Overview

Abu Abdalla Ibn Battuta (1304-1354) was one of the greatest travelers of pre-modern times. He traveled to Black Africa twice. He reported about the wealthy, multi-cultural trading centers at the African East coast, such as Mombasa and Kilwa, and the warm hospitality he experienced in Mogadishu. He also visited the court of Mansa Musa and neighboring states during its period of prosperity from mining and the Trans-Saharan trade. He wrote disapprovingly of sexual integration in families and of hostility towards the white man. Ibn Battuta's description is a unique document of the high culture, pride, and independence of Black African states in the fourteenth century. This book is one of the most important documents about Black Africa written by a non-European medieval historian.

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9781558763364

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In its animated picture of African and Islamic civilization and the world system in which they function, Ibn Battuta in Black Africa is a sure antidote to the eurocentricity of most American and European medieval historians. - Journal of World History

""In its animated picture of African and Islamic civilization and the world system in which they function, Ibn Battuta in Black Africa is a sure antidote to the eurocentricity of most American and European medieval historians.” — Journal of World History

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Ibn Battuta (1304-1377) was one of the first great travellers in world history – a century before Marco Polo. He was a scholar of Islamic law and found employment all over the Muslim world as a traveling judge or advisor to the rulers. He travelled to medieval Ghana, Mecca, India, and China and wrote his travel stories after his return to his native Tangier, Morocco, which were widely translated numerous times from Arabic.

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