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example that comes to mind is... Hello

1:09

everyone, it's Takuyi here. And I'm Gabby. And welcome

1:11

back to the podcast, my hoes. Welcome back and

1:13

I gotta say here guys, it has been a

1:15

ton of fun going through all these varying stories.

1:17

Thank you to everyone who's been sending in a

1:20

bunch of different suggestions about things it is that

1:22

we should do. If you have any ideas of

1:24

podcast episodes that you want to hear, make sure

1:26

to go to our website and definitely contact us

1:28

and send us in ideas as I love hearing

1:30

all of them. Also, if you all

1:32

want to have some fun with us, if you want to

1:34

go and actually explore places in Europe and around the world

1:37

with us, we are going to be leading a trip to

1:39

both Peru, which is going to be in July, and also

1:41

Germany, we still have some spots available. In

1:44

fact, there's still a couple early bird spots that are

1:46

left for the German trip. So if you go and

1:48

click the link down in the description, make sure that

1:50

you try and get in on that as soon as

1:52

you can, because that is $200 off that

1:55

you can get on the trip, and you only have to

1:57

pay 25% upfront. Past that

1:59

you can have a payment plan option

2:01

and it makes things significantly easier for all

2:03

of you. Now

2:05

that all being said, the previous episode that we

2:07

did is that we went into a little bit

2:09

of Holy Roman and papal history, which I figured

2:12

that since we did that, we have covered a

2:14

lot of stuff that is European

2:16

history and that's not like,

2:18

it's not like something that was done intentionally.

2:20

Though Gabby, you have definitely said that we have

2:22

done a lot of European history recently. I

2:24

feel like it was a lot of history that everybody knows,

2:27

you know? At least to a degree. But

2:29

then again, I always end up running into the trap

2:31

of thinking, oh yeah, no, everyone knows this. And then

2:33

we keep on getting messages of like, why didn't you

2:35

explain this more? I didn't know anything about this. So

2:38

it just ends up falling into that same kind of trap. And

2:40

it just turns out that this is what people had been requesting

2:42

at the time. But I

2:45

did see something that would be incredibly fun. And I said

2:47

at the end of the previous episode that we were going

2:49

to be going into the story of Eden Batuta, which

2:52

I'm probably going to mispronounce a lot of names in here, but

2:54

I'm going to try my absolute best to work with this because

2:56

there is going to be a lot of varying

2:59

Arabic. And when I say Arabic, I

3:01

just mean Muslim names. And it's going

3:03

to primarily be from the lens of

3:05

Arabic writers. So there are many, many,

3:07

many more. How familiar

3:10

are you with Eden Batuta, Gabby? Not

3:12

at all. Then that is pretty

3:14

much every one that in the

3:16

Western world, when we go and study a lot

3:19

of different explorers in history, usually you're thinking Europeans,

3:21

right? Like when you think of the age of

3:23

exploration, you're thinking of Europeans in the 15th and

3:25

16th century, like Christopher Columbus

3:27

and others. Or the ocean blue. Literally

3:29

that, out to discover the new world.

3:31

Or in the case of earlier ones,

3:33

you think of like Marco Polo. And

3:36

Marco Polo was not just a pool

3:38

game for anyone who is curious. No,

3:40

we're talking about the Venetian explorer that

3:42

was known for the book, The Travels

3:44

of Marco Polo, which describes his voyage

3:46

and experiences in Asia. Polo

3:49

would travel extensively with his family, journeying from Europe

3:51

to Asia over the course of 1271-1295, and he

3:53

would actually be in China for 17 of those

3:55

years. In

4:00

1292, he left China and went

4:03

back along the way. He

4:05

went back to Europe. When he did so, he even had

4:08

adventures where he went and escorted a Mongolian princess who was

4:10

supposed to be sent to Persia. It

4:12

is fascinating. I know he deserves

4:14

his own story, but we're going

4:16

to get right back into that whole European thing again. So

4:18

we're going to talk about that at a later time. Either

4:22

way, the reason why I

4:24

bring that up is that there is

4:26

an individual in history who arguably traveled

4:28

the most that we have on record

4:31

of anyone in the, I'm not going

4:33

to say ancient world. That's not the

4:35

right terminology here. This

4:37

is a person who traveled,

4:40

God, I don't even know what was the distance in here, something

4:42

like 75,000 miles. Mr.

4:46

Rollwhite. Literally, he was Mr.

4:48

Rollwhite before he did this. Before

4:50

Pitbull. Before Pitbull was everything. This

4:52

is Ibn Battuta, the greatest medieval

4:54

Muslim traveler in history and the

4:57

author of one of the most

4:59

famous travel books, the Rilla, which

5:01

is just like the travels. Now

5:04

the actual book title that we're talking about here

5:06

is A Gift to Those Who

5:08

Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the

5:10

Marvels of Traveling, which is a way

5:12

longer title in the first place, but

5:15

also weirdly enough, Battuta, unlike

5:17

Polo, did not actually

5:19

keep any journal whatsoever

5:21

of his travels. Like this guy traveled for

5:24

25, 30 years and

5:26

he never kept a journal

5:29

from which to translate his

5:31

thoughts later into an

5:33

actual book. He

5:35

literally went back home and then composed

5:37

his Rilla from memory and this was

5:40

then written down and embellished upon by

5:42

another Islamic scholar, Juzay al-Khalbi, and this

5:44

would occur between the year 1352 to

5:47

1355. So

5:50

everything that we're going to hear

5:52

here at this point, just note,

5:54

some things need to be taken with a grain

5:56

of salt as this is literally from the memory

5:59

of a person. who

6:01

is doing so 30 years later

6:04

and on top of that is being embellished

6:06

upon by another person. Things could

6:08

be wrong due to mistranslation, it could also be

6:10

wrong due to not remembering something, there's just going

6:12

to be a lot of stuff that is going

6:14

to be happening. But either way still,

6:17

the great work that we're talking about is

6:19

something that covers huge to

6:21

the extent of travels. Something over the course

6:23

of like 75,000 miles or for those who

6:26

use the metric system, 120,000 kilometers. We're

6:30

talking about a trip that was

6:32

going to go through almost every

6:34

single Muslim country, though I

6:37

guess country is the wrong word to

6:39

use here in this regard, but Muslim

6:41

land going all the way into China

6:43

and even Sumatra, which is now part

6:45

of modern day Indonesia. He

6:48

was going to see things that very

6:50

few people ever in history

6:52

got to see, even

6:54

fewer got to see multiple of these things.

6:57

And he is one of the very, very,

6:59

very few sources that we have of some

7:01

of these places to actually be able to

7:03

understand what they were like. Question,

7:05

was he super rich? No,

7:08

actually, interestingly enough, he did come from a

7:10

wealthy ish or at least influential family, but

7:12

simultaneously he had to earn his living as

7:14

he was traveling. And I'm going to explain

7:16

that here in a second. So

7:19

even but it was born in the non-European

7:21

quarter of Tangier, Morocco on the 25th of

7:23

February 1304 and his full name. Get

7:28

ready for this. All right. As

7:30

it is given in the Rilla was

7:32

shams, I'll Din Abu Abdallah Muhammad even

7:35

Abdallah even Muhammad even even him even

7:37

Muhammad even use of alla what he

7:39

has done even but the two. I

7:43

love it. Yeah, dear Lord, that is love it.

7:46

Imagine filling in you like, you know, when you take

7:48

the essay to your the ACT and you have to

7:50

do the bubbles for your name. Oh my God, a

7:52

super long name. So I would be like

7:54

sweating. Imagine doing

7:56

that with that name. Yeah, exactly. Now

7:58

for anyone who is not a. aware of

8:00

this in Arabic, Ibn in his name means

8:02

son of in Arabic. So even within his

8:05

lineage, there were quite a lot of Muhammad's

8:07

in his lineage, which to be fair, that

8:09

is quite literally something that is the most

8:11

common name in the world. So

8:13

we are going to see a lot of that. So

8:16

all we know of his family specifically

8:18

comes from the Rilla, which records references

8:20

to his education and also his lineage.

