Review: The Travels of Ibn Battutah

The Travels of Ibn Battutah by Ibn Battuta
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Reading the travels of Ibn Battutah was a long journey. I got a nice edition with gilded edge paper and an elegant ribbon book marker. The books is diminutive in size, but thanks to its very thin pages and tiny print, which makes it hard to read in less than perfect lighting, it packs almost 450 pages. Thankfully, it is an abridged edition. I have no idea how big the full version is.

It is a hobby of mine to read ancient history by ancient writers. I am not interested in accuracy - after all history mutates every couple generations - but I am curious to experience that distant world through the eyes of people who lived in it. I have mostly read Greek, Roman, and assorted European authors, so when I found out about this book, I was very much looking forward to the novel experience of reading a Muslim author of the 14th century who traveled in lands where the European seldom or never ventured at the time.

Initially I was disappointed. I found Battutah's style dry and scarce in details. I was also surprised at how uniform the Islamic world appeared through his eyes even though the lands he visited were inhabited by many diverse cultures: Berbers, Arabs, Persians, Turks, Bedouins, Mongols, et cetera.
In every city he visited Battutah mainly commented on the mosques, the orchards, and the bazaars, usually in that order. He mostly interacted with religious and political leaders and, even though his travels were arduous and sometimes perilous, he seldom seemed to venture outside his comfort zone. One chapter that I found particularly interesting is where he describes the endowments of Damascus. Endowments, are what we would now call entitlements, and apparently the city Damascus had them in very generous supply for its citizens but also the visitors. The endowments are supplied by the ruler and the rich residents of the city who are hospitable and generous. Ibn Battutah remarks: "Anyone who is a stranger there living on charity is always protected from having to earn it at the expense of his self-respect, and carefully sheltered from anything that might injure his dignity". I cannot help but think about the plight of the homeless here in the United States and in San Francisco in particular, and marvel at how much more advanced this medieval world appears compared to ours.

Until he reached India, Battutah managed to visit almost exclusively in Islamic territory with the exception of a visit to Constantinople, where he felt like a fish out of water. The story becomes much for interesting once he reaches India and attaches himself to the Sultan of Delhi. In India there is a large number of "infidels" some of them subject to the sultan, others in rebellion against him. The situation there is much more volatile and the authors adventures become much more varied and dangerous. He has a few brushes with death and he loses all his possessions a couple of times. This does not appear to be a problem for him because for some reason wherever he goes the rulers load him with money and appoint him to lucrative posts. I find it interesting, and surprising for an autobiography, that the author's demeanor appears to change over time. In the beginning of the narrative he appears humble and somewhat timid, whereas later he becomes more confident, more boastful, and smug. To the modern reader he would certainly seem like a jerk. He buys slave girls at every place he visits, he orders thieves' limbs to be cut, he criticizes all foreign customs, and judges people through his own moral compass, which remains very narrow in spite of his peregrinations. Yet, for his time, he is not a cruel man. He severely criticizes the sultan of Delhi, Tugluq, for his cruelty, even though he praises his generosity, When a Muslim ruler of Ceylon executes all the "infidel" captives with their wives and children, Battutah is appalled by the crime in the extreme and comes to hate the sultan and the country.

There are lots of tall tales and anecdotes in the book, some interesting, some mundane, some resembling tales from the 1001 nights. There is for example, the trial of a suspected witch by dropping her in the river to see if she floats or sinks, which is exactly like that Monty Pythons movie. Overall, after he reaches India, the book becomes a lot more than what I would expect and is immensely more entertaining. There is also an account of his journey to China that even though modern historians doubt he really visited, I found convincing enough. By his own admission, China was the most civilized and safest place he visited, but he didn't like it because it depressed him to be in a land of infidels. In all his travels Ibn Battutah never managed to acquire and open mind. He always maintained his original views of propriety and disapproved of everything that digressed from it.


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