The Travels of Ibn Battutah

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In reading the Vinland Sagas, we discussed an explicitly non-diverse community. In my very first paper I wrote upon the groups and fissures in Viking society, the arrangement of power within groups, the sources of conflicts, and what it meant to live in an explicitly non-diverse community. At the end of my Vinland paper, I said that growing up in such a community made you one-sided. I argued and I quote, “growing up with diversity is a gift that never stops giving; you learn from so much and you continually change and shed your skin to become a better person.” Ultimately, after reading The Travels of Ibn Battutah, I believe I must do something I wished I would never have to do; I must bite my tongue and admit I was wrong. I argued that growing up in a diverse community always led you to be more accepting or at the very least more tolerant of other cultures; that such a community would constantly be shifting you in a better direction. In no instance did I feel that Ibn Battutah changed or had any inclination to change on anyone of his voyages. Through out his travels Ibn Battutah’s religious convictions are apparent; hell, they’re the main reason for his travels to begin with. It is his deep conviction to the Muslim faith, though, that unconsciously forces him to stay one-sided through out his travels to such diverse places. Bluntly stated, Ibn Battutah stayed relatively one-sided and based his emotions and thoughts of others solely due to his religion.

The book, The Travels of Ibn Battutah, is about a young man named Ibn Battutah. The overall story is a retelling of his travels and his encounters over the years. He spent half his life traveling what is now over 44 modern countries and his main reason to travel was simply to go on a Hajj, a pilgrimage to Mecca, as is necessary by Islamic religious law. Immediately into the book you are immersed into the trip and are told of its reason without much ado. “My departure from Tangier, my birthplace, took place … with the object of making the Pilgrimage to the Holy House at Mecca and of visiting the tomb of the Prophet, God’s richest blessing and peace be on him, at al-Medinah. I set out alone having neither fellow-traveler in whose companionship I might find cheer, nor caravan whose party I might join, but swayed by an overmastering impulse within me and a desire long-cherished in my bosom to visit these illustrious sanctuaries. So I braced my resolution to quit all my dear ones, female and male, and forsook my home as birds forsake their nests. My parents being yet in the bonds of life, it weighed sorely upon me to part from them, and both they and I were afflicted with sorrow at this separation.” (3) As the chapters unfold, you become accustomed to Ibn Battutah’s form of storytelling and even come to enjoy some of his many descriptions and anecdotes from his journey.

