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Primary sourceBook1354 (English translation published 1958-2000, Hakluyt Society)

The Travels of Ibn Battuta, A.D. 1325-1354 (Hakluyt Society edition)

Ibn Battuta · 1354 (English translation published 1958-2000, Hakluyt Society)

English translation of Ibn Battuta's own account of his journeys across North Africa, Asia and beyond, edited by H.A.R. Gibb.

This is Ibn Battuta's own written record of his travels, the core primary source for his life and journeys.

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About this source

What it is

This is a multi-volume English translation of the Rihla, the travel account written by Ibn Battuta, edited by H.A.R. Gibb for the Hakluyt Society. It covers his journeys between 1325 and 1354.

Why it matters

Ibn Battuta travelled across North Africa, the Middle East, Persia, India and as far as China, describing the Muslim world of his time in great detail. His account is one of the richest surviving descriptions of 14th-century Islamic societies, and this edition made it accessible to English readers through the careful scholarship of translators and editors.

Look closer

  • Why might a traveller's own account be useful to historians, and what are its limits?
  • What kinds of places did Ibn Battuta choose to describe, and what might he have left out?
  • How does translation and editing change how we read an old text?

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

More Ibn Battuta sources

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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

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

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