Episode 2 – Ibn Battuta’s Search for Knowledge

Islamic Golden Age (2017)

By Eamon Gearon

Film Review

Ibn Battuta (born nearly 50 years after the Mongols “sacked” Constantinople) was a Muslim explorer and historian who logged three times as many miles as Marco Polo.

Battuta’s family were Berbers and Islamic legal scholars. Born in 1304 AD, he left Morocco at age 21 to perform the Haj to Mecca and was away for 24 years. In addition to visiting Mecca and other Islamic holy sites, he visited Damascus, Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Cairo. With a population of 100,000, although Damascus had ceased to be the capital of the Islamic caliphate, it still functioned as a major trade hub with Europe, the Byzantine empire and Egypt.

After visiting Persia (now under Mongol control), Battuta traveled to Baghdad, which the Mongols rebuilt almost immediately after conquering it. According to his travelogue, he was especially impressed by the city’s magnificent baths featuring taps of hot and cold running water.

From Iraq he completed a second Haj to Mecca. From there he traveled to Aden and Mogadishu, Mombasa, Zanzibar and Kifua Africa.

After sailing to Oman and completing his third Haj, he traveled to Anatolia (now under the growing influence of Ottoman rule) and reached the Byzantine capital Constantinople in 1332. From there he traveled to Afghanistan, India, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Burma, Malaysia, Sumatra and Indonesia.

Returning to Damascus in 1348, he learned his father had died 14 years earlier. Arriving in Tangier in 1349, he found his mother and most of his family had died of the plague.*

He next traveled to Grenada, the last remaining Islamic city-state following the conquest of Andalusia by Spain’s Catholic monarchs. There the Andalusian House of Wisdom hired him to transcribe the accounts of his travels.

From there he traveled via the camel trade networks to Timbuktu (the “City of Gold”) Mali.

*Breaking out in Constantinople in 1345, the plague killed one-third of the European population (75 -200 million) by the time it died out in 1353.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/5756987/5756991