It will be deleted soon.
Tangier
Born in Tangier, Morocco into a family of Muslim legal scholars - 1304. He studied law as a young man. Left Tangier to make a pilgrimage in 1325 - took a year and a half to reach his destination. He set off alone riding on a donkey. He later joined a caravan for protection. Because of the threat of bandits, his party had to stay over in a town for several days until a large enough caravan could be assembled.
- For a chart showing average temperatures and precipiation each month for Casablanca, Morocco, see USA Today at http://www.usatoday.com/weather/climate/africa/morocco/wcasabla.htm NOTE: Casablanca is very near Tangier which is where Ibn Battuta's trip began.
- Hajj (Pilgrimage to Mecca) Routes to Mecca were generally safe for Muslims on their hajj. Here is an Arabic miniature showing people on their way to Mecca. http://shanana.berkeley.edu/spiro_img/97/015/97-015-018.jpg Do you think the pilgrims are excited? Which caravans are safer, do you think: caravans of pilgrims or merchant caravans carrying goods?
Medina of Sousse (C/1988)
Sousse, an important commercial and military port in the times of the Aghlabites (800-909), is a typical example of a town dating from the first centuries of Islam. With its kasbah, its ramparts (forts and walls), its medina (with the Great Mosque), the Bu Ftata Mosque and its typical ribat, at the same time a fort and religious building, Sousse formed part of a coastal defense system.
- Mihrab in Kairouan Mosque in Tunisia: http://www.fa.indiana.edu/~ksdavis/islamart/kaimih.jpg
- Full description: http://www.fa.indiana.edu/~ksdavis/islamart/kairouan.html
- Another shot at http://ibm340.ensam-aix.fr/tounsi/mosquee.gif
For a good site including pictures of Sousse, go to http://i-cias.com/m.s/tunisia/sousse.htm
Image of Sousse - walled city
For a chart showing the average temperatures and precipitation each month for Tunis, Tunisia, contact USA Today at http://www.usatoday.com/weather/climate/africa/tunisia/wtunis.htm
Kairouan (C/1988) Founded in 670, Kairouan flourished under the Aghlabide dynasty in the 9th century. Despite the transfer of the political capital to Tunis in the 12th century, Kairouan remained the first holy city of the Maghreb. Its rich architectural heritage includes the Great Mosque with its columns in marble and porphyry and the 9th- century Mosque of the Three Gates. See an image of a mosque and read more at http://www.unesco.org/whc/sites/499.htm
Map of Tunisia http://www.spin.it/bikeabout/maps/mp_tunis.htm or http://i-cias.com/m.s/tunisia/index.htm
Tunisia 
http://focusmm.com.au/tunisia/pictures/sahara_1.jpg
For today's weather report for Algiers, see USA Today at http://www.usatoday.com/weather/basemaps/nw603900.htm
Light House - one of the Seven W onders of the Ancient World 
from
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sunken/wonders/images/wonder7.jpeg
NOVA: Archeologists finding underwater evidence of lighthouse at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sunken/empereur.html
For a weather report on Alexandria, Egypt, contact USA Today at http://www.usatoday.com/weather/basemaps/nw623180.htm
Ibyar
Damieta
pyramids - Gaza - O.K. (See Tony) or 
from
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sunken/wonders/images/wonder1.jpeg
Ibn Battuta evidently didn't even see these pyramids, but they are described in his book, The
Riyla ("The Travels of Ibn Battuta" translated by Gibb, p. 51: "The pyramid is an edifice of solid hewn stone, of immense height and circular plan, broad at the base and narrow at the top, like the figure of a cone."
The Nile: while floods in June -
"If the rise amounts to 16 cubits (the measure from the elbow to the hand of an average person), the land-tax is payable in full. ... If it reaches 18 cubits it does damage to ther farmland and causes an outbreak of the plague." If the Nile rises 15 cubits, the land-tax will be dimenished. If it rises only 14 cubits or less, "there will be prayers for rain and there is great misery." - page 51
ibn tulun mosque
Cairo 
http://jeru.huji.ac.il/mam31_32b.jpg
See http://interoz.com/egypt/nasircomp.htm
Cairo - The Citadel built by Saladin in 1176, residence in 1218 of Sultan al-Kamil (nephew of Saladin)
http://touregypt.net/citadel.htm
For a weather report of Cairo, Egypt, see USA Today at http://www.usatoday.com/weather/basemaps/nw623660.htm
Nile Trip
Red Sea - Aydhab Image of crystal clear waters of the Red Sea http://www.adventurequest.com/htm/pics/16047.htm
For an image of a caravanserai (camel inn) see 
Medina - burial place of the Prophet
Mecca - kaaba For a weather report of Mecca, see USA Today at http://www.usatoday.com/weather/basemaps/nw410300.htm
plains of Arafat
At Barsian, about 42 kilometres north-east of Isfahan, there is a fine complex consisting of an old minaret, a Seljuk mosque and what is probably one of the Caravansarais built by Shah Abbas I in the furtherance of internal trade in the 12th century. (Such buildings were frequently attached to mosques.)
