Ibn Battouta is the famous Arab traveler whose name became an icon for any travelling adventure; some people consider him to be one of the most important travelers in history. He is always compared with Marco Polo the Venetian merchant who lived almost at the same time and covered just about the same Asian parts as Ibn Battouta. While Marco Polo lived between 1254 and 1342 and his journey took 24 years, Ibn Battouta was born in 1304 and his expedition lasted for 27 years. Throughout his long trip, Ibn Battouta visited various countries like Tunisia, Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, India, and China among many others, and in another trip he visited some African countries south to Morocco. Within all these countries he covered hundreds of cities and villages.
Ibn Battouta was born in Morocco and his major trip started in 1325; during which he had spent some time in Egypt which he called “The Mother of the Whole World” and the “Country of the Pharaohs”. He portrayed the famous Egyptian capital, Cairo, as a city of wide regions that is ornamented with diverse beautiful architecture, a crowded busy city; the meeting point of import and export trading activities and a place for the week and the strong. It accommodates knowledgeable and ignorant people, the serious and the humble, as well as the known and the insignificant.
He mentioned that in Egypt there were 12,000 water bearers that carried water on camels and it had about 36,000 boats sailing up and down the Nile. Ibn Battouta depicted the Egyptians as people of joy and cheerfulness to the extent that when the Sultan, Al Nasser Mohamed, recovered from a broken hand all markets and shops were decorated for weeks.
Ibn Battouta referred to the Nile as the best quality of water between all rivers of planet earth; it flows from south to north unlike other rivers, the agriculture on its sides has no equivalent, and also in the heavens the Nile will be one of the existing four rivers mentioned in sacred texts. On the banks of this magnificent river are cities and villages much better structured than similar ones around the world.
Daunted by the Pyramids, one of the wonders of the world, Ibn Battouta’s research conceded that Hermes, who lived in Upper Egypt before the great flood, the first to teach astronomy and to build temples to worship God, decided to build the pyramids to preserve on their inside walls the knowledge he taught that might’ve disappeared with the flood.
The famous story of Khalifa Al Maamoun was cited by Ibn Battouta; when he came to Egypt, the Khalifa wanted to destruct the great pyramid but instead he decided to try and access it after he was told by wise men that it contained the secrets of the ages. They forced the opening that exists until today at the northern side by using vinegar and fire while bombarding it with heavy stones. Ibn Battouta asserted that they did find inside lots of treasures.
In the next article, we will follow Ibn Battouta’s trips and talk about some of the places he visited.
