After traveling through the Maghreb, Ibn Battuta reaches Alexandria.
Item
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Title
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After traveling through the Maghreb, Ibn Battuta reaches Alexandria.
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Description
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“At length on April 5th (1326) we reached Alexandria. It is a beautiful city, well-built and fortified with four gates and a magnificent port. Among all the ports in the world I have seen none to equal it except Kawlam [Quilon] and Calicut in India, the port of the infidels [Genoese] at Sudaq in the land of the Turks, and the port of Zaytun in China…
One of the learned men of Alexandria was the qadi, a master of eloquence, who used to wear a turban of extraordinary size...Another of them was the pious ascetic Burhan ad-Din, whom I met during my stay and whose hospitality I enjoyed for three days. One day as I entered his room he said to me ‘I see that you are fond of travelling through foreign lands.’ I replied ‘Yes, I am’ (though I had as yet no thought of going to such distant lands as India or China). Then he said ‘You must certainly visit my brother Farid ad-Din in India, and my brother Rukn ad-Din in Sind, and my brother Burhan ad-Din in China, and when you find them give them greeting from me.’ ”
Transition in trade routes from Persian Gulf to Red Sea due to fall of Baghdad to Mongols. By this time Alexandria was an important connection as a Red Sea port to the Mediterranean as well as to Southern Arabia.
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Subject
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Travel
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Date
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April 5th, 1326
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Bibliographic Citation
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Ibn Batuta, Gibb, H. A. R. S., Sanguinetti, B. R., & Defremery, C. (1958). Travels of Ibn Battuta, A.D. 1325-1354. Cambridge: Published for the Hakluyt Society at the University Press.
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Source
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Gibb 46-47.
