Points of Interest
This is an alternative section to the Neatline map in case it does not work.
Point of Interest 1 - The Red Sea:
This is the place where Ibn Battuta starts off his voyage. According to Battuta’s journey, he set sail after his stay in Mecca for about three years (Dunn, 2012). He focused more on his academic work until 1330 when he decided to go to Yemen. To get there, he would have to cross the Red Sea, and after crossing that place he would have access to voyages that would take him to other places. Initially, he was supposed to go onboard a small vessel that belonged to a colleague of his, but given the limited space he refused. He then decided to ride on a larger ship that was mainly used for trading purposes at various ports. Upon his arrival to Yemen, he had to change vessels multiple times given constant weather changes and structures of the vessel crafts. What may sound like from his journey, is that he seemed to look for the best and accessed the possible risks in various modes of transportation.
Point of Interest 2 - Taiz, Yemen
Taiz, a southern city in Yemen is where Ibn Batutta stops first after his first voyage on the Red Sea. During his brief stay at Taiz, he gets the opportunity to meet with a Rasulid sultan, also known as a king. The following brief description provided by Dunn (2012), derived from Battuta’s original travel book provides concrete and solid visualization of the customs and hospitality at the time:
“......When the sultan takes his seat they cry with one voice Bismillah, and when he rises they do the same, so that all those in the audience-hall know the moment of his rising and the moment of his sitting . . . the food is then brought, and it is of two sorts, the food of the commons and the food of the high officers (p.149).”
The item attached here of a brass tray that was only used by the sultan himself shows that they had their own customized possessions that differed from normal merchants and slaves, indicating the presence of social space in that particular setting. After his stay at the sultan’s place, he was given a camel so that he could go to Aden without any problems.
Point of Interest 3- Aden, Yemen
Ibn Battuta reached Aden, another important city located in Yemen. Given the constant weather changes, Battuta was having a hard time deciding whether to travel to Africa or India. According to Dunn (2012), while this was a conflicting thought going through Battuta’s mind, there were some things about Aden that really surprised him. First, Aden was famous for being an international trading port. We read in the following text from Dunn (2012) on how Battuta illustrates the entire setting of Aden:
“Like ’Aydhab, Aden was an international transit center….....a continuous flow of low-bulk luxury goods moving predominantly westward: spices, aromatics, medicinal herbs, plants for dyeing and varnishing, iron, steel, brass and bronze containers, Indian silks and cottons, pearls, beads, ambergris, cowrie shells, shoes, Chinese porcelain, Yemeni stoneware, African ivory, tropical fruits, and timber (p.153).”
This passage in particular emphasizes how vast the import-exporting processes were at the time. The item attached in this section is an ivory carved panel, which was one of the items traded at this commercial site. Ivory carvings were mostly a luxury item but it tended to be used for domestic purposes and inlay work (Cutler, 1994). Some other things Battuta observes at this palace is the number of vessels at this trading point where most of these go to India. He does not end up going to India, instead, he takes a ship (with no particular description) to Africa.
Point of Interest 4- Mogadishu, Somalia
At one point Battuta reaches Mogadishu, Somalia, by crossing the Persian Gulf. He stops midway at a port shore called Zeila for one night and describes the terrible conditions of that little town for being very unclean and improper sanitation. What he notices along the way is that the ships that departed from Aden had carried a wide variety of exported products to other cities. What he saw in Mogadishu was also quite similar to Aden but the community was different. This community built here was based on this trading site, a bit of a contrast to Aden. it was busier and had more varieties in terms of people and goods, but with a local dominance. The hospitality service here was also quite different in comparison to the experiences in Taiz and Aden. According to Dunn (2012), the following quote gives a vivid picture of what Battuta observes.
“When Ibn Battuta’s ship anchored in Mogadishu harbour, boatloads of young men came out to meet it, each carrying a covered platter of food to present to one of the merchants on board. When the dish was offered, the merchant fell under an obligation to go with the man to his home and accept his services as broker. The Mogadishi then placed the visitor under his “protection,” sold his goods for him, collected payment, and helped him find a cargo for the outbound passage — all this at a healthy commission deducted from the profits (p.158).”
In this section, the item that is attached is a saucer tray which ideally represents the type of utensils that were used at the time. It seems here that while there was social class space developed in Taiz from what was observed, it was very different in Mogadishu. Visitors here were all treated equally more or less without any huge differences.
From Mogadishu, he then goes to Kilwa, and then furthermore to Qalhat, near the Arabian sea. Along his way, he met more people (sultans) and stayed at many places. Along the way, he gathered a lot of possessions like clothes and spears (Dunn, 2012). Near the end of the chapter, the author concludes that the following journey after reaching Qalhat was so complicated, it was hard to predict what routes Battuta took afterwards. However, one thing the author can confirm is that initially, Battuta did want to go to India from a specific route, but instead he returned back to Mecca.