As his travels unfurl, the revelation of just how much impact religion has made on him comes just as sudden as that very first sentence explaining his past and his reason for travel. His travels were made by land and by sea and there was simply no turning back. At one point he became gravely ill, when advised to stay back and rest he refuses saying, “If god decrees my death, then my death shall be on the road, with my face set towards the land of the Hijaz.” (4) His devotion to his pilgrimage seems to be everything to him, so much that he is willing to risk his own life. At first he began his travels over land alone riding a donkey. Then for protection he joined a caravan with other pilgrims and traders. The pilgrims were also Muslims that were excited about their hajj. Besides being a solely religious trip, it served as a great learning experience for the many diverse “worlds” of Islam. Ibn Battutah used it as a chance to obtain knowledge of religion and law, and meet with other Muslim scholars, and he spoke plenty on the subject. After making his first hajj to Mecca, he decided to continue travelling. His further journeys totaled over 75,000 miles over the course of visiting many countries, meeting many Muslim leaders, and seeing the many lands of Islam. All this took Ibn Battutah on a joyride through many diverse lands, but I believe, his religion kept him for the most part from what I had said about diversity: that it would continually change and shed your skin to become a better person.
Through out the book, Ibn Battutah comes in contact with many lands and their people; some come from different races, others from different religions, and those who might have either one in common with Ibn Battutah might have a cultural difference. For the most part, Ibn Battutah seems to speak well and criticize lightly but we also need to realize that most of the places he visited had one thing in common with him, his religion. Throughout all his journeys and all his stops, the majority of the people he comes in contact with are Muslim or a people that is adopting the Islamic faith. He does come in contact with non-Muslims too though. I believe it is in these moments that you can really see how diversity has affected Ibn Battutah.
Like all things, we must take everything he says with a grain of salt. After saying that, I would like to speak of a few occasions where I believe he shows his true colors.
In the years that Ibn Battutah travels, he meets and gets along with the majority. He speaks well of most things and rarely lashes out with his tongue. But when he does, it resonates greatly and shows a little of his true character. During his stay at Birgi he has an encounter with a Jewish physician. He is with the Sultan of Birgi and a few other people from that land, all readers of the Qur’an. The doctor, a Jewish man, was called in because his services were needed. When the doctor sets up shop and sits on a bench that is higher than where the Qur’an is situated, Ibn Battutah “flared up…and said to the Jew, ‘You God-damned son of a God-damned father, how dare you sit up there above the readers of the Qur’an…” (110) As is my understanding, Islam law instructs Muslims to speak with leniency and tolerance toward others, especially the people of the Scripture, the doctor of course being one as he was a Jew and even more so because the physician was clearly unknown to Muslim law. The point is so relevant because up to this point Ibn Battutah has been very strict with most other things in his religion, even to the point of risking death just to finish his hajj in time. Here we can see that Ibn Battutah, having come in contact with non-Muslims before holds them to a lower esteem when it comes to religion.
This religious superiority comes up again when, this time, he comes in contact with a Christian monk. In the city al-Qiram when staying with shaikah Zadan al-Khurasani, he is told of an honorable Christian monk who was living in the monastery not far from where he was staying. At this point of his travels, Battutah has already spoken many times of his fasting. He could never go past 6 days before breaking it by eating a full meal. Being strict on his fasting, after breaking it he would return to it for another 6 days before breaking it. He like many Muslims holds to high esteem his ability to fast for long periods of time. But when the host, shaikah Zadan al-Khurasani, told him of the monk, a man who could “fast for forty days at a stretch, after which he would break his fast with a single bean,” and said he would love to visit him for the wisdom he could offer, Ibn Battutah immediately refused and left. (121) Not that he confronted the Christian monk face to face, he showed some hostility after hearing that a Christian could do such feats. Again, as a devout Muslim he should have resorted to the best form of constructive dialogue when speaking about a person of another faith, but he didn’t, he just got up and left. Again I argue that the actions he took did not show in any way that his diverse living has helped him accept others that are not like him.
In an attempt to add fuel to the fire, Ibn Battutah tarnishes the image of an understanding and tolerant traveler when he comes into the town of Khwarizm. He states that “they have a praiseworthy custom in regard to the observance of prayer services which…each of the muezzins in their mosques goes round the houses of those persons neighboring his mosque, giving them notice of the approaching hour of prayer. Any person who absents himself from the communal prayers is beaten by the imam who leads the prayers in the presence of the congregation, and in every mosque there is a whip hung up for this purpose. He is also fined five dinars…” (138) He seems to extol and admire this harsh practice and penalty and approves of it in the case of religious obligation. For being someone who has traveled and experienced so much, he holds religion, his religion, on a very high pedestal and believes such punishment is necessary for people.
Very distinct from the upbringing of the Vikings in The Vinland Sagas: The Norse Discover of America Ibn Battutah doesn’t know what it means to live in a singular community that consists of only one type of people. He grew up in Tangiers and at a young age he traveled the world. He came across so many different communities and had the ability to learn and enjoy each one. Ibn Battutah should in no means be non-diverse, one-sided and yet, in the end, in my eyes he is. Although he did not grow up in an isolated community, although he had the experience of a lifetime living throughout such sundry lands, his identity had already been engraved so deeply into him that he was very much just as one-sided as the Vikings.
I once saw a billboard at the mall, it read something like “a child’s mind is like jell-o, make sure to get all the right ingredients in before it settles.” That saying resonates quite loudly in this situation. Ibn Battutah grew up in a Muslim family. He was taught the Muslim faith as a child. His identity was that of a Muslim. By the time he reached his late teens and was ready to set off on his hajj, he knew what he was and where he was going. His mind had already settled. His family, his schooling, his society was all held in by religion, his religion, the Muslim religion. As diverse as he was because of his travels, in the three circumstances I pointed out (and I’m sure there are more) Ibn Battutah was stripped down to what he was at the core, a devout Muslim and a one sided individual who in the end showed his true face.