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Ibn Battuta returned to Morocco in 1354. The sultan of Morocco wanted to listen to all of Ibns travels and hired someone to write them down for later entertainment. The writer put them down as a travel book considering they were popular at the time. 29 years of traveling were recorded. He explained how some people thought he was just a liar and he exaggerated his importance to others but some loved how his journey was based off of his want for more education and religious guidance. Some of The Rihla can be found in libraries, shortened and summarized.  had no more historical records following Rihla. Historians believe he died around 1368. He is partly famous there is a crater on the moon named after him, an airport named after him and, a matchmaking website for single Arabs. They also have a tomb dedicated to him.

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I landed in Tangier on the 1st of May and after dropping my backpack at the hostel, I went about to find the tomb of Ibn Battutah.

Of all the travellers I met during my travels in Morocco only two had heard the name Ibn Battutah, and neither of them knew who he was! It was a sad fact especially since each traveller I met knew very well who Marco Polo was.

Even more disappointingly neither of the three guys who worked at the hostel I stayed at in Tangier (Ibn Battutah's hometown) knew the way to Ibn Battutah's tomb, arguably the most important site in all of Tangier, even though it was hardly a 3-5 mins walk from the hostel..

Armed with a very primtive vocabulary of Arabic I set out to locate the tomb by asking around. Barely a few steps from the hostel door I ran into a bunch of young guys trying to sell me Hashish (after a few days in Tangier, I realised selling hashish was no big deal, in fact smoking it was very common and even socially acceptable in the cafes). Hamza who was standing with the group said he knew a good local eating place as well as the location of the tomb and said he could show me both, not realizing that everything in Morocco comes at a cost especially over eager locals and touts giving you directions.

Inevitably after a very long stroll circumambulating around the medina we reached the tomb. All the while I stayed inside the small approximately 8 * 12 feet mazaar (mausoleum) Hamza waited outside, even though I had thanked and bid farewell to him. Eventually he walked with me back to the hostel and I realised why we took the longest possible route to Ibn Battutahs tomb when he asked me for massive tip for showing me 'such a difficult to find way' and for hanging around all that time (uninvited)

After getting ripped off on the first day of my journey, I worked out a successful tout avoiding strategy for the rest of my trip - only ask the shop keepers for directions if you get lost in the winding, never ending streets of the medinas, they will guide but won't leave their stalls to come along and show you the way .

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Mazaar of Ibn Battutah - A Wandering Within

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I landed in Tangier on the 1st of May and after dropping my backpack at the hostel, I went about to find the tomb of Ibn Battutah. Of all the travellers I met during my travels in Morocco only two had heard the name Ibn Battutah, and neither of them knew who he was!

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Inside the walled city, life was frenetic and chaotic. The streets were likewise clogged with armies of peddlers and vendors. Thousands of stores and markets dotted the small lanes, which were bustling with people, camels, and donkeys. Ibn Battuta then goes on to detail the city's numerous mosques, colleges, hospitals, and convents, all of which provided shelter for the needy. They were constructed by amirs (military leaders) in a competition "with one another in charitable works and the founding of mosques and religious houses." [Gibb, vol. I, p. 54]. A maristan, or hospital, particularly impressed Ibn Battuta because of its beauty and service to the sick. Such hospitals show Islamic commitment to "charity," one of Islam's Five Pillars, and a pillar of the Islamic pillar of charity. "Cubicles for patients were ranged round two courts, and at the sides of another quadrangle were wards, lecture rooms, library, baths, dispensary, and every necessary appliance of those days of surgical science. There was even music to cheer the sufferers; while reader of the Koran afforded the consolations of the faith. Rich and poor were treated alike, without fees, and sixty orphans were supported and educated in the neighboring school." [Lane-Poole, Story of Cairo, quoted in Dunn, p. 50.]

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In around eight or nine months, Ibn Battuta completed the 2,000-mile trek across the Maghrib. He then decided to travel to Cairo, the largest city of the Arabic-speaking world and the world's largest city outside of China. Sometime in 1326, the caravan reached Alexandria at the western end of the Nile Delta. Ibn Battuta was blown away by Alexandria. Since 1260, Egypt's Mamluk armed elite have ruled Egypt and Syria as one undivided state. The Mamluks (Mamluk means "slave") succeeded their "masters" in ruling Egypt. They overcame the Mongols who had gained control of Baghdad and other sections of the Islamic Empire.

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When Ibn Battuta arrived in Tripoli, the woman was delivered to him. She was the daughter of a Tunisian pilgrim caravan administrator. Ibn Battuta, on the other hand, had a quarrel with his father-in-law and had to return the daughter. Not to be discouraged, he married the daughter of another pilgrim, a Fez scholar. He threw a wedding feast that lasted all day. Nothing  else is mentioned about his wives, who frequently appear in his story and then vanish. As historian Ross Dunn writes, "In the Islamic society of that age, a man's intimate family relations were regarded as no one's business but his own, and married Muslim women, at least in the Arabic-speaking lands, lived out their lives largely in seclusion." [Dunn, p. 39]

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The group next proceeded to Tunis, a city of about 100,000 people and a major center of art and learning. Wool, leather, skins, textiles, wax, olive oil, and grain were all shipped from North Africa through this port. Near this point in their journey Battuta says that he is now feeling homesick. Spending two months in Tunis he lives in a madrasa dormitory, meeting the judges and scholars in higher power. Finally, he departed Tunis with a larger caravan of pilgrims, and Ibn Battuta was even named qadi (Islamic judge and dispute settler) for the hajj caravan, which was quite an achievement for the young traveler. To defend them against the Arab insurgents, they were followed by government troops consisting of horses and archers.

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The next city they stopped at was Constantine. Here Battuta received gifts from the governor. These would be the first of many donations by devout Muslims carrying out their religious duty of charity to the destitute, orphans, captives, holy war combatants, and travelers. These presents were frequently substantial, making Ibn Battuta a wealthy man at times, even if he would finally lose everything. For fear of being attacked by Arab rebels, Ibn Battuta's group "went light with the utmost speed, pushing on night and day without pausing." Ibn Battuta was sick once more, so sick that he had to be tied to his saddle to avoid falling off.l

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He was born in Tangier Morocco into a family of Muslims in 1304. When he turned 21 he decided that he wanted to go see the world in seek of education and new experiences. He first traveled towards Egypt by himself on a donkey. He stopped in Tlemcen, a trading city. He chose to camp there for a while. In his time there he met multiple travelers who were like him. They joined him on his journey. Transportation including; walking, horses, mules, donkeys and, camels. Battuta always put his religion and law before him. Making sure his studies are related to what he believes in and his work for what he stands for. At the city walls of Bijiya, they camped waiting for more pioneers to catch up with them. From traveling through mountains, valleys, and rivers Batutta soon became sick but still kept moving.

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Ibn Battuta was born in Tangier, Morocco into a family of Muslim legal scholars in 1304. He studied Muslim law as a young man. Then in 1325, he left Tangier to make a pilgrimage to Mecca (in Islam this pilgrimage is called the "hajj.") He was 21 years old and eager for more learning and more adventure.