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 entirely from memory. Almost all that is known about Ibn Battuta's life comes from one source, Ibn Battuta himself.
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