Life

Kulwa on the African mainlandWe stayed one night in this island , and then pursued our journey to Kulwa, which is a large town on the coast. The majority of its inhabitants are Zanj,...

The town of Mogadishu in SomaliaOn leaving Zayla we sailed for fifteen days and came to Maqdasha , which is an enormous town. Its inhabitants are merchants and have many camels, of which they...

After staying some days as his guest I set out for the town of San’a’, which was the former capital, a populous town built of brick and plaster, with a temperate climate and good...

The people of this town hold the famous subut an-nakhl in this wise. They go out to the palmgroves every Saturday during the season of the colouring and ripening of the dates. Not...

These terrors continued until we emerged at a roadstead called Ra’s Dawa’ir between Aydhab and Sawakin. We landed here and found on the shore a reed hut shaped like a mosque, inside which were...

After returning to Baghdad, Ibn Battuta makes his second pilgrimage to MeccaIbn Battuta returns to Mecca with the Baghdad pilgrim’s caravanWhen we arrived at Baghdad I found the pilgrims preparing for the journey,...

Ibn Battutta journeys to TabrizI left Baghdad with the mahalla of Sultan Abu Sa’id, on purpose to see the way in which the king’s marches are conducted, and travelled with it for ten days,...

Ibn Battuta leaves Basra by boatAt Basra I embarked in a sumbuq, that is a small boat, for Ubulla, which lies ten miles distant. One travels between a constant succession of orchards and palm-groves...

After the night prayer they began to recite their litany. A number of loads of wood had been brought in and kindled into a flame, and they went into the fire dancing; some of...

Another good habit of theirs is this. The orphan children sit in the bazaar, each with two baskets, one large and one small. When one of the townspeople comes to the bazaar and buys...