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Speaker 1: Hey, history fans, here's a rerun for today, brought to

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Speaker 1: you by Tracy V. Wilson. We hope it makes previous

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Speaker 1: episodes for this date easier to find in the feed.

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Speaker 1: Welcome to This Day in History Class from how Stuff

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Speaker 1: Works dot Com and from the desk of Stuff you

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Speaker 1: missed in History Class. It's the show where we explore

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Speaker 1: the past one day at a time with a quick

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Speaker 1: look at what happened today in history. Hi there, and

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Speaker 1: welcome to the podcast. I'm Christopher haciotas your temporary hosts,

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Speaker 1: sitting in for Tracy V. Wilson. Will be back in

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Speaker 1: four days. But today is December thirteenth, and ibn Batuta

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Speaker 1: completed the account of his world travels on this day

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Speaker 1: in thirteen fifty the man born Abu Abdullah Mohammed ibn

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Speaker 1: Batuta became one of the most accomplished travelers of history.

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Speaker 1: He was born in Tangier on February four Now Tangier

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Speaker 1: is in what's today known as Morocco, but the city's

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Speaker 1: history may go back as far as the Phoenicians. In

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Speaker 1: the tenth century b C. When ibn Batuta was born,

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Speaker 1: Morocco was ruled by the Marinids, one of several Berber

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Speaker 1: dynasties from medieval times. But Tuta left Tangier when he

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Speaker 1: was twenty years old, setting out on the Hajj to Mecca.

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Speaker 1: He wrote, I left Tangier's, my birthplace, on Thursday, the

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Speaker 1: second of Rajab seven twenty five, that's seven twenty five

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Speaker 1: in the Hider Islamic calendar, with the intention of going

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Speaker 1: on pilgrimage to Mecca. I set out alone, having neither

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Speaker 1: fellow traveler in whose companionship I might find cheer, nor

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Speaker 1: caravan whose part I might join, but swayed by an

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Speaker 1: overmastering impulse within me and a desire long cherished in

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Speaker 1: my bosom to visit these illustrious sanctuaries. So I braced

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Speaker 1: my resolution to quit my dear ones, female and male,

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Speaker 1: and forsook my home as birds forsake their nests. My parents,

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Speaker 1: being yet in the bonds of life, it weighed sorely

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Speaker 1: upon me to part from them, and both they and

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Speaker 1: I were afflicted with sorrow at this separation. I was

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Speaker 1: then only twenty iban. Buttuto traveled east from the Maghreb

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Speaker 1: along the southern Mediterranean coast through Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli, and Alexandria.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes he joined caravans for safety numbers. Sometimes he met

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Speaker 1: people along the way. He married a woman in spacks,

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Speaker 1: for instance, in what is now Tunisia. He spent Ramadan

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Speaker 1: in Damascus, then went on to Medina and finally completed

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Speaker 1: his Hajj in Mecca. But after performing his pilgrimage, he

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Speaker 1: just decided to keep traveling. He could have returned home,

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Speaker 1: but instead headed to what's now Iraq, Iran, Somalia, the

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Speaker 1: eastern coast of Africa, Anatolia, Crimea, India, Pakistan, Indonesia. He did,

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Speaker 1: over his lifetime return to Mecca for several Hajj pilgrimages,

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Speaker 1: but on this travels he met with many rulers, emperors,

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Speaker 1: sheikhs and viziers. He served for a while as a

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Speaker 1: local judge in the islands known as the Maldives, which

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Speaker 1: had then recently converted to Islam. While there he married

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Speaker 1: into the royal family. In fact, Ibn Batuta had a

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Speaker 1: number of marriages over the years and in multiple countries.

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Speaker 1: He made his way to China under Mongol rule. While

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Speaker 1: there he saw paper money and was very very impressed.

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Speaker 1: Now by the time Batuta wrapped up his life of travel,

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Speaker 1: he'd have visited forty four different countries if you're judging

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Speaker 1: by today's boundaries. He hit up Central Asia and South Asia, China,

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Speaker 1: and parts of Southern Africa and eastern Europe. He covered

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Speaker 1: the majority of the Islamic world, also known as Dara Islam.

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Speaker 1: Ibn Batuta traveled seventy five thousand miles or a hundred

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Speaker 1: and twenty one thousand kilometers. He spent twenty nine years traveling.

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Speaker 1: He was a geographer, a botanist, a legal scholar, a

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Speaker 1: kadi or judge, and he finally did make his way

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Speaker 1: back to Tangier in thirteen forty nine. Both of his

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Speaker 1: parents had passed away by then, and upon learning that news,

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Speaker 1: Batuta set out to explore the Sahara. He went to

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Speaker 1: Ulata and Timbuctoo in the Mali Empire, and finally returned

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Speaker 1: to Morocco in thirteen fifty four. Now, throughout his travels

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Speaker 1: he didn't keep a diary, he didn't keep a journal,

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Speaker 1: and it was only in thirteen fifty four that he

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Speaker 1: dictated his travels to a man named Ibn jus A.

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Speaker 1: There were no sources is that eben juse cited, and

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Speaker 1: some passages that he wrote were the same as other sources.

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Speaker 1: There were some conflicting information, and again all of this

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Speaker 1: travel was remembered by Ibn Batuta. But it was eventually

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Speaker 1: published as Tufat alan Zar figarab Alamsara jaib alas Far,

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Speaker 1: or a Gift to those who contemplate the wonders of

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Speaker 1: cities and the marvels of traveling. Now that title can

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Speaker 1: be a bit much, but but to this travelog is

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Speaker 1: generally just referred to as the rich La or the Journey.

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Speaker 1: It was published in thirteen fifty five. After that the

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Speaker 1: details of Batuta's life become a little less certain. He

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Speaker 1: was appointed a judge in Morocco and eventually died in

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Speaker 1: either thirteen sixty eight or thirteen sixty nine. Now, Batuta

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Speaker 1: was little known outside the Islamic world until the eighteenth century,

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Speaker 1: when his works began to be translated. He's often been

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Speaker 1: compared to other world travelers, like Marco Polo, for instance.

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Speaker 1: For more about Ibn Batuta, give a listen to the

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Speaker 1: August second, two thousand seventeen episode of Stuff he missed

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Speaker 1: in history class. It's called Binbatuta, the Traveler of Islam.

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Speaker 1: Thanks to Casey Pegrum and Chandler Mays for their audio

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Speaker 1: work on this show. You can subscribe to This Day

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Speaker 1: in History Class on Apple Podcasts, the I Heart Radio app,

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Speaker 1: or wherever else you like to find your podcasts. Please

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Speaker 1: tune in tomorrow for the anniversary of an ambitious expedition

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Speaker 1: finally reaching its goal.