studies at the age of 21
ibn batuta was known as ghazi (an islamic judge) .
unlike marco polo, columbus he was also the worlds traveller. he was a one man army he didnt take any support to travel the world , he started it all alone.
roughly he travelled the world for about 1,20,000 km, which is actually 3x earth's circumference.
how did the journey start:-
after completing his studies he decided to go to haj (muslim prilgimage in saudi arabia)
those days the transportation for going somewhere was a donkey or horse or camels.
the distance from morocco to haj pilgrimage was total of 16 months at that period. he started his journey with caravan(a large group of travellers)..
it was his first time of travelling he was so tired and so dull that he tied himself with the back of the donkey that he was sitting on.
his journey:-
he went to saudi arabia for pilgrimage crossing north america, alexandria, cairo.
at the time he was travelling he was very happy to see various cultures, new people.
at the time when he reached he completed his haj. on the return to home he dreamed that he was sitting on a big bird and was travelling all over the world. he woke up and told his dreams to big scholars, the scholars replied that he was born to travel only. he took that dreamed to deriously and decided to cancel his tour to back home and start his journey all alone towrds the world.
after he finished his haj tour he started his tour from saudi arbia to persia(iran) then iraq then azar, yemen. after yemen he went to africa thorugh the ship and visited famous places in africa like somalia, kenya, tanzania.
he visited all african states and he was impressed with the africans, he was cared properly and wiselyin africa
as he was visiting all african places, someone told him that did you visited "hind" (india), because at that time india was known as golden bird of the world due to large extraction of golds, money and various cuktures india was famous too, and hence he contionued is dream and started his tour towards india.
as ibn batuta decided to go to india on the way he visited egypt, syria, turkey.
in his diary he mentioned that turkey is very beautiful place and he was very much impressed with the people of turkey.
after turkey he went afganistan and then finally he reached to india.
at that time the king of india was mohammed tuglaq ibn batuta met him and intriduced himslef as ghazi (judge) and at that time ghazi's were at high demand because there were only few people who were good at islamic studies, so mohammed tuglaq was very impressed with ibn batuta and gave him the post of judge at his court.
ibn batuta was very happy visiting india and he was very because of the indian food and various cultures.
he settled in india for many years and after a time he decided to continue his dream and travel more various places of world.
mohammed tuglaq was very sad after knowing this and hence sent some men with him for the protection of ibn.
ibn then decided to visit china, he was travelling to calicut port , he was raided by some bandits, they looted him and killed some of his men. he was totally looted he had nothing with him, he and his some men saved thier life 's from bandits and finally reached port of calicut to go to china.
as he was travelling in ship to china a big strom hit the ship and all men dies except ibn batuta.
after all this happened ibn batuta cancelled his thought of being at china and decided to go to maldives.
he reached maldives introduced himslef and there he was also appointed as ghazi.
he stayed a long time there, but as there was variuos fights and bloodbath's at maldives he saved his life from maldives and went to sri lanka.
there also he was appointed as a judge.
it was quite suffocating for ibn batuta to stay there, because the ladies in sri lanka were quite open with there clothes which ibn batuta didn't liked at all. he started protest at sri lanka ladies and tried to change them, but the people were angry with him and hence he was thrown out of sri lanka.
after he visited sri lanka he now decided to vist china.
he went china carefully and he wrote in his diary that china was the worlds best place he ever travelled, as at that time there where the rules of mongols and city he was very happy and impressed, but he didn't stayed there for a long time beacuse he didnt like the food that he was eating. he was feedup of the food and left china. after he left china he decided to go to his homwtown and met his family , he started his journey from the same route he came, and when he visited north america he met one of his friend and ask him about his home town. and then he went to knew that his parents a long time ago, after hearing this he was very much sad and upset and hence canelled his plan to vist hometown and went to spain to continue his world tour.
as he visited spain he then went to mali empire and famous city named timbuktu.
after visiting so many places he was quite old and now decided to go on his way back to tangier morocco his birthplace.
he went to tangier people were shocked as he returned after a large number of years.
people started going to him and ibn batuta used to tell stories of his tour.
people through were excited too.
as long the king of morocco heard about this man he ordered to write a book on ibn batuta.
ibn juzayy was the person who wrote the book of ibn batuta under his guidance.
and at the age of 1368 he died.
the whole story says that he was so fond of travelling .
he was a ghazi, and whereevr he went he use to introduce himslef as ghazi, and at that time ghzai were of high demand, because they want a proper judge and ruler of court who has all knowledge of islamic laws. wherever he used to travel people use to gift him food clothes money etc.
Comments
Well described everything