Lifestyle

Ibn Battuta leaves the city of MaliThe date of my arrival at Malli was 14th Jumada I, 53 , and of my departure from it 22nd Muharram of the year 54 .The hippos of...

Ibn Battuta judges the character of the people of MaliThe negroes possess some admirable qualities. They are seldom unjust, and have a greater abhorrence of injustice than any other people. Their sultan shows no...

A chair is placed for Dugha to sit on. He plays on an instrument made of reeds, with some small calabashes at its lower end, and chants a poem in praise of the sultan,...

The negroes are of all people the most submissive to their king and the most abject in their behaviour before him. They swear by his name, saying “Mansa Sulayman ki” . If he summons...

It was taken first to the qadi’s house, and the qadi sent it on with his men to Ibn al-Faqih’s house. Ibn al-Faqih came hurrying out of his house barefooted, and entered my room...

Ibn Battuta arrives at the city of Mali, capital of the kingdom of Mali.Thus I reached the city of Malli , the capital of the king of the blacks. I stopped at the cemetery...

On the way there are many trees , and these trees are of great age and girth; a whole caravan may shelter in the shade of one of them. There are trees which have...

Their women are of surpassing beauty, and are shown more respect than the men. The state of affairs amongst these people is indeed extraordinary. Their men show no signs of jealousy whatever; no one...

The caravan reaches the oasis of WalataThus we reached the town of Iwalatan after a journey from Sijilmasa of two months to a day. Iwalatan is the northernmost province of the negroes, and...

At that time we used to go ahead of the caravan, and when we found a place suitable for pasturage we would graze our beasts. We went on doing this until one of our...