The Travels of Ibn Battuta

No other medieval traveler is known to have journeyed so extensively. In 30 years (from 1325); Ibn Battuta traveled overland in North Africa and Syria to make the pilgrimage to Mecca. Afterward he visited Persia; Mesopotamia; and Asia Minor. He made a journey by way of Samarkand to India; where he resided for almost eight years at the court of the sultan of Delhi; who sent him to China as one of his ambassadors. Ibn Batuta visited the Maldives; the Malabar coast; Ceylon (Sri Lanka); and Sumatra. He returned c. 1350 to Tangier. Later he went to Spain; then to Morocco; and from here he crossed the Sahara to visit Timbuktu and the River Niger. During his 29 years of travel; he covered 120;000 km. A great insight of the days when Islam was a strong living tradition far spread around the world.

Summarized translation by H. A. R. Gibb.