1. Ibn Battuta
Moroccan explorer
By: Nissrine Kerroum

2. 
Ibn Battuta was a traveler and a writer back in the Middle Ages. His
journeys and his accomplishments were similar to another person that
you have probably heard of -- Marco Polo. Marco Polo's name appeared
in history books everywhere, and he became famous. Ibn Battuta was
not famous for a long time.
Ibn Battuta was born in 1304 in Tangier, Morocco. He was brought up
as a Muslim. One thing that Muslims believed in was going on a
pilgrimage, called a hajj, to the city of Mecca. When he was 21 years
old, Ibn Battuta decided that it was time for his first pilgrimage. He set
out for Mecca, along the way he joined a group of other travelers for
safety.
Battuta must have enjoyed traveling, because, after he finished his visit
to Mecca, he just kept on traveling. Battuta kept traveling for 30 years!

3. 
During those years he returned to Mecca several more times,
but he also visited many more places in Europe, Asia, and
Africa. He visited all of the large Muslim empires of his time.
The places where Battuta traveled included the country of
Spain, the Mediterranean Sea, the north coast of the continent of
Africa, the Red Sea, the Nile River, the Pacific Ocean, much of
the Africa’s East Coast, and parts of Russia. All together, he
traveled about 75,000 miles, even farther than Marco Polo!
Like Marco Polo, Ibn Battuta kept records of interesting sites
from his journey. He recorded how people lived and new ideas
that he learned from them. Also like Marco Polo, Ibn Battuta
dictated stories to a writer who could turn them into a good
book after he returned. Battuta’s book was called Rihla, or My
Travels.

4. Ibn Battuta’s travel path


5. 
One of the places that he described was Baghdad, a city in Iraq that you have
probably heard about on the world news. At that time. He described Baghdad as the
“Adobe (home) of peace, and the capital of Islam.”
He wrote about his sea voyages. From his records we know that sea trade on the red
sea, the Arabian Sea, the Indian Sea, and the waters around China were controlled by
Muslim empires at that time.
He described the city of Damascus as a place where artisans worked making items
by hand, including lace and swords. He also wrote about a system in Damascus to
provide public money to help its citizens. Damascus’system provided money for
sending someone to take your place on a pilgrimage if you were ill, money for
wedding dresses, and money for paving the streets.
Battuta also described Pyramids. People who had never seen a pyramid could now
imagine what one looked like by reading Battuta’s writings. They would know that a
pyramid was huge and made of stone blocks. They would also know that it was not
shaped like many other buildings, but instead was pointed on top. These are only a
few of the many, many things that Ibn Battuta described.

6. 
Baghdad
Damascus
Pyramids Of Egypt

7. 
Lots of people get to
travel, but those who
can describe their
travels to inform and
entertain others have a
special skill. Battuta is
now becoming more
famous, as people get
to know about his
travels and his writing.