8:22

That's it. That's all that

8:24

we have from this. What we know of him

8:26

is that he seems to have gone by the

8:28

name Shams al-Din, but we're just going

8:30

to call him Batuta, since that's what most

8:33

people know him as is Ibn Batuta. He

8:36

came from a very educated background,

8:38

a family of Qadis, which is

8:40

like Islamic judges, and he

8:42

was extremely dedicated and devoted to Islam, which

8:44

he studied extensively over the course of his

8:46

entire life. And before

8:49

we explain that and get into the

8:51

story, you were asking if

8:53

he came from a wealthy or a

8:55

judge as wealthy. I mean, if they took bribes, I'm sure

8:57

they could be. Oh, okay. Yeah, fair.

8:59

Yes, yes. But this is a

9:01

crucial detail that I think needs

9:03

to be explained because many people

9:05

listening won't understand the details of varying

9:08

different religions. Like most people who are listening

9:10

to this probably know more about Christianity than

9:12

they do from Islam. And so what I'm

9:14

going to be explaining here directly comes from

9:17

the Encyclopedia Britannica for anyone wondering. But

9:19

what a Qadi is, is a

9:21

Muslim judge who renders decisions according

9:23

to Sharia law, like Islamic law.

9:26

The Qadi's jurisdiction theoretically includes civil

9:28

as well as criminal matters, but

9:31

in most cases, it is primarily

9:33

a civil thing, especially in relation

9:35

to advice and marriage and these

9:38

kinds of things. In

9:40

modern states, like if you look at

9:42

it nowadays, these are things that still

9:45

exist, but the Qadis that exist now

9:47

generally only hear cases that are related

9:49

to your personal issues and religious customs,

9:51

like those involving inheritance, marriage and divorce,

9:54

stuff like that. But

9:56

originally, the Qadi's work was

9:58

restricted to non-administrative tasks like

10:00

arbitrating disputes, rendering judgments and

10:02

matters that were brought before

10:04

him and eventually they would

10:06

go on to assume a

10:08

lot of important managerial roles

10:10

within communities. Things like

10:12

literally being the guardians of the

10:14

property for anyone who's orphaned. Like

10:17

if you had a bunch of soldiers who went out and

10:19

then they got killed, you know, and there's orphans that are

10:21

left behind, the property would be overseen by the judges to

10:24

make sure that they don't get taken advantage of and abused.

10:27

Also this applies to people who had

10:29

cognitive disabilities or just really in general

10:31

others that were not capable of actually

10:33

overseeing their own affairs and interests. He

10:36

even had control of marriages for

10:38

women who did not have any

10:41

parents. Like let's say that they didn't

10:43

have a father or an uncle or an older brother

10:45

or someone that was supposed to be managing

10:47

their marriage, right?

10:51

In that scenario... What does it

10:53

mean managing them, like managing

10:55

them getting married or managing them

10:57

being married? Both. Explain.

11:01

Well, specifically in this case is like if

11:03

you had a person who, let's

11:05

say that they had no male relatives, then

11:07

that means that in their marriage, it would

11:09

be the caddy that would be the person

11:11

that would be there to kind of protect

11:13

them, to oversee them. And

11:15

in the case of like

11:17

a person who is getting married, the

11:20

way that that would be organized to control, there's

11:22

a variety of different ways this could happen. And

11:24

I'm not going to speak for literally all societies,

11:26

but generally a caddy would be able to oversee

11:28

and influence how like if a marriage

11:30

was even going to go forth, because it would

11:32

be almost like being a guardian for

11:34

an orphan. That

11:36

sort of thing. Makes sense. Even

11:39

though there are cases of women

11:41

having more or certain

11:43

rights within Islamic societies, there

11:45

are many other cases where they do not and

11:47

are specifically they have a guardian that actually has

11:50

to control things. It really varies

11:52

depending upon the time, place and area

11:54

and the specific culture that is involved.

11:57

But that's what we're referring to here. Theoretically

11:59

though. The. Cardio Decision.

12:02

Was final. The all maps.

12:05

Ellie theoretically which is something that

12:07

with the in these communities gave

12:09

them very powerful roles in Muslim

12:11

societies. And because the Kati

12:13

performed in the central function in or the

12:16

Muslim society, the requirement to actually be one

12:18

of those was something that was very carefully

12:20

controlled and stipulated. You. Had to be

12:22

a adult Muslim Mail. Of good character

12:24

so no one who was corrupt though obviously

12:26

things could happen. They. Had to possess

12:29

sounds knowledge of Sharia law and was

12:31

a free man. You. Could not have

12:33

a slave that would grow to become

12:35

a. Gaudy. That couldn't happen. In

12:38

the Seventh and eighth centuries, the Totti were

12:40

expected to be capable of delivering or deriving

12:42

the specific rule of law firm their sources

12:44

and a cron. They had to know that

12:46

beat the traditions of the prophet, They had

12:48

to know the injure the consensus the community

12:50

They had no all these veering details. And.

12:53

Although this was the ideal of what

12:55

was supposed to happen, in practice, Muslim

12:57

states began to appoint parties on the

12:59

condition that the issue judgments according to

13:01

a very specific school of Islamic law,

13:04

because with time Islam would splinter into

13:06

varying different. Sorts.

13:08

Of Law for how it was supposed to. Work

13:11

and this was done specifically to guarantee ruler

13:13

ship control of the region and also to

13:15

guarantee that it was actually predictable Me knew

13:17

what was going to happen. Anyway,

13:20

The reason why I'm explaining of is the reason why

13:22

I'm having to establish with a hobby is is that.

13:25

This is what. What to

13:27

tell was. He was a copy.

13:29

He was very well educated. And.

13:32

Oh my God did he know this well and

13:34

he utters to Islam. According.

13:37

To the records, he memorized the

13:39

koran and as he reports, would

13:41

sometimes go and recited in it's

13:43

entirety. Twice. A day. For

13:46

like during his travels. Along and sicker.

13:48

Ah yes. Pretty extensive. I don't

13:50

know the actual page count of but it would

13:52

be, but you're talking about reciting something that is

13:54

essentially. The. Bible? Yeah, other. You

13:56

can recite the bible twice in one

13:58

day. Know and it's not as long as the

14:00

bible. I get it's not. But. Still,

14:03

That is reciting an entire

14:05

book. Twice per day.

14:07

And. That's just what he would do because he knew

14:10

it by heart or early. In

14:12

June Of Thirteen, Twenty five, This

14:15

is when he decided as a young man I

14:17

think he was twenty one years old at this

14:19

point. He decides that it

14:21

is time that he goes on his

14:23

first pilgrimage to Mecca and there he

14:25

would write quote I set out alone

14:27

having neither fellow traveler interest companionship I

14:29

might find here nor caravan was part

14:32

I might join. With. Swayed by

14:34

an over mastering impulse within me and

14:36

desire long cherished to my bosom to

14:38

visit the the lustrous sanctuaries. So.

14:40

I brief my resolution to quit my

14:42

dear one female and male and forced

14:44

took my home as birds forsake their

14:46

nests. My. Parents, being yet in the

14:48

bonds of life it weighed solely upon me, depart

14:51

from them. And both day and I

14:53

were afflicted with sorrow with the sense that the

14:55

separation. Some. Of us

14:57

love history others use to or never

14:59

did because history was presented as nothing

15:01

but the rote memorization of names, dates

15:03

and facts. Basically.

15:05

The story to the left out in that

15:08

made history kind of soft. My.

15:10

Name is Greg Jackson. I'm a

15:12

university professor with a Phd in history.

