Ibn Batuta

Ibn Batuta (1304-c. 1369), Arab traveller and author, whose book Rihlah (Travels) is an important source for the history and geography of the medieval Muslim world. Batuta was a Berber born in Tangiers. His full name was Muhammad ibn Abdullah ibn Batuta. Beginning with his first journey in 1325, a pilgrimage to Mecca, he covered some 120,000 km (75,000 mi), extending from Spain in the West to China in the East; from Timbuktu in West Africa to the Steppes of Russia. His book includes descriptions of the Byzantine court of Constantinople and the Black Death in Baghdad (1348).