The Adventures of Ibn Battuta, a Muslim Traveler of the Fourteenth Century by Dunn, Ross E.(October 12, 1989) Paperback Paperback – 1602

I liked this book and read it within several months of reading The Adventures of Marco Polo. Both men travelled Asia in approximately the same time frame (Battuta was appx 30 years later). I found this book to be somewhat better than the Marco Polo book. Mr Dunn provided great background on the historical forces that Battuta was encountering as he travelled. I felt like I got to know the character of Battuta more so than Polo. On the other hand some more excerpts from Battuta's rihala would have made the book better. Would have liked to have read more of his views and descriptions of the customs of the people he visited. Overall a good read though.

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 is informed - he's a scholar who knows Arabic and is familiar with the history of Islam - and also very funny. His dry humor permeates the narrative and adds much readability to what might be otherwise unremarkable material. Examples include his observations about Ibn Battuta's Sunday shouting down with Quranic verses of the Christian bells in an Anatolian town and the story of Ibn Battuta being stripped and left with a flourish by sea pirates.Ibn Battuta traveled in high Muslim circles throughout northern Africa, the Arabian neighborhood, ancient Turkey, Persia and India. Ross does a good job of qualifying the possible Chinese visit Ibn Battuta claims to have made. Later, near the end of his career, Ibn Battuta would penetrate the African heartland, ironically exploring his own continent last.Highly recommended for students of Islam, world history of the Middle Ages, and travel adventures in general. Ross, in my opinion, exalts the material to five stars.

For the reader interested in understanding the context of ibn Battuta's travels, this is an invaluable reference. Ross juxtaposes the thread of Battuta's journey with the cultural and political history of the regions Battuta explores. The maps are also tremendously helpful and the occassional b&w photo add flavor. The writing style is accessible and enjoyable.BUT if you want to hear ibn Battuta's story in his own voice, look elsewhere! Ironically, you will not find much of ibn Battuta's voice here. While Ross does use extensive quotes from the tales of many medieval travelers, ibn Battuta's own narrative does not dominate the tone. It seems Ross believes his reader will hold two books in hand, his own and The Travels of ibn Battutah, edited by Tim McKintosh-Smith. And this is exactly what I would recommend to anyone intrigued by this oh-so-intriguing tale.

Confusingly, this text does not present Ibn Battuta's travels, but a sort of contextualized retelling of them. It aims to be more readable than the original, and quotes Ibn Battuta periodically.

The story that this is based on is truly amazing. Traveling from Morocco to Mecca at age 21, Ibn Battuta finds he enjoys traveling so much that he gets as far as China and doesn't return home until 24 years later. He gets there through a combination of personal charm and taking advantage of the fact that one of the five pillars of Islam at the time was "almsgiving," or the sharing of material wealth with the poor, orphans, and wayfarers.Using the travels of such a character as a narrative thread is a great way to tell the history of the region. Throughout Battuta's travels, Dunn fills in well-researched historical background information that helps paint a picture of what the Middle East was like so long ago. Unfortunately, though Dunn claims that Battuta was introspective, we don't see that much of his introspection in this book, and you'd have to be a real history geek to get the most out of this. We learn more about sacred sites, tribal conquests, and factual details about Battuta's journey than we do about people.If you're a history buff, you'll love this. There's no question that Ibn Battuta deserves at least equal footing with Marco Polo as the greatest traveler writer of medieval times. If you're not a history buff, the narrative thread will help make it somewhat accessible. To a non-historian, 90% of this book consists of factual details that I'll forget by tomorrow. Personally, I wish I had read Dover Book's Travels of Ibn Battuta instead, which is a direct translation of Ibn Battuta's story.