Exploration & discovery

Death of Ibn Battuta

1368

Ibn Battuta died in 1368 in Fez, aged about 63. A Moroccan scholar and traveller from Tangier, Ibn Battuta left home as a young man to make the pilgrimage to Mecca and ended up spending around thirty years on the road. He journeyed through North Africa, the Middle East, Anatolia, Central Asia, India, the Maldives and, by his own account, as far as China, and also visited parts of sub-Saharan Africa. Often serving as a judge in Muslim courts, he was received by many rulers along the way. After returning to Morocco he dictated an account of his travels, the Rihla, to a scholar named Ibn Juzayy. It is one of the most valuable sources on the fourteenth-century Islamic world, although some of its details are debated by historians.

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This moment belongs to the Medieval world (500 CE to 1500 CE), kingdoms, faiths and trade routes. You can also browse everything in the 14th century.