Ibn Battuta in Black Africa

Everybody knows the names of European explorers such as Marco Polo and Christopher Columbus, but how many have heard of Ibn Battuta? This intrepid North African scholar first set out for Mecca in the year 1325 A.D. and became so smitten with life on the road that he just kept traveling for the next 29 years. Though Mecca was the object of most of his journeys, Ibn Battuta took different routes each time and thus managed to visit such far-flung places as the Maldive Islands, northern Turkey, and southern China. Ibn Battuta twice traveled south of the Sahara, once visiting the coast of East Africa during a voyage back to Morocco from Arabia, and once journeying to Mali by camel caravan–his last recorded adventure. As with all his journeys, Ibn Battuta kept a detailed account of the places he visited and the people he met. In Ibn Battuta in Black Africa, editors Noel King and Said Hamdun have selected and translated many of Ibn Battuta’s writings about his travels in Africa. Anyone interested in the precolonial cultures that thrived in sub-Saharan Africa will find this highly personal account of the private lives and public institutions of the peoples of 14th-century East and West Africa fascinating reading.