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Primary sourceBook1354-1356

The Rihla

Ibn Battuta · 1354-1356

Ibn Battuta's dictated account of nearly thirty years of travel, compiled by the scholar Ibn Juzayy, and the main source for his life.

This is Ibn Battuta's own dictated account of his travels, the central source for everything known about his life.

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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.
Opening page of a manuscript copy of Ibn Battuta's Rihla, dictated 1354-1356.

About this source

What it is

The Rihla is the travelogue of Ibn Battuta, dictated by him after his final return to Morocco and written down and edited by the scholar Ibn Juzayy under the patronage of the Marinid Sultan Abu Inan Faris. It was completed in 1356. The image shows an opening page from a manuscript copy of the work held in Paris.

Why it matters

The Rihla describes a journey covering an immense distance across the medieval Islamic world, from North and West Africa to the Middle East, India and China. It is almost the only source historians have for Ibn Battuta's life, and it is a rare eyewitness record of the societies, rulers and holy men he met. It also reveals the hand of Ibn Juzayy, who shaped the dictated memories into a finished literary work.

Look closer

  • Why might a traveller dictate his account rather than write it himself, and what might change in that process?
  • What does it mean that this text was written decades after some of the journeys it describes?
  • What kinds of details might Ibn Battuta have left out or exaggerated?

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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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

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.Book

Secondary source

Manuscript copy of the Rihla (1484)

Ibn Juzayy · 1484

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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