XIVᵉ siècle – XIVᵉ siècle
Maghrib, West Africa, East Africa, and the Indian Ocean
Traduction non disponible · Original (anglais) · français indisponible
Ibn Battuta was a fourteenth-century traveller and author whose journeys included China, the East African coast, and Mali. His observations addressed ways of life, food, government, popular customs, interregional African trade, and Indian Ocean commerce. The extract presents his account of Mali and his testimony about cowrie currency as especially valuable evidence for medieval economic and social history.
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Le récit
Ibn Battuta is presented as a fourteenth-century traveller whose journeys covered a remarkably wide geographical range. His accounts included China, the eastern coast of Africa, and a journey to Mali. The extract values his writing not simply as travel narrative but as a detailed record of societies encountered across interconnected regions.
His observations extended to ways of life, food, systems of government, and popular customs. He also supplied important information on interregional trade in Africa and on the role of the Indian Ocean. His account of Mali is characterized as one of the fullest sources for understanding the society and economy of the western Sudan.
Ibn Battuta recorded the circulation of cowrie shells from the Maldives through Bengal and into the Sudan. He stated that cowries were sold at Mali, identified with Niani, and at Gao, the capital of Songhay, at a rate of 1,150 shells to one gold dinar. The passage uses this observation to illustrate the circulation of people and goods across Africa and the Indian Ocean.
Travel writing occupied an important place in the intellectual culture of the Maghrib through the genre known as the rihla. Ibn Battuta is presented as its master, distinguished above the other named travelers of his generation. His reputation rested on the scale of his journeys as well as on his ability to turn travel into sustained geographical description.
The passage records that Ibn Battuta visited India, China, and Africa. These destinations place his work within a wider Afro-Eurasian world of movement and observation, extending well beyond the Maghrib itself. His journeys made him a representative figure of the region’s engagement with distant societies.
Ibn Battuta’s importance is also comparative: he is said to have far excelled his emulators and contemporaries, including al-'Abdari, Khalid al-Balawi, and al-Tidjani. Through the rihla, he contributed to the descriptive knowledge of places and peoples that formed part of Maghribi scholarly culture.
XIVᵉ siècle – XIVᵉ siècle
Maghrib, West Africa, East Africa, and the Indian Ocean
Traduction non disponible · Original (anglais) · français indisponible
Ibn Battuta was a fourteenth-century traveller and author whose journeys included China, the East African coast, and Mali. His observations addressed ways of life, food, government, popular customs, interregional African trade, and Indian Ocean commerce. The extract presents his account of Mali and his testimony about cowrie currency as especially valuable evidence for medieval economic and social history.
Poursuivre l’exploration
Le récit
Ibn Battuta is presented as a fourteenth-century traveller whose journeys covered a remarkably wide geographical range. His accounts included China, the eastern coast of Africa, and a journey to Mali. The extract values his writing not simply as travel narrative but as a detailed record of societies encountered across interconnected regions.
His observations extended to ways of life, food, systems of government, and popular customs. He also supplied important information on interregional trade in Africa and on the role of the Indian Ocean. His account of Mali is characterized as one of the fullest sources for understanding the society and economy of the western Sudan.
Ibn Battuta recorded the circulation of cowrie shells from the Maldives through Bengal and into the Sudan. He stated that cowries were sold at Mali, identified with Niani, and at Gao, the capital of Songhay, at a rate of 1,150 shells to one gold dinar. The passage uses this observation to illustrate the circulation of people and goods across Africa and the Indian Ocean.
Travel writing occupied an important place in the intellectual culture of the Maghrib through the genre known as the rihla. Ibn Battuta is presented as its master, distinguished above the other named travelers of his generation. His reputation rested on the scale of his journeys as well as on his ability to turn travel into sustained geographical description.
The passage records that Ibn Battuta visited India, China, and Africa. These destinations place his work within a wider Afro-Eurasian world of movement and observation, extending well beyond the Maghrib itself. His journeys made him a representative figure of the region’s engagement with distant societies.
Ibn Battuta’s importance is also comparative: he is said to have far excelled his emulators and contemporaries, including al-'Abdari, Khalid al-Balawi, and al-Tidjani. Through the rihla, he contributed to the descriptive knowledge of places and peoples that formed part of Maghribi scholarly culture.
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