15:14

In bringing history to life is my

15:16

passion. That's. Why I created

15:18

my podcast history That Doesn't Sauce. I

15:21

want to teach you everything you need. You know about

15:23

us history but I do so through stories. Let

15:26

me tell you that George Washington

15:28

begging may not even pumps clear

15:30

bird seed in Union soldiers in

15:32

in in fire and sleep Frederick

15:34

Douglas risking his life, liberty and

15:36

about so many other cities as

15:38

the real experiences me to do

15:40

Susie's and social movement is congressional

15:42

to be hacked pop on the

15:44

way to describe the his that

15:46

Doesn't Saturday ensuing mean Professor Greg

15:48

Jackson every other week for a

15:50

new episode or I'd like to

15:52

tell you the story. Did

15:57

archaeologists discovered Noah's Ark? Is.

16:00

The Rapture Coming as soon as the

16:02

Euphrates River dries up to the Bible?

16:04

Condemn Abortion. Don't you wish you had

16:06

a trustworthy academic resource to help make

16:08

sense of all of this. I'm

16:12

Dan Feature and sees award winning bible

16:14

scholar and Six Sox sensation Doctor Damn

16:16

Mccloughan and we want to invite you

16:18

to the Data Over Dogma podcast where

16:21

our mission is to increase public access

16:23

to the academic study of the bible

16:25

and religion and also to combat the

16:27

spread of misinformation about the same. Thing

16:30

you know in a fun way. Every

16:33

week we tackle fascinating topics. we go

16:35

back to source materials in their regional

16:37

languages, and we interviewed top scholars in

16:39

the field. So whether you're a devout

16:42

believer for you're just interested in a

16:44

clear eyed, deeply informed look at one

16:46

of the most influential books of all

16:48

time. We think you're going to love

16:50

the Data over Dogma podcast wherever you

16:52

subscribe to awesome shows. This

16:57

was going to beat the hawks

16:59

which for people not familiar with

17:01

islam that is the sacred pilgrimage

17:03

in which you actually go to

17:05

the whole these sites. In.

17:07

Mecca. This. Is where you go

17:10

to the at Aqaba. This is where.

17:12

Did. This is easily be holiest site

17:15

in all of his last. Financially.

17:18

He said himself only up to specifically

17:20

accomplish the pilgrimage. He didn't really have

17:23

any kind of thought about going further

17:25

than Mecca. There was no plan to

17:27

become mister worldwide. As you said, gabby,

17:30

That wasn't supposed to happen. And

17:32

from there he would travel across North

17:35

Africa to Tunis, whereupon entering the city.

17:37

He would record how he felt

17:40

incredibly lonely and homesick. As.

17:42

He would say pounds Hope would come forward

17:44

on all sides and greet in question one

17:46

another, but not a soul said a word

17:48

to be greeting to me since there was

17:50

none of them that I knew. i

17:52

felt so sad at hard on account of my

17:55

loneliness that i could not restrained the tears that

17:57

started to or that started to my eyes and

17:59

wept federal And I mean,

18:01

come on, look, back

18:03

in the day, travel was not easy.

18:05

You and I travel a lot. Like we do

18:07

this a lot. And even then, we still

18:10

can kind of get homesick and tired of it

18:12

from being away for a time. I think it

18:15

only happens when you're in like a town

18:17

or city where it's just not,

18:20

you're not vibing with it. Yeah, that's true.

18:22

And then you're like, ooh, time to go. And you got

18:24

to think about this though, back in the day, it

18:26

would have been way harder for people. It would have

18:28

been much harder, longer, and way more scary of a

18:30

journey. Literally anyone in this scenario

18:32

would feel a little bit homesick, you know? But

18:35

when he did this, he was being consoled

18:37

by a fellow pilgrim who introduced him to

18:39

other educated men. And with this

18:42

help, he was able to find lodging at the

18:44

College of Booksellers. From there,

18:46

he would leave Tunis for Alexandria, Egypt, and

18:48

the company of a caravan for protection on

18:50

the road, which is a strategy that he

18:52

would very often employ, oftentimes employ throughout his

18:54

travels. Back in the day, you

18:56

didn't really want to be traveling alone. It

18:59

was very risky from, you know, bandits, disease,

19:01

literally anything could happen. And

19:03

in Alexandria, he would meet a very

19:06

devout mystic by the name of Baham

19:08

al-Din, who, according to a story, would

19:10

prophesize that he would visit Sindh, which

19:12

is in Pakistan, he would visit India

19:15

and China. And there he would enjoy

19:17

the hospitality of al-Din's three brothers who

19:19

lived in those regions. So

19:21

kind of a bit of prediction or foreshadowing to

19:24

come. Do we know that that

19:26

actually happens? No, but that is the story that

19:28

he would say. Later

19:30

on, while he was in Alexandria, while

19:32

staying with the Sheik al-Mashidi, even Matuta

19:34

would have a dream, apparently, in which

19:36

he was carried by a great bird

19:38

to Mecca, but then beyond to lands

19:40

that he never thought to see. The

19:43

Sheik would go and interpret his dream for him

19:46

as being a sign that he would reach Mecca,

19:48

but his travels were going to take him

19:50

way further than that. And

19:53

these experiences that he would have in

19:55

Alexandria would cause him to re-think his

19:57

original plan. Was he really going to just

19:59

return to Mecca? turn home after the pilgrimage? No,

20:02

instead he was thinking what would

20:05

happen if he would travel, not

20:07

for the sake of going to any particular place,

20:09

but just literally travel for the sake of traveling.

20:12

The journey over the destination was gonna be the thing

20:14

that was going to be more important. You

20:17

know, it's kinda like one of the things that we do. You

20:19

know how like when we're planning to actually go to a place,

20:21

we're like, hey, do we want to make a plan of every

20:23

single site that we're gonna be going to? No,

20:27

we're just gonna frickin' go. We

20:29

just go for it. We just literally go for it and see

20:31

what it is that we find, and we ultimately end up having

20:33

a lot more fun, I think, because then we don't have to

20:35

stress about going to each and every

20:37

single thing and hitting every single target, you know?

20:41

Well, either way, from Alexandria,

20:43

he would go to Cairo, and

20:45

from there he would move through Palestine and

20:47

Syria towards Mecca, and when he

20:49

would travel through Palestine, he would write,

20:51

quote, I visited Bethlehem, the birthplace of

20:53

Jesus. The site is covered by

20:55

a large building, and the Christians regard it with

20:58

intense veneration and hospitably entertain

21:00

all who alight at it, and

21:03

upon reaching Jerusalem, he would marvel at the

21:05

Alaska Mosque, writing that the sacred mosque is

21:07

the most beautiful building, and it is said

21:09

to be the largest mosque in the world.

21:12

In Damascus, he would say that it was

21:15

the city which surpasses all other cities in

21:17

beauty, as he would write that he would

21:19

record the generosity of the government and the

21:21

upper classes in providing endowments to those that

21:24

were less fortunate and for developing varying parts

21:26

of the city. This

21:28

was going to be something that he

21:30

would marvel at, just the differences in

21:32

all the varying peoples around the world,

21:34

and he, in particular, loved the beautiful

21:37

old cities of Islam. He had the

21:39

most to say when describing things like

21:41

this. And the

21:43

Hajj caravan that he had joined,

21:45

that he would be a part of, that

21:47

it was steadily moving towards Mecca, with time

21:50

it would grow and grow and grow. This

21:53

is something that as people would move towards

21:55

it, you would naturally want to gravitate towards

21:57

a caravan like this. And

21:59

this... This would be all for safety, for your

22:01

own kind of security. And

22:03

the one that he was a part

22:06

of was likely composed of several thousand

22:08

people. That

22:10

is really extensive, especially considering back in the

22:12

day. And

22:15

every person that participates in a

22:17

caravan like this, they're responsible for

22:19

themselves. They need to make sure

22:21

that if they are going to be riding an animal, that

22:23

that is their own, that they have secured that. They need

22:25

to have their own supplies. They need to have money to

22:27

pay for all the very different expenses that are going to

22:29

come up. But because Ibn

22:31

Battuta was still young and

22:34

poor and an unemployed pilgrim,

22:37

he couldn't really do much. And

22:39

so he took whatever support, whatever charity, anything

22:42

that he could get and he would take

22:44

it. For his words, he

22:46

managed to make friends with a law professor

22:48

who would quote, hire camels for me and

22:50

gave me traveling provisions and money in addition

22:53

saying to me that it will come in

22:55

useful for anything of importance that you may

22:57

need or you may need of, may God

23:00

reward. And from there, he

23:03

was actually able to begin his hodge.

