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Title: The Adventures of Ibn Battuta : A Muslim Traveller of the 14th Century by Ross E. Dunn ISBN: 0-520-06743-6 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: April, 1990 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $17.59 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.92 (12 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Effective Look At Islam's Science And Travel
Comment: Ibn Battuta may have been the single greatest traveler of premodern times. In this book, Dunn is able to not only illustrate the qualities of Battuta, but also the complex intricacies of the inertcommunicating zone of the Islamic empire. It also effectively highlites the threads and interwoven cultural changes that are superceded by the Islamic faith, which allowed a traveler such as Battuta to accomplish his great feats. This may be the most detailed and creatively displayed work in existence which describes the 13th century Islamic world, and is a synoptic introduction to the post-Crusade period.
Rating: 4
Summary: World-Class Traveler !
Comment: It is incredible to think that back in the 1300's one person could have traveled from Morocco through North and East Africa, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Turkey, the Crimea, India, Ceylon, Indonesia and China. I get tired just writing about it! But this is what Ibn Battuta did. When you think of how difficult (and dangerous!) it was to travel back in those days, it is just amazing. What makes this book especially fascinating is the look it provides into Muslim society. Here was a man who journeyed thousands of miles over many, many years but who only very rarely felt himself to be a stranger in a strange land. In some places Islam was in the majority and in some places it was the minority but Ibn Battuta was always able to find educated Moslems similar to himself who could provide a place to live, food to eat, clothes to wear and money to spend. Very importantly also, they could provide spiritual support to a person very far from home. This book is best when it settles down in one place for an extended period, such as when Ibn Battuta journeyed to Medina and Mecca. This is the most important trip a Moslem takes during an entire lifetime and it is expected, health and finances permitting, that a believer will make the trip at least once in a lifetime. Medina is where the tomb of The Prophet is and Mecca was His birthplace. Mr. Dunn provides a physical description of the landscape of both places so that you can almost feel you are there and he also gives a fascinating description of the logistics of the journey as this is a trip that thousands of people would take each year and a solid support system was needed to provide transportation and food and water, etc. The religious ceremonies that a person was required to go through once in the Holy Cities is also given in great detail. The book is also very good when Ibn Battuta settles down in India for awhile and gets a nice, cushy government job working for a despot who sounds as though he was probably psychotic! You could be in his favor one minute but apparently if you looked at him the wrong way he might decide on the spur of the moment to have you executed. He would also come up with grandiose ideas to rearrange the entire society which would usually wind up making everyone miserable, if not dead. Kind of sounds pretty familiar, doesn't it? I guess some things don't change over the centuries..... Anyway, the only drawback to this book is that Mr. Dunn is trying to cram a lot of travel into a 300 page book so that some of the time you feel as though you are being given the "bum's rush" on one of those modern package trips where they shuttle you through 14 cities in 14 days. After awhile some of the itinerary starts to become one, big blur. It makes you wish that Mr. Dunn would have decided to write a longer book where things could have proceeded at a more leisurely pace. But this book is a good starting point and it gave me a glimpse into a world I knew very little about but would like to learn more of.
Rating: 5
Summary: great snap shot of the muslim world in the 14th century
Comment: This book is a good snap shot of how the muslim world was in the 14th century. Ibn Battuta also represents the intellectual thought and how traditional islamic knowledge was taught back then. and excellent book!
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Title: The Muqaddimah by Ibn Khaldun, N. J. Dawood, Franz Rosenthal ISBN: 0691017549 Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr Pub. Date: 01 March, 1969 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: The Travels of Marco Polo by Marco Polo, Ronald Latham ISBN: 0140440577 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: September, 1958 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Life along the Silk Road by Susan Whitfield ISBN: 0520232143 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: 06 August, 2001 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Arab Seafaring by George F. Hourani ISBN: 0691000328 Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr Pub. Date: 03 July, 1995 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: When China Ruled the Seas: The Treasure Fleet of the Dragon Throne, 1405-1433 by Louise Levathes ISBN: 0195112075 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: January, 1997 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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