Ibn Battuta: The Man Who Never Stopped Traveling

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Imagine leaving home for a short trip, and not coming back for almost thirty years. In 1325, a 21-year-old law student named Ibn Battuta left his home in Tangier, Morocco. His plan was simple: make the pilgrimage to Mecca, then return home. He completed the Hajj in 1326, but instead of going home, he kept going. Every city offered a new road, and every road offered a new story. Along the way, he crossed deserts, sailed monsoon seas, and traveled through much of the known world. In Cairo, he found a city so crowded it seemed to hold the whole world. He journeyed through Syria and Persia, sailed down the East African coast, and rode across Anatolia. In India, the Sultan of Delhi made him a judge, then sent him as an ambassador to China. But storms wrecked his ships and bandits stripped him of his possessions. Stranded in the Maldives, he served as a judge there for months before finally sailing on. He married several times and lost fortunes as fast as he gained them. He did reach China, where in the great port of Quanzhou he saw ships larger than any he had known. Then he finally headed home. When he arrived in Morocco in 1349, the Black Death was devastating the lands he had passed through. Yet he still wasn't done. He traveled to Spain, then crossed the Sahara to the empire of Mali, where he met its king and visited Timbuktu. Finally, he settled in Fez and dictated his memoir, the Rihla, to a scholar named Ibn Juzayy, preserving the world of the 14th century. In all, he covered roughly 75,000 miles, likely more than Marco Polo. Not bad for a man who only meant to make a pilgrimage. Ibn Battuta reminds us that the world is vast, and curiosity is the best map.