23:06

I want to go on a journey with a camel.

23:09

Maybe like a short one. It wasn't mean though.

23:11

I like 10 miles. Can a camel? Yeah, I'm sure

23:13

they can do a light 10 miles. Yeah,

23:15

they definitely can. Camels

23:17

are creatures of endurance rather than speed.

23:20

They can go on and walk much

23:22

greater distances than horses can. Are

23:24

elephants the ones where they get back

23:26

problems from being ridden? They do. Yes.

23:30

Elephant spines were not designed in order to be able

23:32

to accommodate saddles and things like that. So

23:35

they also, this has been a PSA

23:37

to anyone who I see on an elephant.

23:40

Don't do that. I mean, they're nice. Don't

23:43

do that. Like it's one of those

23:45

things where the, you would see these constructions

23:47

of like war platforms that would go on

23:49

their back and those, the only reason the

23:51

elephants are able to actually sustain those during

23:53

times of war is because they were designed

23:55

in such a way to redistribute the weight

23:58

as much as possible. there

24:00

are these scenarios of, and this is gonna

24:02

sound bad when I say this, American

24:05

tourists and others

24:08

that would go to places like in Thailand

24:10

and others where you can go and ride

24:12

elephants, and the

24:14

tourists of these were much

24:17

larger, we should say, than the average

24:20

person. The

24:22

reality of it is that when you

24:24

put a person that weighs two and

24:26

a half to three times as much

24:28

as the average person on

24:30

the back of an elephant, this is

24:32

something that can actually hurt them. Also

24:35

when you see like three people on one, you're like, why?

24:37

Yeah, that is not something that you should be doing. No,

24:40

absolutely not. But at least

24:42

in this scenario with the camels, even

24:45

Matutto was able to actually begin his hodge, so it was something

24:47

that was helpful for him. And

24:49

when this would happen, there wasn't going to

24:51

be any kind of serious incidents. Nothing would

24:53

happen. The caravan would end up

24:55

arriving at Medina, which is the city of

24:57

the Apostle of God from this. This would

24:59

be the place where like Muhammad and a

25:01

small group of followers had retreated from Mecca

25:03

when it had been hostile to him. And

25:06

his flight to Medina, which is the

25:08

the Hirdra, this would mark the beginning

25:10

of the Muslim calendar. When the Prophet

25:13

had died back in 632, his grave

25:15

in Medina became the site of pilgrimage

25:17

that is the second holiest site in

25:19

Islam. It is second only to the

25:21

Kaaba itself in Mecca. So it's

25:23

extremely important, which is why they talk

25:26

about in Islam, the twin cities of

25:28

Mecca and Medina. So

25:30

then traveling for several more days

25:32

and visiting more holy sites, they

25:34

finally came close to Mecca. And

25:37

when he arrives there, he performs the

25:39

rituals that are necessary for every Muslim to

25:41

do dressed in the simple white ear and

25:44

cloth that he had worn since he left

25:46

Medina. And first he went to

25:48

the Kaaba, the holy shrines are shaped

25:50

like a giant cube. And there he

25:52

would describe the standing at Arfat, which

25:54

is an essential part of the Hach.

25:57

What would happen during this event is that on the

25:59

ninth day the month of the Hajj,

26:01

pilgrims would go to the plain called the

26:03

Arafat which was 12 miles east

26:05

of Mecca, and there they would stand

26:07

before the Mount of Mercy where Adam in

26:09

Islam had prayed and where Muhammad gave his

26:12

farewell sermon in 632, and there they would

26:14

recite prayers,

26:16

listen to sermons until sunset, and then

26:18

on the 10th morning there is supposed

26:20

to be a feast, and the pilgrims

26:22

will pick up a handful of pebbles

26:24

and cast seven of them at the

26:26

western pillar of Mina, just as Abraham

26:28

threw stones at the devil to suggest

26:30

that Abraham didn't need to sacrifice his

26:32

son as God had commanded. Because

26:35

there's variance to the story depending upon

26:37

whether you're looking at it from Judaism,

26:39

Christianity, or Islam, and that is

26:42

the story that goes within Islam. Even

26:45

Battuta would stay in Mecca for three weeks,

26:48

and there he would make visits to other

26:50

sites he would meet with holy men, and

26:52

he would study with them. It's

26:54

at this point that even

26:56

Battuta had actually graduated from

26:58

his initial goal. He had achieved

27:01

the status of Al-Hajj, as in

27:03

one who had been on the

27:05

Hajj, which was a very important

27:07

status for a Muslim scholar. It's

27:10

really an important status for any Muslim,

27:12

but especially important to a Qadi. That

27:14

was a huge mark of what's

27:17

the right word? Paidi? I

27:19

think that would be the right word that I

27:22

would use here. It was something that was hugely

27:24

important to status and conviction. The

27:27

thing is, do you have any idea how long it took

27:29

for him to reach this point, Gabby? A

27:32

few years. Actually, close. It

27:35

took him a year and a half to reach his destination.

27:37

See, I was guessing a couple, but I was like, ooh, I

27:39

need to leave it more vague. No, see,

27:42

literally, that is, it takes a long

27:44

time to be able to do any

27:46

of this. And he started from Morocco,

27:48

meaning he had walked all the way

27:50

across North Africa, going all the way

27:52

down from Egypt, down into Arabia, just

27:55

to get to this point. And

27:58

he would actually go and make three of them. other

28:00

trips to Mecca in his lifetime. But

28:03

that wasn't going to happen yet. Rather

28:06

than return home, he thought about all the

28:08

things that he had done, all the things

28:10

that he wanted to do, and instead of

28:12

simply getting a permanent job, no, he could

28:15

instead travel. He could continue

28:17

to find work as a scholar or

28:19

a judge, something that everyone in the

28:21

Islamic world needed at random points and

28:23

was always welcome whenever they would show

28:25

up. His homesickness was

28:27

gone, but Tutu had

28:29

decided that he was going to see the

28:32

world. So

28:34

it was then that on November 17th, 1326,

28:36

Ibn Battuta would leave Mecca and from there

28:39

join a caravan of pilgrims in an official

28:41

caravan of the Persian state. There

28:43

he was treated to a half of a

28:45

double camel litter by a rich official who

28:47

was quite impressed with Ibn Battuta's learning and

28:50

also friendly personality. This was something

28:52

that was going to become very common for

28:54

him throughout his travels, that he always seemed

28:56

to know how to ingratiate himself into the

28:58

upper echelons of society and make friends with

29:00

people, something that would be very important to

29:03

guaranteeing him safe passage and also for supplying

29:05

him with any kind of goods, food, and

29:07

anything else that he needed. They

29:09

marched at night by torchlight so that,

29:12

quote, you saw the countryside gleaming with

29:14

light and darkness turn into a radiant

29:16

day. There was that many people with

29:18

torches. The

29:21

wife of the caliph had paid for the construction

29:23

of a chain of different watering tanks and wells

29:25

along the trail in order to keep the caravan

29:27

safe, and the entire journey from

29:29

Mecca to Mesopotamia took approximately 44 days,

29:34

which is a long time, but

29:36

that was short in comparison to what the

29:38

initial Hajj had taken. In

29:40

Al-Najaf, Ibn Battuta would visit a holy

29:42

site that was important to all Muslims,

29:44

but especially important to the Shia communities

29:46

that lived there, because in

29:48

Al-Najaf was the mausoleum of

29:50

Ali, who was the fourth

29:52

caliph and successor to Muhammad.