Shiraz (Garden City)
Sultaniya, Iran ? Mosoleum built in 1315 - Did he go there? http://www.fa.indiana.edu/~ksdavis/islamart/sultniya.html
Dome of the Rock built 7th century - built in 687 A.C. by Caliph Abd al-Malik, half a century after the death of the Prophet Muhammad
Jerusalem - Dome of the Rock and Golden Gate http://www.md.huji.ac.il/vjt/GoldGate.html
Jerusalem - Map of the Old City - http://www.maps.com/magellan/Images/JERSUL-W1.gif
Jerusalem - El-Madrassa et-Tankiziyya, Jerusalem. The structure was built as a Muslim school in 1328-1329 by the emir Tankiz en-Natsari, the governor of Damascus.
http://jeru.huji.ac.il/mam5ab.jpg
For a weather report of Jerusalem, see USA Today at http://www.usatoday.com/weather/basemaps/nw401840.htm
dhow - trouble at sea, see p. 243-244,
Baghdad, Iraq (Persia) For a chart showing the average temperatures and precipitation (rainfall) each month, see http://www.usatoday.com/weather/climate/mideast/iraq/wbaghdad.htm
Bosra - Iraq
Ancient City of Bosra (C/1980) Once the capital of the Roman province of Arabia, an important stop-over on the ancient caravan route to Mecca, Bosra has conserved within its thick walls a magnificent Roman theatre from the 2nd century, early Christian ruins and several mosques.
Kerak - desert. well al Hijr of Thamud
For today's weather report for Damascus, Syria, see USA Today at http://www.usatoday.com/weather/basemaps/nw400800.htm
Ancient City of Damascus (C/1979) Founded in the 3rd millenium B.C. it is one of the oldest cities in the Middle East. In the Middle Ages Damascus was the centre of a flourishing artisan industry (swords and laces). Amongst the 125 monuments from the different periods of its history, the 8th-century Great Mosque of the Umajjades is one of the most spectacular, built on the site of an Assyrian sanctuary.
When Ibn Battuta visited Damascus in 1326, he had married a woman of Moroccan origin. But he divorced her when he set out for Mecca ending a marriage of only a few weeks. This wife had given birth to a son. Feeling some responsibility for the boy, he sent some money to the ex-wife's father. Later he learned that his sone had died at the age of ten. More sad news followed on his second trip to Damascus. He learned that his own father had died some 15 years earlier. His mother, as far as he knew, was still alive and well.
Ancient City of Aleppo, Syria Ibn Battuta visited this place on his way home about 1348 He found that the plague had arrived there and was spreading rapidly. The plague was carried by rodents (like rats) and transmitted to humans by flea bites. (Evidently the plague started in East Central Asia and spread aloong the trade routes bouth southwest and west beginning about 1331.) Pneumonic plague was spread directly from human to human [See description of plague, pp. 270 - 271, Dunn: Adventures of Ibn Battuta.] In Damascus, the death toll had risen to 2,000 a day. The travellers, in order to escape the disease, unwittingly were spreading it from caravanserai to caravanserai, to city, to city. Ships spread the disease from port to port. Estimated that 1/3 of the population died from the disease.
Located at the crossroads of various trade routes since the 2nd millenium B.C., Aleppo was ruled successively by the Hittites, Assyrians, Arabs, Mongols, Mamelouks and Ottomans. Its 13th-century citadel, its 12th-century Great Mosque and various 17th-century médersas, palaces, caravanserais and hammams give it a cohesive and unique urban fabric, now threatened by overpopulation.
Ibn Battuta used the seasonal winds, or monsoons to travel along the coast of East Africa and in the Indian Ocean. For more about monsoons, see http://www.itl.net/Education/online/weather/monsoon.html
Ancient Yemen or Oman Image of Wadi Dhahr in Yemen. at http://www.adventurequest.com/htm/pics/18389.htm
Images from Yemen - http://tblr.ed.asu.edu/abdrahman/pictures.htm and http://tblr.ed.asu.edu/abdrahman/antiques.htm
East Coast of Africa - Kilwa, Zanzibar, etc. http://baobab.harvard.edu/narratives/islam/EastMosque.html
The Great Mosque at Kilwa
Ruins of a Swahili palace - Kilwa - visited in 1331 - described it as a wealthy trading city.
