Ibn Battuta

Ibn Battuta (1304 – 1368 or 1369) was a Moroccan explorer. He is known for the account of his journeys called the Rihla ("Voyage"). He travelled for nearly 30 years and covered most of the Islamic world. He also explored West Africa, Southern and Eastern Europe, South Asia, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and China. This distance was more than Marco Polo travelled; about 75,000 kilometres (47,000 mi). Ibn Battuta was considered the greatest traveller of the medieval period. Battuta also made maps that were used by cartographers. He also met Mohammad Bin Tughlaq and wrote a book called "The Travels Of Ibn Battutta". Ibn Battuta was born on February 24, 1304 in Tangier. His family consisted of judges and scholars of Islamic law. At age 21, Ibn Battuta started his long exploration when he went on the Hajj. This is a year-long pilgrimage that brings Muslims closer to God. Ibn Battuta first went across North Africa (Maghreb), to the great port Alexandria in 1326. Ibn Battuta spent 30 years visiting every Muslim country of his day. He recorded details about the social and political life he saw on his journeys.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]} He gave information all about Muhammad Bin Tuglaq.

Ibn Battuta met a Syrian Arab Damascene girl who was a slave of a black African governor in Mali. Ibn Battuta engaged in a conversation with her in Arabic. ^[9][10][11] The black man was a scholar of Islam and his name was Farba Sulayman. He was openly violating the rule in Islam against enslaving Arabs.^[12][13]

Christians became part of harems as slaves in the Balkans and Asia Minor when the Turks invaded. Muslim qadis owned Christian slave girls. Greek girls who were pretty were forced into prostitution after being enslaved to Turks who took all their earnings in the 14th century according to Ibn Battuta.^[14]