29:55

This was Muhammad's nephew and son-in-law,

29:57

and it was here that even

29:59

Battuta would meet Sufi Muslims for

30:01

the first time, people who would

30:04

try to find God through experiences,

30:06

things like twirling around in a

30:08

trance, using music, poetry, all kinds

30:10

of stuff in order to communicate

30:12

with God. When you say

30:14

twirling around, like, spinning until you're

30:16

dizzy. Have you heard of the term Whirling Dervish?

30:19

No. Okay, so this is an old

30:21

term and in many cases it has a kind of

30:23

a racial connotation to it

30:25

here. It's something that

30:28

was used as a insult even back

30:30

in the day, but the initial terminology

30:32

for what it would be referring to

30:34

for like Sufi Whirling Dervishes is specifically

30:36

they would dance with

30:38

lots of spinning. Imagine

30:41

it like what our daughter does, what Joya does, where she

30:43

just continuously spins and spins and spins and spins and

30:45

spins and she does it until she gets super dizzy and

30:47

falls over laughing. This

30:49

is pretty much what they did,

30:51

along with many, many, many other things because

30:54

the senses that they tried

30:56

to impart upon their body was

30:58

to give them almost out of body

31:00

experience without actually having, you know, substance

31:02

abuse or anything like that. Okay.

31:06

So spinning, doing these

31:08

actions, imagine it like a

31:10

much more lively variant of some of those

31:12

churches that you would see in the United

31:14

States where they would be taken over by

31:16

the Holy Ghost if you've seen anything like

31:18

that, like the videos of it. Yes,

31:21

I have. Okay. So we have

31:23

something called a Shoutr Baptist, not sure if

31:25

we have that in the US. I just

31:27

know that's what they're called back home and

31:29

they would do these TV shows where they

31:31

would do that. It

31:34

was always interesting to watch the live

31:36

streams of the sermons. Oh,

31:38

I bet. I bet. And the

31:40

thing about this, and I have to specify this because when

31:42

I mentioned Sufi Muslims, it

31:45

would be a disservice for me not to mention that

31:47

this is one of the variants

31:50

of Islam that has been continuously

31:52

discriminated against in many parts of

31:54

history. Like when

31:56

hardline Islamic extremist factions would come

31:58

into power. Sufi Islamists

32:00

in general are seen as heretics by

32:03

many of these and have a tendency

32:05

to be eradicated why

32:08

because they're seen as something that is

32:10

a How do

32:12

I even explain this? That it's

32:14

it's seen as a kind of heresy

32:16

for some hard-line Muslims. Okay, so

32:19

they're seen as not being

32:22

real Muslims What yeah,

32:25

is it like how in sometimes in Christianity

32:27

people look at other Christians and they're like you're

32:29

not a real Christian sort of yes And

32:31

you know how there's that whole thing with the

32:34

Jesuits and what they would do to convert natives

32:36

for like ingratiating some of the natives beliefs into

32:38

Christianity and in order to try to make the

32:40

transition easier Yes Sufi Muslims

32:42

would oftentimes be in areas that

32:45

were more multicultural and They

32:48

tended to do the same kind of thing

32:50

of taking upon some local customs and other

32:52

thing and integrating it into their practices That

32:54

was off. That was something that made them be

32:56

viewed by more problematic

33:00

Islam sex as being heresy

33:04

So they had the tendency to be strongly discriminated

33:06

against but when he witnessed this this was something

33:08

that he was meant He was fascinated by it

33:11

more than anything else So

33:13

once he left this region after leaving Clinton

33:15

the small caravan would travel to green-brown valleys

33:18

for several days at a time Without

33:20

encountering any towns the only people that

33:22

they ever managed to encounter during this

33:25

time were Berber camps and groups of

33:27

camel herds This

33:29

is where they would then arrive

33:31

at Basra something that was a

33:33

city that was famous in Islamic

33:36

history but

33:39

Even Batuta was very disappointed by this this

33:42

was a city that Years

33:44

before had been famous for

33:46

being come utterly beautiful But

33:50

the city had drastically shrunk in population

33:52

and importance from what it once was

33:55

When he attended a Friday service in the

33:57

mosque, he was surprised that there were large

33:59

amounts of of errors in grammar that was

34:01

being committed by the leader. He

34:03

learned that in this town, there was not

34:05

a man left who knew anything about the

34:07

science of grammar. It had transformed

34:10

from a city of beauty and wonder and

34:12

education and learning to a

34:14

complete backwater. And

34:16

you may wonder, why did that happen?

34:19

Why did that happen? The Mongols killed

34:21

everybody. That checks out,

34:23

actually, yeah, that'll do it. That'll

34:25

do it. Yeah, we're gonna talk about this a little bit,

34:27

I'm sure, when we go into some of the Mongol conquest and talking

34:29

about those in history. But do you remember that when I talked about

34:31

the, like, Timur Lane and

34:33

other different Mongol conquerors who came in

34:36

and built literal pyramids of skulls? Sometimes,

34:40

when you say something so brutal, I just block

34:42

it from my memory. Yeah, so

34:44

the Mongols had come in here earlier,

34:46

and this is before Timur Lane. Timur

34:49

Lane hasn't even happened yet, and the

34:51

regions in this have been largely depopulated.

34:53

I think I saw something in here

34:55

looking at it before, and I cannot

34:57

remember if I put this in here,

34:59

but the region around there was estimated

35:03

100 years earlier to have a population of about

35:05

two and a half million, and

35:07

that was reduced to around

35:09

700,000. I

35:13

think it was the number, or it was a

35:15

ridiculously small number, like reduced by over 75% by

35:17

the time that

35:20

even Batuta arrives, because that many people

35:22

had been killed. It

35:24

was, or not even by the time

35:27

that he arrived, but afterwards with Timur Lane, it was

35:29

horribly brutal. And

35:31

so he continued on from his journey after being disappointed

35:33

by the city that still had managed to survive, even

35:36

if it had shrunk, by taking a

35:38

small sailboat up the river to the city of Abadan.

35:41

And along the river, he saw an uninterrupted

35:43

succession of fruit gardens and overshadowing pong groves,

35:45

both to the right and left, with traders

35:47

sitting in the shade of the trees, selling

35:50

bread, fish, dates, milk, and fruit,

35:53

and it was a luscious and beautiful place. Further

35:56

on in a marshy area far from civilization,

35:58

he looked up a famous hermit. who

36:00

seemed so peaceful and happy with his

36:02

life that for a while Batuta even

36:04

thought that his journey was going to

36:06

end right here. That this

36:09

was an Islamic scholar that had

36:11

found it all, that was completely

36:13

satisfied with life and was a

36:15

wonderful, knowledgeable person. And

36:18

he thought this is where he could potentially spend the

36:20

rest of his life in service to that holy man.

36:23

But no, the next day, he was back on

36:26

the road heading to Ishaan, the orchard city.

36:32

Now, Ishaan, which is in modern day Iran, this

36:34

was another city that had been destroyed by the

36:37

first Mongol invasion, but the future

36:39

destruction by the later Mongol leader, Tamar

36:41

the Lame or Tamerlane, oh God,

36:44

that was going to be so much worse.

36:47

Tamerlane was the guy who would dominate

36:49

all of Persia from 1387. And

36:51

I think I'm pretty sure we did

36:54

a patron exclusive podcast episode

36:56

on specifically that guy. His

36:59

invasion of one city of Ishaan alone, that

37:01

led to more than 70,000 deaths. And

37:05

this is where the records would say that he stacked

37:07

heads like pyramids, which

37:09

is quite brutal. Even

37:12

Batuta would lodge for two weeks there at a

37:14

large Sufi center and there he would see the

37:16

sites meet with religious and legal scholars

37:19

and in general, just enjoy himself before moving

37:21

on. Afterwards, you would go and

37:23

visit Shiraz after traveling another 300 miles to the south.

