The Adventures of Ibn Battuta: A Muslim Traveler of the Fourteenth Century (21 page)

Perhaps after this punishing experience he deduced that he needed a rest. In a year’s time he had traveled more than 4,000 miles, crossed the Zagros Mountains four times and the Arabian desert twice, visited most of the great cities of Iraq and western Persia, and met scholars, saints,
qadis
, governors, an
atabeg
, and even a Mongol king. At this point he might have sat against a pillar of the Haram and written a respectable
rihla
about nothing more than his travels of 1325–27. The trip to Persia, however, would appear in retrospect as little more than a trial run for the heroic marches that were to follow. What he needed in the fall of 1327 was an interval for rest, prayer, and study. Then, spiritually refreshed, he would be off again.

1
. V. A. Riasonovsky,
Fundamental Principles of Mongol Law
(Tientsin, 1937), p. 88.

2
. Juvaini,
The History of the World Conqueror
, trans. J. A. Boyle, 2 vols. (Cambridge, Mass., 1958), vol. 1, p. 152.

3
. John M. Smith, “Mongol Manpower and Persian Population,”
Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient
(1975): 291.

4
. Edward G. Browne,
A Literary History of Persia
, 4 vols. (Cambridge, England, 1929–30), vol. 2, p. 439.

5
. Hamd-Allah Mustawfi,
The Geographical Part of the Nuzhat al-Qulub
, trans. G. Le Strange (Leiden, 1919), p. 34.

6
. D. O. Morgan argues that by the early fourteenth century a significant number of Turco–Mongols were giving up nomadism for proprietorship of agricultural estates acquired in the form of revenue grants
(iqtas)
from the Ilkhan, thereby planting their social roots in Persian soil. “The Mongol Armies in Persia,”
Der Islam
56 (1979): 81–96.

7
. See Rashid al-Din,
The Successors of Genghis Khan
, trans. John A. Boyle (New York, 1971); and John A. Boyle, “Rashid al-Din: The First World Historian,” in
The Mongol World Empire 1206–1370
(London, 1977), pp. 19–26.

8
. E. Ashtor,
A Social and Economic History of the Near East in the Middle Ages
(Berkeley, 1976), p. 257.

9
. Rashid al-Din,
Successors of Genghis Khan
, p. 6.

10
. Since IB gives all the stations on his trip from Mecca to al-Najaf, no apparent problems arise with Hrbek’s estimate of 44 days (Hr, p. 427). For this section of the narrative IB once again draws heavily on Ibn Jubayr’s descriptions of the route and halting places.

11
. A. Bausani, “Religion under the Mongols,” in J. A. Boyle (ed.),
The Cambridge History of Iran
(Cambridge, England, 1968), vol. 5, pp. 538–47.

12
. IB does not mention the length of this stay in al-Najaf. Hrbek (Hr, p. 428) suggests three to five days on the speculative grounds that he would not have tarried long in a Shi’i town.

13
. G. Le Strange,
The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate
(Cambridge, England, 1905), pp. 24–85. The author describes the complex topography of the Tigris – Euphrates basin in Abbasid times and later, stressing the fact that the course of the rivers and tributary streams and canals have changed repeatedly over the centuries.

14
. For clarity of meaning I have changed Gibb’s translation of the Arabic
al-fuqara
’ (D&S, vol. 2, p. 5) from “poor brethren” (Gb, vol. 2, p. 273) to “Sufi brethren.”

15
. Hrbek’s estimate of the chronology (Hr, pp. 428–29) is based on computations of distances and traveling times from other Islamic sources.

16
. This is Hrbek’s guess (Hr, p. 429) based on the idea that when IB sojourned in a spot for a substantial length of time, he always noted it.

17
. Le Strange
(Lands
, pp. 46–49) describes the canal system as it existed about that time. Also W. Barthold,
An Historical Geography of Iran
, trans. Svat Soucek, ed. with an introduction by C. E. Bosworth (Princeton, N.J., 1984), pp. 203–05.

18
. Le Strange,
Lands
, pp. 48–49.