Description of his trip to Mogadishu is at http://courses.wcupa.edu/jones/his311/16battut.htm
For a chart showing the average temperatures and precipitation for each month in Turkey, see USA Today at http://www.usatoday.com/weather/climate/mideast/turkey/wistanbu.htm
For today's weather conditions of Ankara, a city in the mountains of central Turkey, which is the present capital of Turkey, see USA Today at http://www.usatoday.com/weather/basemaps/nw171280.htm
Image of a walled town near Istanbul - http://php.iupui.edu/~soguz/pics/kale.jpg
Medieval Sourcebook: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/batuta.html
Royal caravanserai: "Sultan Han" (Royal Caravanserai of Ala ad-Din Kayqubad), 1232-36 (Seljuq) located in Kayseri, Anatolia in central Turkey on the Sivas Road http://www.fa.indiana.edu/~ksdavis/islamart/sulthan.html
Outline of Travel Sites and Dates
Ibn Battuta visited Alanya and described it thus: The city of Alaiye is a large town on the seacoast. It is inhabited by Turkomans and is visited by the merchants of Cairo, Alexandria, and Syria. The district is well-wooded and wood is exported from there to Alexandria and Damietta, whence it is carried to the other cities of Egypt. There is a magnificent and formidable citadel, built by Sultan Alaeddin at the upper end of the town. (The inner keep contains cisterns, the ruins of a Seljuk palace, a fresco-decorated courtyard, military fortifications, and a Byzantine chapel in the middle. At the northwestern corner is a place where prisoners condemned to death were hurled over the precipice by means of catapults.) -
weather report of Sinop, Turkey - should Ibn Battuta cross the Black Sea? http://www.wunderground.com:88/global/stations/17026.html Ruins of Sinop castle at http://www.clearlight.com/~kt/works/img/silkroad/sinop.jpg
Antalya - Turkey's Riviera http://turkey.org/turkey/at_antal.htm
What modern countries are now in the area of his trip around the Black Sea? See http://www.euronet.nl/users/sota/krimgeo.html
Crossed the Black Sea to the plains of West Central Asia. - Westward detour to Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire in the company of a Turkish princess.
Mosjid in Bukhara (Uzbekistan) http://www.ummah.org.uk/uzbekistan/ date? tower of death http://webcorp.com/images/uzbek.htm Kivah's city wall : http://webcorp.com/images/uzbekimages.htm Most of Bukhara was destroyed by Tatar armies in 1220, 1273, and 1316. "Its mosques, colleges, and bazaars are all in ruins ... there is not one person in it today who possesses any religious learning or who shows any concern about acquiring it." p. 175 RD Mausoleum: http://www.fa.indiana.edu/~ksdavis/islamart/bukhara.html
Images of Samarkand at http://www.cu-online.com/~k_a/uzbekistan/images/gallery/samarkand
He spent eight years in India - a qadi, or judge.
http://www.keralaonline.com/umma.gif
Map of Kerala s.w. India http://www.lonelyplanet.com/dest/ind/graphics/map-ker.htm
India is the world's largest exporter of spices - and almost 75% of this are grown and processed in the vast plantations of Kerala. Pepper, Cardamom, Turmeric, Ginger, Chilly, Cinnamon, Arecanut....are some of the products.
Map of Sultanate of Delhi at end of 13th century - http://csis.pace.edu/~cs552/wagenberg/Sultanate.html
Daulatabad India - http://www.nbs.ntu.ac.uk/staff/shirors/DAULABAD.HTM
Kerala (s.w. India) http://www.keralaonline.com/profile.htm
1341 the king appointed him to lead a diplomatic mission to the court of the Mongol emperor of China. - Trip ended in disaster (shipwreck) off southern coast of India Unemployed - two years he traveled about souther India, Ceylon, and Maldive Islands (agains served as qadi for 8 months
Adam's Peak - for some background on why this is a famous "pilgrimage" site even today, see http://xlweb.com/heritage/skanda/islamic.htm RD:Travel of I.B. pages 241-24
http://www.confifi-srilanka.com/confifi/travel/images/traa-1.gif
http://www.hal.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp:80/~pasqual/images/sripada.gif [enlarged]
and more of "Sri Lanka in Pictures" see http://www.hal.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~pasqual/pictures.html or pictures from a German tourist at http://www.netzwerker.com/homepage/fac/reisen/srilanka10.htm
In 1345 resolved to go to China on his own. visited Bengal, coast of Burma, and island of Sumatra, then to Canton. - some southern coast visits.