37:27

And Shiraz luckily had not been destroyed

37:29

by the Mongols. The thing

37:31

was, it was way too far south and it

37:34

was way too hot. It just wasn't a climate

37:36

that was suitable to be able to be reached

37:38

by the Mongol hordes. So

37:40

the city actually ended up surviving. And

37:43

this would end up growing in massive size due

37:45

to the sheer amount of refugees that were fleeing

37:47

from the north. The arrival

37:49

of well educated fugitives would stimulate this

37:51

huge cultural growth in literature and art

37:53

and everything, which would amaze Batuta who

37:56

would say that quote, its inhabitants are

37:58

handsome and figure and clean in their

38:00

dress. In the whole east, there is

38:02

no city except Shiraz, which approaches Damascus

38:04

and its beauty of its bazaars, its

38:07

fruit gardens, and its rivers. It

38:09

was astounding. And it was

38:11

here that I found a very funny story over

38:13

the course of researching this, that Ibn Battuta heard

38:15

of the miracle of a sheik there, a local

38:17

leader. And the whole reason that I put in

38:20

this in the first place, Gabby, is because I

38:22

knew you would appreciate it. It is the story

38:24

of a guy who got saved by an elephant.

38:27

How? What occurred?

38:30

So I copied an abridged version of it into

38:32

here because there's no way I'm going to be

38:34

able to relate the entire thing, but as the

38:36

story goes, it is related on one occasion that

38:38

the sheik of this region set out for a

38:40

mountain, accompanied by 30 poor brethren.

38:43

They became hungry on the way to the mountain

38:46

and lost their bearings. They asked the sheik to

38:48

allow them to catch one of the small elephants,

38:50

which are exceedingly numerous in that place, and are

38:52

transported to the capital of the King of India.

38:55

The sheik forbade them, but their hunger

38:57

got the better of them. So they

38:59

disobeyed his instruction and seizing a small

39:01

elephant, they slaughtered it and ate its

39:03

flesh. The sheik, however,

39:05

refused to eat it. That

39:07

night as they slept, the elephants gathered

39:09

from every direction and came upon them.

39:12

They went about smelling each man and killing

39:14

him until they made an end of all

39:16

of them. The elephants then

39:18

smelled the sheik too, but offered no

39:21

violence to him. One of

39:23

them took hold of him, wrapped its trunk around

39:25

him, set him on his back, and brought

39:27

him to the place where there was some habitation. Then

39:30

the elephant as it came near the people of the village

39:32

seized him with its trunk and gently lifted him

39:34

off his back to the ground in full view

39:36

of them. The people then came

39:39

up and touched his robe for a blessing

39:41

and took him to their king where he

39:43

received a reward from three rubies. So

39:46

as the story goes, what ended up happening

39:48

is they go out there into the middle

39:50

of nowhere, they get lost, the men become

39:52

hungry, and they kill an elephant to eat

39:55

it. This is apparently in

39:57

a number of Muslim societies, very

39:59

badly. like you do not want to

40:01

eat the flesh of an elephant. While technically

40:03

you can, there

40:06

are a number of people who believe that

40:08

the eating of elephant flesh is prohibited in

40:10

the Quran. It

40:13

varies depending upon the time and place, but others

40:15

will say that it's extremely bad luck, and this is

40:17

why they did not do it. So it's

40:19

a funny little story about a guy who actually ends

40:21

up surviving by not eating something while everyone else around

40:23

him get killed. Either

40:25

way, from here, even Batuta would

40:27

continue on with other traveling companions and eventually

40:30

arrive at Baghdad, which was

40:32

at one time the capital of

40:34

the entire Abbasid Empire. The

40:37

thing is, and this is, I know that we talked

40:39

about it before when we talked about the Mongol invasions,

40:41

but yeah, Baghdad had

40:44

been destroyed. There he

40:46

went to honor its past and walk amongst

40:48

the ruins, and there he would imagine the

40:50

ghost of those who had lived in this

40:52

once magnificent capital city, which

40:54

at a time had had a population of

40:57

around a million people. But

41:00

that was no longer the case. As

41:02

he would describe it, quote, her outward

41:05

lineaments had departed and nothing remains of

41:07

her but the name. There

41:09

is no beauty in her that arrests the

41:11

eye or summons the busy passerby to forget

41:13

his business and to gaze. Which

41:16

I mean, to be fair, it literally wasn't as

41:18

bad as that. The Mongols had managed to leave

41:20

many of the public buildings standing and quite a

41:22

number of people still alive. They didn't kill a

41:24

lot of people, but they did actually end up

41:27

preserving quite a bit of it. In

41:29

fact, the army that had conquered

41:31

Baghdad had just finished stacking the

41:33

place and then immediately afterwards started

41:36

a restoration program in order to

41:38

rebuild it. But

41:40

it didn't matter. The destruction that had

41:42

been brought by the Mongol Empire in

41:44

the first place meant that Baghdad was

41:46

no longer going to be the

41:49

most important cultural center in the

41:51

region. And even

41:53

though most colleges were in ruins, one

41:56

college, though, had been built in 1227, years

42:00

before even Batuta had arrived and

42:03

weirdly enough fun fact that is

42:05

still operating to this day. It

42:08

has been restored and it's still open despite

42:10

the decades of war and conflict going on

42:12

in Iraq. So what I'm

42:14

talking about here is the it's just a fun fact

42:16

for anyone who is curious about this. The Al and

42:18

I'm gonna you know I'm gonna butcher the pronunciation of

42:21

it. Al-Musin-Siriya University.

42:25

He was founded in Baghdad by Caliph

42:27

Al-Musin-Siriya in 1227 and

42:30

is one of the oldest universities in the

42:32

world having survived the 1258 Mongol

42:34

invasion and also when it was bombed back

42:36

in 2007 by Sunni extremists. So

42:40

that's a fascinating little story right there. Anyway

42:44

in Baghdad he learned that Abu

42:47

Sayyid who was the Khan himself

42:49

like the Mongol Muslim ruler he

42:51

was staying there and soon he

42:53

was going to be leaving to his summer palaces

42:56

in the Sultaniyah. Even Batuta

42:58

would jump at the chance to try and

43:00

meet another ruler and he got himself invited

43:02

onto the royal caravan. The Il

43:04

Khan was about a year younger than him

43:06

and he would describe the king as being

43:09

the most beautiful of God's creatures. Which

43:11

I have to say from the beginning is

43:13

a very interesting way to describe

43:16

someone but remember how I

43:18

said that this guy would constantly ingratiate

43:20

himself into the upper echelons of different

43:22

societies. Yeah. This

43:24

was pretty much a tactic that would be used by any

43:27

chronicler or writer or anything is that

43:29

if you were going to be serving

43:31

or rather relying on the patronage of

43:33

a wealthy client you

43:36

wanted to make sure that you are you know on their

43:38

good side. He may have

43:40

actually been the most beautiful creature as

43:42

what Batuta would describe but we

43:45

don't really know. We would know

43:47

that he would admire him as a

43:49

true Muslim who would write both Arabic

43:51

and Persian. He could play the lute.

43:53

He could compose songs and poems and

43:55

apparently was a very wise ruler. The

43:58

Il Khan was an example of how

44:00

the Mongol warriors, their descendants

44:03

would eventually transition to becoming

44:05

not Mongols, but becoming

44:08

basically Persian and Muslim. If

44:11

the stories are to be believed, he was

44:14

a fantastic ruler, but this

44:16

was also not going to last. The

44:18

entire region at this point in

44:20

history is very unstable, and the

44:22

political foundations that he had made

44:24

over the past eight years where

44:26

he had ruled wasn't strong enough

44:28

to survive when he actually died.

44:31

So when he did die, his regime

44:33

in the entire region would collapse into

44:35

warfare in 1335, and

44:39

from there it was not going to be

44:41

pretty. Even Batuta would later

44:43

be told of the murder of Abu Sayyid by one

44:45

of his wives, who apparently – Gabi, remember when we

44:47

talked about the whole thing with – you

44:50

making a video about me and the Ottoman

44:52

Sultan and a harem and everything like

44:54

that? Yes, yes. Listen, one

44:57

of his wives poisoned him, okay?

