Travel of Ibne Batuta
Ibn-e-Batuta
The great Muslim traveller of the middle ages Ibne Batuta was born in 1304 A. D. at Tangier. From the early childhood he was very fond of studying geography. Travelling in those days was very difficult and of dangers. There was no guides or maps and people travelled on horse-back. Inspite of all these, difficulties, ibne-Batuta travelled through almost all the Muslim countries. Ibne Batuta was twenty one years old when in 1325 A.D. he got a chance to accompany a caravan from Tunis to Egypt.
Ibne Batuta wanted to go for Haj but made a detour. He went to Baitul-Muqaddas and from there he went to Syria and then to Makkah. He stayed there for some years. He went for visit of holy places to Iran and Iraq and made the next trip to Central Asia.After that trip, Ibne Batuta set his face towards India. Passing through Samarqand, Bukhara and Kabul, he reached Delhi via Sukkur and Multan. Delhi at that time was being ruled by Muhammad Tughlaq. The Sultan was greatly impressed by his intelligence and knowledge and gave him the office of a Qazi (judge).
The Sultan then nominated Ibne Batuta as his Ambassador to China. On his way, he made halts at Maldives and Sri Lanka and gave very fine accounts of those places. After going through many dangers, he reached China by the sea route. He is full of praise for the artistic taste of the Chinese, their nice houses and efficient. police system. He was particularly impressed by their methods of agriculture.
Ibne Batuta lived in China for five years and then decided to return. From China, he came to Java and Calicut and again entered India from the southern side.