19
. IB’s description of the trip through the Zagros presents serious chronological difficulties. He passed through this region a second time in 1347 on his way back to North Africa. His remarks on the season, on the identity of the
atabeg
, and on certain events at the princely court make it reasonably clear that almost all of the descriptive information he associates with the 1327 trip actually pertains to the later one. The same is likely true concerning his personal experiences, notably a bout with fever. Both Gibb (Gb, vol. 2, p. 288n, 290n) and Hrbek (Hr, pp. 429–31) agree that in the
Rihla
the two trips are confused.

20
. “Isfahan,” EI
₂
, vol. 4, p. 102.

21
. Hrbek (Hr, pp. 431–33) rejects the
Rihla
’s statement that IB got his
khirqa
from Qutb al-Din at Shiraz on 7 May 1327, since he could not possibly have reached Baghdad during the month Rajab (23 May–21 June 1327), a period when he himself asserts he was in that city. Hrbek suggests that owing to a lapse of memory or a copyist’s mistake, the date of the investiture should perhaps read 14 Jumada I rather that 14 Jumada II, that is, 7 April rather than 7 May. If he left Isfahan in the earlier part of April, he would have had time to reach Baghdad during Rajab.

22
. Edward G. Browne,
A Year amongst the Persians
(London, 1893), pp. 220–62; Le Strange,
Lands
, p. 297.

23
. Mustawfi,
Nuzhat al-Qulub
, pp. 113–14.

24
. Gb, vol. 2, pp. 300n, 304n.

25
. IB also visited Majd al-Din in 1347 while
en route
from India to Syria. Hrbek suggests ten days for the visit in 1327, though the
Rihla
presents a good deal of confusion between the first and second stays. Hr, pp. 433–34; Gb, vol. 2, p. 301n.

26
. Hrbek’s calculations of the Persian chronology are speculative since IB provides only three fixed dates for the entire period of travel from Mecca to Baghdad. The long journey from Shiraz to Baghdad is especially troublesome as routes and stations are extremely vague. Hrbek suggests 35–40 days for this itinerary (Hr, p. 434).

27
. Hrbek’s estimate (Hr, p. 434), is in accord with IB’s statement that he was in the city during the month of Rajab.

28
. “Masdjid,” EI
₁
, vol. 3, p. 354.

29
. Quoted in Henry M. Howorth,
History of the Mongols
, 3 vols. (London, 1876–88), vol. 3, p. 624.

30
. At the time IB was visiting Persia, the young Ilkhan was under the political domination of the Amir Choban, who held a position at court tantamount to mayor of the palace. Shortly after IB left Persia, however, Abu Sa’id abruptly and ruthlessly eliminated Choban and two of the commander’s sons and took full charge of his kingdom. IB’s account of the fall of the Choban family is one of the few historical sources on these events. See J. A. Boyle, “Dynastic and Political History of the Il-Khans” in Boyle,
Cambridge History of Iran
, vol. 5, pp. 406–13.

31
. Hrbek (Hr, p. 437) suggests a June departure.

32
. Mustawfi, the fourteenth-century geographer and historian, names the stations on the Baghdad-to-Khurasan high road in Mongol times. Le Strange,
Lands
, pp. 61, 227–28.

33
. Gibb (Gb, vol. 2, p. 344n) suggests that ’Ala al-Din probably got the order to go to Tabriz near Hamadan, calculated on the ten days already traveled from Baghdad.

34
. Le Strange,
Lands
, pp. 229–30.

35
. W. Heyd,
Histoire du commerce du Levant au Moyen-Âge
, 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1936), vol. 2, pp. 124–25.

36
. “Tabriz,” EI
₁
, vol. 4, p. 586.

37
. I. P. Petrushevskey, “The Socio-Economic Condition of Iran under the Il-Khans” in Boyle,
Cambridge History of Iran
, vol. 5, p. 507.

38
. “Tabriz,”, EI
₁
, vol. 4, p. 586.

