Ibn Battuta was a Moroccan Islamic scholar and traveller. His travels lasted for a period of almost thirty years, covering nearly the whole of the known Islamic world and beyond, from Africa to Arabia to India to China and back home. His travel accounts, known as The Travels, have been translated into various languages. These memoirs provide an interesting insight on how the Islamic world looked like back in the 14th century, and although it is difficult to verify all the anecdotes that he mentioned, we can still see a more general picture of societies of that era.
Here, we are going to have a look at Ibn Battuta’s journeys through modern-day Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. The translations have been excerpted from Tim Mackintosh-Smith’s book The Travels of Ibn Battuta.
Ibn Battutah in Afghanistan
Kabul was in former times a great city, and on its site there is now a village inhabited by a tribe of Persians called al-Afghan. They hold mountains and defiles and have powerful forces at their disposal, and the majority of them are brigands. Their principal mountain is called Kuh Sulaiman. It is related that the Prophet of God Sulaiman (peace be upon him) climbed this mountain and looked out over the land of India, which was then covered with darkness, but returned without entering it, so the mountain was named after him. It is in this mountain that the king of al-Afghan resides.
Upon the road, there is a mountain called Hindukush, which means ‘the slayer of the Hindus’, because the slave boys and girls who are brought from the land of Hindus die there in large numbers as a result of the extreme cold. The passage of it extends for a whole day’s march. After crossing the mountain, we halted at a place called PanjShir (meaning five mountains). In former times, there was a fine and a populous city here on a great river of blue water, resembling a sea, which comes down from the mountains of Badakhshan.
Ibn Battuta in Pakistan (then Sindh and Punjab)
From the province of Sindh to the sultan’s capital, the city of Delhi, it is fifty days’ journey, but when the intelligence officers write to the sultan from Sindh, the letter reaches him in five days by the postal service. This service of couriers on foot has within the space of each mile three relays. At every third of a mile, there is an inhabited village, outside which there are three pavilions. In these, men sit girded up ready to move off, each of whom has a rod two cubits long with copper bells at the top. When a courier leaves the town, he takes the letter in the fingers of one hand and the rod with the bells in the other, and runs with all his might. The men in the pavilions, on hearing the sound of the bells, get ready to meet him. When he reaches, one of them takes the letter in his hand and passes on, running with all his might and shaking his rod, until he reaches the next relay, and so they continue until the letter reaches its destination.
One day, we came to a plain called Tarna, seven miles from Lehari, where I saw an innumerable quantity of stones resembling the shapes of men and animals. Many of them were disfigured and their forms effaced. Historians say that in this place there was a great city whose inhabitants were so given to depravity that they turned to stone. From there, I went to the city of Ujah (Uch), a large and well-built town which lies on the bank of the river of Sindh and has fine bazaars and good buildings. From Ujah, I travelled to Multan and spent two months there.
Ibn Battuta in India
When we set out our journey from Multan to Delhi (a forty days’ march), the first town we entered was Abohar. It is a small but pretty place with a large population, and with flowing streams and trees. There are many trees found in India none of which are to be found in our country, or anywhere else. One of them is the mango; it is a tree which resembles orange trees but is larger in size and more leafy. When the fruit is green and not yet fully ripe, people gather those of them that fall, put salt on them and pickle them as limes and lemons are pickled in our country. Indians also pickle green ginger and clusters of pepper, which they eat with meat dishes.
On my journey, I saw people hurrying out from our camp, and some of our party along with them. I asked them what was happening and they told me that one of the Hindu infidels had died, that a fire had been kindled to burn him. That is the practice they follow. Sometimes, the wife of the dead man would also burn with him. It is not compulsory. But when a widow burns herself, her family acquire a certain prestige by it and gain a reputation for fidelity. When such women made a compact to burn themselves, they spent three days preceding the event in concerts of music and singing and festivals of eating and drinking, as though they were bidding farewell to the world.
The city of Delhi is of vast extent and population, and made up of four neighbouring and contiguous towns. One of them is the city called by this name, Delhi. It is the old city built by the infidels and captured in the year 1188 AD. The second is called Siri. The third is called Tughlaq Abad, named after its founder. The fourth is called Jahan Panah. The wall which surrounds the city of Delhi is unparalleled. The wall contains stores for provision, which they call granaries, as well as stores for war equipment and for mangonels and stone-throwing machines. I have seen rice brought out of one of these stores. I have also seen millet taken out of them. It’s a great sight in the city. Now, I look forward to meet and serve Sultan Muhammad bin Tughlaq.
Reference books:
Kalampedia 