The Impacts of Ibn Battuta's Innovations

In this essay I will be discussing the life and innovations of Ibn Battuta and how he influenced the Islamic empire which impacted the world at the time and later civilizations to this day. I will first introduce the innovator then talk about his innovations and how his innovations have short term impacts and long term impacts to this world.

Ibn Battuta is a famous Muslim traveller who was born in 1304 in Tangier. His family were fairly rich at the time. His parents were Muslim scholars who studied the religious law. Ibn Battuta was very famous for travelling around the world for 29 years. He journeyed through much of Dar Al-Islam, also known as the World Of Islam. It was believed that Ibn Battuta had travelled more than 75,000 miles. His journeys included trips to North Africa, the Horn of Africa,West Africa and Eastern Europe in the West, and to the Middle East, South Asia, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and China. Ibn Battuta is considered to be among the great travellers of all time.

He nearly met every Muslim leader, during his travels. He travelled to Mecca first trip was to Hajj, to the holy city of Mecca, in which is now Saudi Arabia. He performed his religious duties, and stayed in mecca for a few weeks, visiting holy sites. Learning and studying with Muslim scholors for 2 years. According to Ibn Battuta He travelled not only to study Islam but also to learn about other cultures. Ibn Battuta went to many different Islamic countries to study and to learn different cultures and most importantly set out to complete islams traditional pilgrimage to Mecca. He was then proclaimed as the “Renaissance Man” or as we now know as a judge in Delhi, India for 2 years, where he sought a high-paying job in the government of th...

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...them. Ibn Battuta’s accounts The Travels, give a Muslim scholar’s first point view of the world and cultures that existed along the west coast of Africa to the east coast of China.

No other explorer has written such extensive accounts of the variety of cultures that existed during the times. If such cultures were not preserved in The Travels, it would be unclear to determine how these people lived. If it had not been from Ibn Battuta’s accounts, it would be unclear to determine that Islam had spread to China through an Arab trader named Ding, who became the first of his kind to come to China.

If Ibn Battuta had not existed, people of his time would not have an idea of the lands and people that existed beyond their scope. There would not be a tolerance of diversity in His journey and accounts convinced other explorers to tread beyond to foreign lands.