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3 Visitors and Traders

The Traveler of Islam E ven before Great Zimbabwe was mysteriously abandoned, an amazing man was making his way across Africa, Asia and the Middle

Ibn Battuta’s Adventures Ibn Battuta spent twenty-three years traveling through the Middle East, India and China. He visited the tombs of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob at Bethlehem. He sailed down the east coast of Africa, spending time at the commercial ports of Mogadishu and Kilwa. While he was in Delhi (India), he was made a judge by the sultan. By the time Ibn Battuta returned to Morocco in 1349, he had traveled through forty-four of the countries we know today.

East. His name was Ibn Battuta and he was the greatest Arab traveler of his time. When Ibn Battuta was only twenty-one (in 1325) he started his journey. By the time he finally returned to his country twenty-nine years later, he had traveled 120,000 miles. This earned him the title “Traveler of Islam.” Before Ibn Battuta visited West Africa, he traveled through Asia for twenty-three years. At first he only wanted to visit the holy city of Mecca. However, one night, he dreamed that a bird had taken him to a dark, green country—the Orient—and so began his adventures. Through the Sahara Ibn Battuta returned to Morocco in 1348 and then left again in 1349 to visit Spain and the famous empire of Mali (see pages 8-9). With enough food to last four months, he traveled through the vast Sahara Desert with some north African merchants who were on their way south to trade. It took the party just two months to reach Walata, the northern-most city of Mali. Ibn Battuta was tired so he stayed there

for fifty days, resting and eating pounded millet mixed with milk and honey.

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