39
. IB states that when he got back to Baghdad he still had more than two months to go before the departure of the
hajj
caravan. If it left at the normal time, about 1 Dhu l-Qa’da (18 September 1327), we can infer in general when the Tabriz excursion ended. Gibb (Gb, vol. 2, p. 346n) suggests it was before the end of June. Hrbek (Hr, pp. 436–37) offers 1 July or later. He also argues for a fast trip to Tabriz and back on the grounds that he was traveling part of the way with a royal official in a hurry.

God is He who has subjected to you the sea, that the ships may run on it at His commandment, and that you may seek His bounty; haply so you will be thankful.
¹

The Qur’an, Sura XLV

In the
Rihla
Ibn Battuta briefly describes a residence in Mecca of about three years, from September 1327 to the autumn of 1330. In fact, the overall chronological pattern of his travels from 1327 to 1333 suggests that he lived in the city only about one year, taking the road again in 1328.
²
In either case he spent an extended period in the sacred city, living as a
mujawir
, or scholar-sojourner. “I led a most agreeable existence,” he recalls in the
Rihla
, “giving myself up to circuits, pious exercises and frequent performances of the Lesser Pilgrimage.” During this period, or at least the first year, he lodged at the Muzaffariya
madrasa
, an endowment of a late sultan of the Yemen located near the western corner of the Haram.
³
As a pilgrim-in-residence he had no trouble making ends meet on the charity of alms-givers and learned patrons. The
imam
of the Hanafi community, he reports, was “the most generous of the jurists of Mecca,” running up an annual debt of forty or fifty thousand dirhams dispensing alms to
mujawirs
and indigent travelers. The young Moroccan’s special benefactor appears to have been an esteemed North African jurist known as Khalil. This sage was the Maliki
qadi
of Mecca at the time and the
imam
of the pilgrimage rites. While Ibn Battuta was living at the Muzaffariya, the
shaykh
had bread and other comestibles sent to him every day following the afternoon prayer.

The
Rihla
condenses Ibn Battuta’s residence into a few brief paragraphs and has much less to say about his own experiences than about the identities of various personages arriving in the
hajj
caravans. Muslim readers of the narrative would not of course have to be given an elaborate account of how a sojourner passed his time in the Holy City. It was taken for granted that a pious man would lead a placid life of prayer, devotion, fellowship, and learning. It is curious nevertheless that Ibn Battuta makes no mention of having undertaken courses of study with any of the important professors. He says nothing of books learned or
ijazas
collected as he does in connection with his earlier and briefer stay in Damascus. But we may assume that he attended lectures on law and other subjects in the Haram or the colleges round about it.
⁴

Map 6: Ibn Battuta’s Itinerary in Arabia and East Africa, 1328–30 (1330–32)

The Haram was the central teaching institution in Mecca, that is to say, the place where the greatest number of classes gathered each day.
⁵
The leading ’
ulama
of the city controlled the right to teach there, preventing any literate stranger from simply walking in and setting up a class. Only after a scholar’s knowledge and reputation had been adequately examined could he set down his carpet or cushion in an assigned place in the colonnades, a spot he might then have the right to occupy for the entire teaching year, if not his lifetime. The professor always lectured facing the Ka’ba, the students ranged in a circle around him, those behind sitting in very close so they might catch every word. The size of classes varied considerably, as they do in any modern university, depending on the subject being studied and the master’s fame. Anyone was free to listen in, and around the outer fringes of the circle people came and went as they pleased. A class usually lasted about two hours, including reading of a text, commentary on it, and questions.

The teaching day started early, and if Ibn Battuta planned to attend the first lecture of the morning he would be in the Haram right after the prayer of first light when the lesson circles began to assemble. In the hours of the dawn, classes met in the open court around the Ka’ba, but when the Arabian sun loomed over the east wall of the mosque they quickly retreated into the shadow of the colonnades. The most important teaching went on during the cool hours of the morning and late afternoon. But circles might be seen in the mosque at any time of day, applying themselves to the religious sciences or the auxiliary subjects of grammar, elocution, calligraphy, logic, or poetics. Even in the late evening between the sunset and night prayers a professor might squeeze in an additional dictation or commentary. On Fridays most classes recessed, the community devoting itself to prayer and the hearing of the congregational sermon.