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Secondary sourceBook1484

Manuscript copy of the Rihla (1484)

Ibn Juzayy · 1484

A 1484 manuscript copy of Ibn Battuta's Rihla, showing how his travel account continued to circulate after his death.

A later copy of Ibn Battuta's own travel account, showing its continued circulation after his death.

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Photograph of an open handwritten Arabic manuscript with dense black ink script on cream pages, with some red-ink headings visible. The left page is in focus and the right page is angled and partly blurred.
Manuscript copy of the Rihla, 1484.

About this source

What it is

This is a manuscript copy made in 1484 of the Rihla, the travel account originally dictated by Ibn Battuta and compiled with Ibn Juzayy. It comes from an exhibition on the treasures of Islam in Africa.

Why it matters

By 1484, more than a century after Ibn Battuta's death, scribes were still copying his account by hand, showing how valued and widely read his story of travel across the Islamic world remained. Each copy depended on earlier manuscripts and on scribes who kept the text alive before printing reached the region.

Look closer

  • Why would scribes keep copying this text by hand more than a century after it was written?
  • What can the style of the handwriting and headings tell us about how the text was organised for readers?
  • What might change, intentionally or by mistake, each time a manuscript is copied?

This book is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Ibn Battuta on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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Scanned manuscript page in Arabic calligraphy on aged cream paper. The top has a line of black script with a decorative heading, and a red-ink title block in larger calligraphy reading the opening of the work. Below are about two dozen lines of brown-ink handwritten text in dense Arabic script, with a marginal note at the bottom left.Book

Primary source

The Rihla

Ibn Battuta · 1354-1356

Two facing pages of a handwritten Arabic manuscript on aged paper. The right page is written in dark ink in neat, flowing script; the left page is faded and more worn, with lines of script partly obscured. The pages show the text of the travel account.Book

Primary source

Manuscript of the Rihla by Ibn Juzayy

Ibn Juzayy · 14th century

Ruins of a stone fort on a dry, hazy hillside under a pale sky. Massive sloping stone walls with crenellated battlements stand on the left, and a long arched stone gallery with a flat roof runs across the right. Scrubby bushes and dry earth surround the site, with a distant city skyline on the horizon.Artifact

Secondary source

Tughlaqabad Fort

Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq · 1321

Eight vertical panels of the Catalan Atlas side by side, showing an illuminated medieval world map with colored seas, decorated landmasses, compass roses, flags, rulers on thrones, and figures and animals.Painting

Primary source

Catalan Atlas

Cresques Abraham · c. 1375

Interior of a ruined stone building with weathered pillars and pointed arches supporting vaulted ceilings. Light enters from openings, and the floor is sandy with scattered debris.Artifact

Secondary source

Great Mosque of Kilwa

11th-14th century

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