Skip to main content

Primary sourceBook1855

Voyages d'Ibn Battuta, Volume 1

Ibn Battuta · 1855

A bilingual Arabic-French edition of Ibn Battuta's travel account, translated by Defremery and Sanguinetti in 1855.

This 1855 bilingual edition presents Ibn Battuta's own travel account in Arabic alongside a French translation.

Ask Ibn Battuta about this sourceView the original(opens in new tab)
Front cover of a dark blue cloth-bound book with a white library label on the upper left spine area reading 'UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO' and a barcode with the number 31761 01169490 8.
Defremery and Sanguinetti (trans.), Voyages d'Ibn Battuta, Volume 1, 1855. University of Toronto Library.

About this source

What it is

This is the first volume of a four-volume bilingual Arabic-French translation of Ibn Battuta's travels, produced by Defremery and Sanguinetti in 1855. The copy shown is held by the University of Toronto library.

Why it matters

This nineteenth-century translation was an important step in making Ibn Battuta's medieval Arabic account accessible to European scholars and readers, helping establish his travels as a major source for understanding the medieval Islamic world.

Look closer

  • Why might scholars in 1855 have chosen to publish the Arabic and French texts side by side?
  • What does the library label and barcode on the cover tell us about how this book has been preserved and used?
  • How might translations from over a century ago differ from more recent ones?

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.

More Ibn Battuta sources

Meet the AI Ibn Battuta →
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

Ready when you are

Start chatting with Ibn Battuta now.

20 messages free · No credit card · Available in 50+ languages.

Trial Humy for freeGet a quote for institutions