Travels of Ibn Battuta... in the gold age of Islam.

[shaarona]

Two films about 75,000 mile journey when the trade routes were wide open.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlbBJE-CJxg&feature=player_detailpage

A link to the Imax film.

Tim Mackintosh Smith follows in the footsteps of 14th Century Moroccan scholar Ibn Battutah, who covered 75,000 miles, 40 countries and three continents in a 30-year odyssey. Beginning in north Africa, Tim visits Battutah's birthplace of Tangier in Morocco, and stumbles on a performance of medieval trance music. In Egypt, he goes to a remote village where Battutah had an astonishing prophetic dream and visits the world's oldest university in Cairo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WvX8MICPfo&feature=player_detailpage

[shaarona]

Glad you liked this, Pete.. I have been looking for something similar about the ancient traveler Rabbi Binyamin Tudela.

[Peter1469]

It would have been something to travel like that....

[shaarona]

It would have been something to travel like that....

I know.. 30 years all the way to China and back.. Too cool.

[corrocamino]

I have read this version of Ibn Battuta's rihla. According to this authority, Ibn Battuta was as much a self-promoting prevaricator as he was precocious Islamic scholar and intrepid traveler. Parts of IB's account evidently were lifted from the experiences of other people, and part was just invented. That notwithstanding, much of what he wrote can be viewed as valid historicity, and it was unquestionably an exciting adventure, well worth reading about! Very interesting to compare these travels with those of Marco Polo!

http://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Ibn-Battuta-Traveler-Fourteenth/dp/0520272927/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1354456498&sr=1-8&keywords=travels+of+ibn+battuta