In 1325, Ibn Battuta, a 21-year-old jurist, left his home in Tangier on a Hajj, to Mecca as all good Muslims should do (p1). It was 29 years before he arrived home again, after travelling further than any known traveller before him: from Mali to China, from Russia to Zanzibar, with his years as legal adviser to the Sultan of Delhi the crowning achievement of his career. His account of his journeys was written in old age …showed first 75 words of 801 total…

…showed last 75 words of 801 total…a political history of the great part of the Muslim world. His character was outward. Being an extrovert, he would always make friends wherever he went. And such friends tended to be people in high places, like kings, sultans and princes, governors and dignitaries. He was an intellectual man who wanted to experience different cultures, but one gets the feeling that he was as much a contributor to these countries as he was a learner.