(doubtful - hearsay?) RD: Adventures of Ibn B p. 252- Hobby World on Montreal sells models
For temperature and precipitation for Hong Kong, near to Canton, see http://www.usatoday.com/weather/climate/asia/china/whongkon.htm
Bored after only a few days in Morocco (and learning about the death of his mother), he went to Andalusia (again suffered from malaria.)
See the Alhambra (palace and castle) in Granada, Spain which was the Muslim "Andalusia". This is an incredible palace with fountains, gardens, and beautiful designs in tile, cement and carved marble.
http://www.siapi.es/legado/rutas/lasrutas.htm Another tour is offered at
http://www.red2000.com/spain/granada/alhamb.html Also see a tour in Spanish; this next site has good
photographs as well. http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Gallery/5885/ also see http://www.walker.demon.co.uk/alhambra.htm
Towns like castles - Morocco near Sahara http://geogweb.berkeley.edu/GeoImages/Miller/castles.html and Marakesh at http://geogweb.berkeley.edu/GeoImages/Miller/gatewall.html
Marrakech
Fez - gate built in 1185
For an image of a Saharan traveler meeting a rich king in West Africa, see "Islam in West Africa" at http://www.duke.edu/~chamel/196.html
Tuareg woman 
Timbuktu - weather report, go to
http://weather1.pcy.mci.net/weather/int/cities/ML_Timbuktu.html
Returning to Asian steppes, Tansoziana, Khursasan and Afghanistan to banks of Indus River - Sept., 1333.
In 1346-7 he returned to Mecca by way of South India, Persian Gulf, Syria, and Egypt. [hajj] Arrived in Fez, late in 1349. 1350 - Muslim Kingdom of Granada. In 1353, final adventure, camel caravan across the Sahara Desert to Kingdom of Mali.
In 1355 he returned to Morocco to stay.
Visited area equivalent to today 44 modern countries, and travel approximately 73,000 miles in his almost 30 years of travels.
In 1356- the sultan commissioned Ibvn Juzayy, a literary scholar, to record Ibn Battuta's experiences in the form of a rihla, or book of travels. - a type of Arabic literature that flowered in North Africa between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries.
India - Delhi Sultanate of Muhammad Tughluq
Qutb Minar, Delhi
Maldive Islands - http://www.mediafocus.com/images/l11015.gif and http://www.islandream.com/island/p_mald05.htm
http://www.islandream.com/island/photos/maldive5.jpg
Turkey - Anatolia - City of Safranbolu (C/1994)
From the 13th century to the advent of the railway in the early 20th century,Safranbolu was an important caravan station on the main east-west trade route. Its Old Mosque, Old Bath and Suleyman Pasha medersa were built in 1322. During its apogee in the 17th century, its architecture influenced urban development in a large part of the Ottoman Empire.
Historic Centre of Bukhara (C/1993) Situated on The Silk Road, Bukhara is more than two thousand years old. It is the most complete example of a medieval city in Central Asia, with an urban fabric that has remained largely intact. The monuments of interest include the Ismail Samani's famous tomb, a masterpiece of 10th-century Moslem architecture, and a number of 17th-century médersas.
http://www.siapi.es/legado/rutas/battuta/r_ibnbat.htm (In Spanish - routes of Ibn Battuta)
See the Alhambra (palace and castle) in Granada, Spain which was the Muslim "Andalusia". This is an incredible palace with fountains, gardens, and beautiful designs in tile, cement and carved marble. http://www.siapi.es/legado/rutas/lasrutas.htm Another tour is offered at http://www.red2000.com/spain/granada/alhamb.html See a description of other Andalusian palaces in "Wonders of Az-Zahra and other Andalusian Palaces" at http://www.erols.com/zenithco/zahra.html
General Geographic Sites -
How Far Is It? http://www.indo.com/distance/ Calculate distances from two places.
For example: Tangier, Morroco to Cairo, Egypt = 2186 miles (as the crow flies)
Then you can link to a map [See these places on the map, courtesy of Xerox PARC]
Africa - Mogadishu, Somalia image of herding goats : http://www.sesrtcic.org/DIR-SOM/SOMPHO02.GIF and women http://www.sesrtcic.org/DIR-SOM/SOMPHO03.GIF
Jenne
Oulata
oasis image at http://www.adventurequest.com/htm/pics/19141.htm
There is even a crater on the moon named after him! See http://lunar.arc.nasa.gov/printerready/science/geography_items/carters/craters_i.html
