Ibn Batouta – the Great Moslem Traveller

Ibn Batouta was one of the Moslem world’s great travellers, making historic journeys throughout the Middle East, Africa and Asia centuries before many Europeans made similar journeys and discoveries.

Batouta left his native Tangier at the age of 21 to make a short journey throughout Morocco but ended up staying away almost 30 years .visiting places as diverse as Syria, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Mali , Tanzania and India

Travelling about the same time as Marco Polo,
his writings helped inform the Moslem world about foreign cultures almost 200 years before the journeys by Columbus to open up the New World .

Batoutta’s journey made him famous in Morocco and his insights were valued by the sultans . He eventually returned to Tangier where he lived as a respected civic elder. He died here and his tomb is sited in the Tangier kasbah.