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 : The Adventures of Ibn Battuta: A Muslim Traveler of the Fourteenth Century

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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 910.91767
EAN: 9780520243859
Edition: 1
ISBN: 0520243854
Label: University of California Press
Manufacturer: University of California Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 379
Publication Date: December 09, 2004
Publisher: University of California Press
Studio: University of California Press




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Editorial Review:

Product Description:
Known as the greatest traveler of premodern times, Abu Abdallah ibn Battuta was born in Morocco in 1304 and educated in Islamic law. At the age of twenty-one, he left home to make the holy pilgrimage to Mecca. This was only the first of a series of extraordinary journeys that spanned nearly three decades and took him not only eastward to India and China but also north to the Volga River valley and south to Tanzania. The narrative of these travels has been known to specialists in Islamic and medieval history for years. Ross E. Dunn's 1986 retelling of these tales, however, was the first work of scholarship to make the legendary traveler's story accessible to a general audience. Now updated with revisions, a new preface, and an updated bibliography, Dunn's classic interprets Ibn Battuta's adventures and places them within the rich, trans-hemispheric cultural setting of medieval Islam. Illustrations: 15 b/w photographs, 12 maps



Customer Reviews
Average Rating:  out of 5 stars

Rating: 1 out of 5 stars - Horrible
I hated this book. It is a long and boring story with no action. I do not recommend this book unless you are a history buff or are forced to read it.



Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - A great read
I started reading the Rihla but got lost very quickly in the lingo, strange names, customs and happenings. This book is immensely helpful and a fantastic read as well, you can hardly put it down. Feels like a magic guided tour in the Medieval Orient. It was an eye opener, shedding light on how biased we are towards a distorted western perspective on history. If you are even slightly interested in Medieval times, exotic travelogues, Sufism or Islam in general, this is the book for you.



Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - 14th Century Muslim Travelogue for Modern People
Ross Dunn, historian, has done a remarkable job of telling us about the travels and adventures of a man who traveled the world a half-century after Genoese adventurer Marco Polo taught Europe about the Orient. The difference between Polo and Ibn Battuta is that the latter simply left home as a young man to perform the Muslim religious duty of the hajj - the pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina - and got caught up in other projects on the road for the next couple of decades.

Ross' narrative ... Read More



Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - The Adventures of Ibn Battuta. Ross Dunn. Fascinating.
Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn Battuta, a Moroccan Qadi (Sunni legal scholar and judge) of the early to middle 14th century, was the consummate `globetrotter,' traveling something in the order of 75,000 miles across North Africa, south-central Asia, southern Russia, Turkey, Arabia, east Africa, southeast Asia, the Indian Ocean, the South China Sea, China, Mediterranean Spain, and west Africa. Eventually his accounts were recorded by an acquaintance, Ibn Juzayy, appointed to the task by the Moroccan king, ... Read More



Rating: 3 out of 5 stars - A.P. World History Review
The Adventures of Ibn Battuta is a great novel for anyone who really wants to know a very detailed account of the Muslim world during the 15th century. The author not only describes everything that Ibn Battuta does and sees, but he also gives a very long description of the different cites' history that Ibn Battuta visits. However this description is very detailed and it normally doesn't pertain to what is happening whatsoever. These descriptions usually occur once Ibn Battuta enters a new city or town ... Read More







 






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