The Travels of Ibn Battuta: Selected Bibliography & Links

Bibliography

Thomas J. Abercrombie."Ibn Battuta, Prince of Travelers," National Geographic (December 1991), 2-49. Great illustrations.

Ross Dunn.  The Adventures of Ibn Battuta: A Muslim Traveler of the 14th Century, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1989.

This book gives much information about the societies into which Ibn Battuta traveled. It is outstanding in giving a historical context to Ibn Battuta's story.

H.A.R. Gibb.  The Travels of Ibn Battuta, Vols. I, II, III, Hakluyt Society, Syndics of the Cambridge University Press, London, 1956.

A translation and notes from the Arabic "Rihla" of Ibn Battuta. (The fourth and final part is still being translated by Professor C. F. Beckingham.)

Rev. Samuel Lee, trans. The Travels of Ibn Battuta in the Near East, Asia & Africa, 1325 – 1354 (Dover Books).

Tim Mackintosh-Smith. Travels with a Tangerine: A Journey in the Footnotes of Ibn Battutah (7 Jun 2002).

Tim Mackintosh-Smith. The Travels of Ibn Battutah by Ibn Battutah (6 Jun 2003).

Tim Mackintosh-Smith. Landfalls: On the Edge of Islam with Ibn Battutah (19 Aug 2010).

Tim Mackintosh-Smith and Martin Yeoman. The Hall of a Thousand Columns: Hindustan to Malabar with Ibn Battutah (13 Mar 2006)

Said Hamdun & Noel King, Ibn Battuta in Black Africa (with a foreword by Ross Dunn), Markus Wiener Publishers, Princeton, 1975.

Books for Young Adults & Classrooms

Travelers and Explorers, IQRA Trust, London, 1992.

    • A beautifully illustrated children's book telling of several Muslim travelers of the Middle Ages, including eight pages about Ibn Battuta.

Ibn Battuta: A View of the Fourteenth-Century World (A Unit of Study for Grades 7 - 10), by Joan Arno and Helen Grady, National Center for History in the Schools, UCLA, 1998.  

    • One useful lesson deals with the “The Historian’s Dilemma: To What Extent Can Primary Documents Be Trusted?”

Amazing Adventures of Ibn Battuta and Ibn Battuta in the Valley of Doom and The Travels of Ibn Battuta and Others, by Durke, Astrolabe Pictures [Muslim Heroes series].

    • These books, except for the first, do not follow closely the real travels of Ibn Battuta, but go off into fantasy adventures. They are aimed at young children and don't contain Ibn Battuta's own words.

Traveling Man: The Journey of Ibn Battuta 1325 – 1354 by James Rumford (for ages 8 – 12) 

Online Resources

"Ibn Battuta: Travels in Asia and Africa 1325 – 1354" on the Fordham University Medieval Sourcebook, featuring translations of large segments of the Rihla.

"The Longest Hajj: The Journeys of Ibn Battuta" from Saudi Aramco World in three parts.

"Ibn Battuta" on Wikipedia contains (among other things) useful maps of his travels.

Following in the Footsteps of Ibn Battuta, a five-part video series from The National Newspaper that focuses primarily on Ibn Battuta's travels in Andalusia (Spain) and North Africa.

The Man Who Walked Across the World, a three-part BBC documentary travelogue with Tim Mackintosh-Smith.

"Ibn Battuta Visits Mali" focuses on the traveler's time in West Africa. It is stamped with "Evaluation copy" but it has been up on YouTube for years. 

"Ibn Battuta" is a page in Kahn Academy's Exploration and Interconnection unit. There are also pages devoted to Marco Polo and Zheng He and an introductory video about global connections.

Other Resources

Journey to Mecca: In the footsteps of Ibn Battuta is an IMAX dramatized documentary about the travels of Ibn Battuta. There is a teacher guide available.