45:00

One of his wives. One of his wives, yes, because he had

45:02

multiple. Maybe they all plotted it together. Maybe they were sick

45:04

of him. Well, no, but apparently this one

45:06

did it according to the story because she was

45:08

jealous of him loving another one of the wives.

45:10

Honestly, I could see that happening.

45:13

But you see exactly why that was something that

45:15

was never really all that stable. There was

45:17

always competition and jealousy. Yeah, but it's

45:19

like a reality TV show, but IRL. You

45:22

know, you get to live the drama. Yes.

45:25

Yes, yes. Live, or

45:27

in this case, literally be poisoned. Oh, I

45:30

wouldn't be poisoned – well, I might be if one of the other

45:32

wives hates me, I guess. No, no, very well could happen.

45:34

That was a thing that happened. And they would also try

45:36

to poison your children. Not

45:38

fun. Sounds very stable,

45:41

honestly. Anyway, after

45:43

– But anyway, that's why I'd let you have five wives.

45:46

I don't appreciate that thought. But

45:49

after he would die, the Amirs, which are the

45:51

military leaders of society, they would end up fighting

45:53

amongst each other for leadership. But

45:56

that has not happened yet at this point of the

45:58

story. For now, it's just fun travel. So,

46:01

Ibn Battuta would continue with the Royal Caravan

46:03

for 10 days, and from there

46:05

he would decide to join a part of

46:07

the caravan that was going to go north

46:10

to Tabriz, which was one of the most

46:12

important cities in Persia and was now part

46:14

of modern day Azerbaijan, the first

46:16

capital of the Ilkans. With

46:19

the advance of the Mongol army, the inhabitants

46:21

of Tabriz had been smart enough to actually

46:23

open their gates and welcome them into their

46:25

city without a fight, meaning they

46:28

didn't all get slaughtered. So

46:30

Tabriz effectively became the capital of

46:32

the conquering army, and this

46:35

city became an extremely important place

46:37

along the Silk Road with colonies

46:39

of people from all over the

46:41

world, from Venice, from Genoa, from

46:43

other European countries, as well as

46:45

Armenians, Arabs, and even Chinese traders.

46:47

It was a multicultural city that

46:49

was the staging point in between

46:51

East and West. There was

46:53

also actually a number of Christian churches there.

46:56

This city was one of the greatest

46:59

centers of learning and culture in the

47:01

world after the Mongol invasion. And

47:04

Ibn Battuta spent almost no time

47:07

exploring Tabriz though, because he

47:09

had to get back to Baghdad and

47:11

join another Hajj caravan. On

47:14

his way back he would tour other places, some

47:16

of them being described by Marco Polo, which is

47:18

the guy we talked about before, the Italian traveler

47:20

who had gone to this area 55

47:23

years earlier on his way to China. And

47:25

once he was back in Baghdad, the governor

47:27

would show him charity by giving him a

47:29

camel litter. He was then

47:31

expecting an easy trip returning home, but

47:35

you know what happened? It

47:37

was not an easy trip returning home. No,

47:39

in fact, you could say that the trip was pretty,

47:42

it was pretty shitty. What

47:44

happened, dysentery? Literally dysentery.

47:46

Yeah, I love how you knew where I

47:49

was going with the pun for that. He

47:51

literally got sick with dysentery and was just

47:53

shitting himself the entire way back. So reportedly

47:55

he had to get down from his litter

47:57

many times a day in order to relieve

48:00

himself, and by the time he

48:02

got to Mecca, he was incredibly

48:04

weak, because he

48:06

was constantly shitting himself. By

48:09

this point, naturally, when one is

48:11

suffering from dysentery, even Batuta needed

48:13

arrest. In

48:15

like over the course of a year, he

48:17

had managed to travel some 4000 miles. He

48:21

had crossed many different mountains, deserts, he had

48:24

visited some of the greatest cities of Iraq

48:26

and West and Persia. He had met with

48:28

scholars, with saints, and judges. He even met

48:30

a literal Mongol king. And

48:33

after around one year in Mecca, where

48:35

he would live a life of prayer

48:37

and learning and brotherhood and friendship, well,

48:41

he got bored. And he needed

48:43

to travel again. Me. Yep,

48:46

literally, that's what ends up happening with us. Every time we come

48:48

back, they call me, and I'm so tired, I don't want to

48:50

travel anymore. He's here for more than two months. Not

48:52

even two months. I don't

48:54

think we've made it to two months. It's usually

48:56

like a month. And we're like, Ooh,

48:58

this is kind of boring. True. But

49:00

honestly, half of that is not our own fault, because

49:02

we'll usually end up having some kind of event or

49:04

something else that we have to do for work and

49:07

actually travel. Yeah, true. It's only the last two trips

49:09

that we've been able to take care of ourselves to

49:11

do just because we wanted them versus because we had

49:13

to go to an event. Either

49:16

way, he was going to

49:18

travel again. And this time, he

49:20

was going to go to Africa. So

49:23

after Ibn Battuta had lived and studied in Mecca

49:25

for a year, he started his next adventure. From

49:28

Mecca, he would go on to Jiddah on

49:30

the Red Sea coast, where he and other

49:32

pilgrims would be crammed onto this tiny little

49:34

ship. The

49:37

region here in... I'm

49:39

not so at the right word that I should use here, but it's

49:41

like the Eastern Islamic region

49:43

going into the Indian Ocean, the type

49:45

of ship that they used here was

49:48

called a dal. And

49:50

this was a very good ship, a design

49:52

which was used for like over a thousand

49:54

years. And this was

49:57

Ibn Battuta's first time traveling

49:59

a sea. He

50:01

had never done this before. So

50:03

as you can probably guess, he wasn't really

50:05

looking forward to it. The

50:07

Red Sea is not normally easy to navigate. It has

50:09

a lot of coral reefs. It's got a lot of

50:11

rocks under the waterline. Storms

50:14

were very common here, as were pirates who were

50:16

going to wait for the ships with travelers so

50:18

they could rob and kill them. And

50:20

ships, especially something that was a smaller dao,

50:23

so it was great in places like the

50:25

Mediterranean, they were good

50:27

at riding the winds for the

50:29

monsoons. They were quite weak in a

50:31

storm, which made the

50:34

trip very hostile and a very real

50:36

possibility that everything could have just collapsed

50:39

and they may not have ever gone

50:41

to their destination. Which in this

50:43

case, almost happened, at

50:45

least Perpetuta. As he

50:47

would say, quote, we traveled on the sea

50:49

with a favoring wind for two days, but

50:52

thereafter the wind changed and drove us off

50:54

course. The waves of the sea

50:56

entered in amongst us in the vessel and the

50:58

passengers fell grievously sick. In

51:00

other words, this very shallow vessel that

51:02

they were in was getting just constantly

51:04

bombarded by waves that was going over

51:07

top into the boat itself. And

51:09

from that, he

51:12

and others got really sick, like

51:14

really seasick. Eventually,

51:17

the ship would have to head for

51:19

shore. And fortunately, even Perpetuta and

51:21

the other seasick passengers were able to then

51:23

rent camels and continue south on land because

51:25

quite literally they gave up. They could not

51:27

do it anymore. They just they could not

51:29

go by boat, even though it technically speaking

51:31

should have been faster. This

51:33

is like realistic travel adventures.

51:36

Literally a novel. Very little risk.

51:39

Yeah. And when he would go

51:41

there, he still would go to all the coastal cities.

51:43

He would go and visit there. He would go to

51:45

the villages and the high mountains of Yemen. And

51:48

in Thais, which was high on a mountain

51:50

slope, he would end up staying the Sultan

51:52

who would give him a horse. And

51:55

after a brief stay in Thais, he would continue

51:57

down to the coastal city of Aden which

52:00

is the city that guards the entrance to the Red

52:02

Sea. And there was

52:04

a place that was extremely

52:06

rich, especially thanks to his

52:08

geography. What do

52:10

you mean? Well, you see, Aiden was a city

52:12

that was built in the crater of an extinct

52:14

volcano with the eastern side being exposed to the

52:16

sea. And the harbor was surrounded by

52:19

stone walls and sea gates for protection. Because

52:21

of where it was situated, Aiden was able

52:23

to charge a tariff on, or like, you

52:25

know, attacks on basically any kind of good

52:27

that came through this port. So

52:30

ships were constantly bringing spices,

52:32

medicinal herbs, dyes, cloth, iron,

52:34

steel, silk, cotton, pearls, literally

52:36

anything you can imagine of

52:39

value, they were bringing it

52:41

here, all of this stuff.

