Author Bio: The author of this article is Muhammad Idn Adbullah Ibn Battuta or also known as Shams ad-Din. He was born in Tangier, Morocco and later in his life traveled around the rest of Africa and Asia for 24 years. In the Middle East, he traveled to every Muslim state and was therefore one of the most knowledgeable people about African and Muslim development at the time. In addition, in 1352 he visited the empire of Mali. This article details the account of his journey, incorporating Ibn Battuta’s own individual information, background, and religion.
Date/Context: Ibn Battuta began his journey to the empire of Mali in February of 1352. During this time, he was about 48 years old and this travel was essentially the last years of his life. In his account, he periodically recalls the amount of days or months he spent in an area as well. These details allow the reader to develop a deeper understanding of the setting and how much occurred in that allotted time period.
Summary: This account is essentially a description of the experiences that Ibn Battuta had while traveling through Africa. The reading is set up chronologically as he provides details and insights from the journey in the order in which they occurred. His first location was Taghaza which he disliked very much as it consisted solely of sand and salt mines with no trees. Also, the only inhabitants included slaves who dug for salt all day and lived off small rations of food imported from Dar’a and Sijilmasa. Ibn Battuta then describes how the Sudan collect the salt from Taghaza and use it as currency. After his stay here, he and his group began traveling again. With this, he recalls the hardships of wandering through the wilderness with scarcity of water and lice so overwhelming it lead people to death. In addition, after another man became lost in desert, his group and him knew better than leave the rest of people. The guide, whom Idn Battuta says was blind in one eye and possessed a disease in the other, lead them effortlessly through the blowing sand with no path or road to follow. After two months of enduring the travel, they finally arrived at Iwalatan. Ibn Battuta did not favor this location either as the people possessed ill manners. After being pulled along by the others in his group, he attended the invitation from the mushrif of Iwalatan which was essentially a large banquet. They stayed here for about 50 days until leaving, and when they did, Ibn Battuta reflected on other aspects of the location he did not admire. The main one being the freedom to openly have other partners in a relationship or marriage. This made him uncomfortable and not want to visit again as he was obviously not used to this arrangement. From here, he dedicates a section to other aspects of Sudan that he did not approve of, as well as ones that he did. He begins with the positives and states that he admires their lack of oppression. He also discusses security, commitment to religion, clothing attire, and eagerness to memorize the great Koran. The reading concludes with those items that he disapproves of which consist primarily of the fact that all female servants, young and old, are not clothed in front of the men. In general, Muhammad Idn Adbullah Ibn Battuta’s account provides the reader with opinions, facts, and personal experiences from his journey around Africa.
Key Quotation: “Those people have remarkable and strange ways.”
Identifying characteristics: This document has several characteristics that can be identified within it. The first is that this is a story of Ibn Battuta who crossed the desert and encountered many types of people along his travels. These included the Taghaza, Sijilmasa, Iwalatan, and many others. The second is that this document is written in the first person perspective of the trip from 1352. This offers personal opinions of the society which he encountered while in Sudan. Finally, this document focuses on the people in the desert. It is described that the people had strange ways such as describing their wives as their friends.
ReplyDeleteFeedback: The summary covers all of the important main points of the article from beginning to end. In addition to this, the article was interpreted well and the understanding of the article was shown in the opening sentence of the summary. However, the summary could have focused more on how the people of the various regions treated Battuta and how the people behaved in Sudan.