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Islam was the main religion in Damascus, Syria. Ibn Battuta described two mosques, the Cathedral Mosque, and the Mosque of Foot Prints, in detail and said they are “magnificent” and “the most beautiful mosque he has ever seen”. He also noted that in Damascus, they treat their poor well. Ibn Battuta wrote about how the community rushed to help a slave who dropped his plate and led him to the endowments of utensils. Instead of beating the slave, the endowments of utensils then replaced the dish he dropped with  a new dish that looked exactly the same . He also briefly mentioned that there were other religions in Syria, like Judaism and Christianity, but didn’t discuss in detail.

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The Saharan desert is located in Tangier, Tunis, and Tlmecan. It is the hottest desert in the world, in the summer. It has an average temperature of 30°C and goes as high as 50°C, which is equal to 86°F-102°F. The high temperature caused a lot of people to die of sun strokes in the Sahara desert.

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Mecca Saudi Arabia Background information

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Mecca Saudi Arabia Background information

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Muslims make their mandatory pilgrimage to see the sights and walk around the Kaaba 7 times. Mecca is also self proclaimed one of the holiest cities on Earth. Even though Ibn Battuta Stayed in other places for over a few months he only spent one month in Mecca, this is surprising because he left home specifically for Mecca and his pilgrimage.

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Before, travelers had to ride on horses, they would only be able to travel short distances. Now, because of the invention of camel saddles, camels were able to travel longer distances in the desert without drinking water and were able to carry heavier things. This new source of technology helped improve production and the speed of trading. The caravans, traveling in larger groups of camels, helped to protect travelers against criminals. Ibn Battuta would not be able to travel from Tangier to Mecca if it weren’t for traveling with a camel and for traveling with a caravan.

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Ibn Battuta visited Medina to pray between the tomb of the prophet and the noble pulpit. He touched the fragment that had remained of the palm trunk against which Muhammad stood when he had preached. Ibn Battuta stayed in Medina for four days in which he spent every night in the illustrious mosque. The people would form circles in the courtyard and light a large number of candles. They would recite the Koran from volumes set on rests in front of them. They would also intone litanies and visit the sanctuaries of the holy tomb.

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Islam was the majority religion in Mecca. The only religion that is allowed is Islam due to the fact that it is the sacred ground for Islam. This also means that everything in Mecca has to comply with Islam law. Back when Ibn Battuta was around the laws were a lot more relaxed then they are now meaning the females had a lot more power. Ibn Battuta prayed to Allah in the Dhu'l-Hulayfa mosque as part of his pilgrimage. Meccans wore white garments and the women sprayed perfume on themselves. Iban battuta also stated that they where always clean and made them selves as presentable as possible.

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Ibn Battuta describes Cairo Egypt as a diverse and metropolitan area due to the amount of different types of people and religions. For example in Cairo (at the time) Muslims, Christians, and Jews lived together in harmony. Even though Ibn Battuta doesn't mention it much due to him at that time still being on his pilgrimage to Mecca all of the other religions were living in pretty decent sums of people building their own Mosques, Synagogues, and churches.

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Since Mecca was a holy city, it was also the center of trade and had goods from all over the world. There was Ivory from the western parts of Africa, and pepper from the East, textiles made from Silk from China and coffee from Arabia. A lot of countries would go through the Trans Saharan Trail to Mecca just to trade with them. This was unique, since most countries didn’t have goods from all over the world.

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Ibn Battuta was born on June 14, 1325 in Tangier, which is a part of Morocco in Africa. As a Muslim, Ibn Battuta trekked on the Trans-Saharan trade route via camel to complete his pilgrimage to Mecca for the purpose of removing any sins in front of Allah. This is why his notes went on at length about the beautiful Mosques he saw in each place that he went. However, he only briefly mentions any other religions that are also popular in each place.

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Ibn Battuta was Muslim and therefore, viewed Muslims favorably. In Damascus, he talked about the cathedral mosque being “the most magnificent mosque in the world”. He briefly noted other religions, such as Judaism and Christianity. He described people of other religions as ugly, even though they could've been just as pretty. When reading his notes, it’s important for us to remember that he was Muslim and keep his religion in the back of our minds so we can understand how he favored Muslims.

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Ibn Battuta never actually visited Mali in West Africa. However, Mali was an important place to mention since it was rich in slaves, salt (helped preserve food) and gold and was a major trading hub. Mali also impacted other places along the Trans Saharan Trail and made them richer. For example, Mansa Musa, a wealthy Mali Emperor, is famous for having too much gold to count. When he went to Cairo on his pilgrimage to Mecca, hemet with the Sultan of Egypt in 1324 and gave away so much gold that the overall value of gold decreased in Egypt. This led to Cairo being rich in gold when Ibn Battuta went there.

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One short term effect of the Trans Saharan trail was diasporic communities, which are small communities made up of groups of people with a common culture. This introduced new cultures to other people who might not have heard of their culture before. This might have caused the  long-term effect of spreading the Islamic religion  throughout West Africa and the Middle East. Another long term effect was the increased wealth in Africa and the Middle East.

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Tangier Tunis Tlmecan (technology that impacted trade)

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Tangier Tunis Tlmecan (technology that impacted trade)

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Ibn Battuta traveled to Mecca with groups of camels, called a caravan. At Bijaya, Ibn Battuta got a fever. People now infer that he got sunstroke. He believed that his God saved his life and wanted him to keep traveling to Mecca to complete his pilgrimage. However, in reality, we know that traveling in a group of caravans saved his life.

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Pins key: purple
Contextualization: blue
Sourcing: red
Trade goods: green
Technology that impacted trade: orange
Cause and Effect: blue
Religion and empires: pink