52:43

And because they were, from where they were

52:45

situated, they were able to tax everything that

52:47

was going through it, making it a very

52:49

fabulously wealthy place to be. In

52:52

the time that Aiden Batuta lived, Muslim

52:54

traders had pretty much total control over

52:56

the western half of the Indian Ocean

52:58

trading centers. The entire thing was pretty

53:01

much like a massive Muslim lake around

53:03

which all these merchants had started businesses

53:05

and they could depend upon trade by

53:07

ship. These communities would

53:09

develop all over the varying coastal

53:11

places across India, Africa, et cetera.

53:14

And here they would develop places that would

53:16

be safe harbors to propagate Islam and also

53:18

make a ton of money. In

53:21

these places, if you were a person with

53:23

any kind of real brain, any kind of

53:26

real education, any kind of thought, you

53:28

could go here and you could probably

53:30

live a pretty good life, at

53:33

least if you were Muslim. Like

53:35

the thing is, it didn't really matter at this point

53:37

for what your racial background was because these were strong

53:40

multicultural centers. The one thing that

53:42

pretty much united all of them

53:45

was Islam. And this is the

53:47

network that even Batuta was able to travel. Because

53:50

the world was not completely

53:53

Muslim, here it was

53:55

more of a minority religion that was specifically among

53:57

traders. He would have a little bit more of

53:59

a difficult time. But because there

54:01

were always these isolated spots of Muslims

54:03

and wherever he went He would be

54:05

able to go and actually have some

54:07

kind of safety net now

54:10

still each site there was going to be

54:12

someone there a Fellow Muslim

54:14

a pilgrim a scholar someone he was able to

54:16

work with This was part of

54:18

the international brotherhood of Islam and he was going

54:20

to take advantage of all the charity that could

54:22

be offered here From Aiden

54:25

even Batuta would then decide to

54:27

have another adventure Before settling

54:29

down to try and have a permanent job down

54:32

the coast of East Africa at this time The

54:35

weather conditions were just right for the trip and

54:37

it was very easy to get a dow sailing

54:39

south The trading ships made their

54:41

way down the east coast of Africa stopping

54:43

it towns to trade for goods such as

54:46

ivory gold skin oil

54:48

animal skins slaves Ambergris

54:50

perfumes all the really valuable

54:52

trade goods His first

54:54

stop was a place called Zila which was a

54:57

port of the Christian kingdom of Ethiopia and

54:59

there it had a large Muslim Trading community whether

55:02

you would describe this place though was

55:04

not very kind as he would say

55:06

that it was the quote dirtiest most

55:08

disagreeable and most stinking town in the

55:10

world Oh Yeah,

55:13

the whole reason it wasn't because of necessarily

55:15

the people who lived there But rather because

55:17

of what they did it was

55:20

a massive harvesting station for fish like

55:22

there was fisheries were huge there So

55:24

they would fetch the fish and they

55:26

would butcher them there and also

55:28

they would butcher Camels so the blood of

55:30

the camels would fill the alleyways you would

55:32

say This meant that the

55:34

entire place raked of a fish market

55:37

and slaughterhouse So

55:39

to avoid that smell he would spend the night

55:41

on the ship even though the water at the

55:43

time was rough But he just he could not

55:45

deal with the stink of it He

55:48

then continued southward and 15 days later He

55:51

would reach Mogadishu which was the busiest

55:53

and richest of the East African ports

55:55

The Indian Ocean ports had long been active trading

55:57

centers for the Persian Arabic Indian and Europe

56:00

European merchants and these merchants would bring

56:02

their language, their culture and religion to

56:04

the region. As an example,

56:06

even Batuta even found that the

56:08

Sultan of Mogadishu both spoke his

56:10

native Somali but also Arabic which

56:12

waited a great thing for him

56:14

to be able to communicate with

56:17

and that his chief legal advisor

56:19

was actually an Egyptian. Multicultural!

56:22

Literally, that's all of these. Every place that

56:24

you see along here along Africa in these

56:26

regions, in these Islamic trading communities is that

56:28

everything are multinational merchant

56:31

communities. Everything is about

56:33

foreign trade. So they are hugely multi...

56:36

not multipolar. That's not the right word. What am

56:38

I thinking of this word here? They were

56:40

diverse. We're just going

56:43

to say they were very diverse and

56:45

they were largely populated in the outskirts

56:47

by black Africans that would speak African

56:49

languages like Somali in Mogadishu and Bantu

56:52

further south. And what would happen,

56:54

remember how I said that if you were a

56:56

Muslim merchant of with any kind of degree of

56:58

brains you could go down there and make a

57:00

good fortune? These landless

57:02

but somewhat wealthy Muslim men would end

57:04

up going down from Arabia and other

57:07

regions and they would make their fortunes

57:09

in these spots along the coast of

57:11

Africa and they would intermarry into the

57:13

local tribes. So they would oftentimes have

57:16

wives that were there as well as

57:18

back home. In some

57:20

areas this coastal mingling of languages would eventually

57:22

develop into language we know today of Swahili.

57:26

Because like Swahili was a combination

57:28

between local African languages and

57:31

Arabic. And that's where that comes from.

57:34

Since Ibn Battuta was a genuine real scholar

57:36

of Islam and law now, he was a

57:38

very welcome guest for all the local officials

57:40

that loved to have him. Everywhere

57:42

he went there would be feasting, he would

57:45

meet with important people, this would go on

57:47

for weeks before the ship would then continue

57:49

southward to Zanz and then Mombasa. And

57:52

from there he would continue to the

57:54

islands of Pemba and Zanzibar and finally

57:56

arrive at Kilwa in what is now

57:58

today part of Tanzania. This

58:01

was a hugely important trading city, something

58:03

that I when remember when we were

58:05

talking about varying different African kingdoms, I

58:07

specifically talked about Kilwa and Zanzibar. This

58:10

is something that probably deserves its own episode in the

58:12

future here. This was a ridiculously

58:15

rich city, famous for its gold

58:17

and its citizens had a very

58:19

high standard of living. The

58:21

ruling class lived in stone houses that were

58:23

up to three stories high, which was very

58:25

rare, especially in these parts of Africa here.

58:28

And these places even were equipped with

58:31

indoor plumbing. Most of the

58:33

population also lived in mud walled houses with

58:35

thatched roofs, but it was significantly better than

58:37

most huts that other people were living in.

58:40

Ibn Battuta there probably would go and

58:43

pray at the great mosque Kilwa, which

58:45

was one of the major important Islamic

58:47

sites of the region, but that

58:49

thing is now in ruins. Because

58:52

Ibn Battuta would go and describe

58:54

this in

58:56

intricate detail, it is

58:58

an extremely valuable resource because the

59:01

unfortunate reality is that again, the

59:03

entire thing is in ruins, meaning his is

59:06

one of the only key sources that we

59:08

have to study. And so historians have

59:10

to look at specifically his descriptions to know

59:12

what things actually looked like, which

59:15

is sad, but also on the same

59:17

end, cool. Because if this guy had

59:19

decided to just not travel, we

59:22

probably wouldn't have descriptions of all these things

59:24

that were major important sites. Like this

59:26

stinky city. Like this stinky city,

59:28

exactly. So Ibn Battuta

59:30

would stay in Kilwa for about two weeks and

59:33

with the changes in the monsoon winds, which that's

59:35

the thing, the traders follow the seasons of the

59:37

winds for what would happen for their, for when

59:39

they shift south and north, this is how they

59:42

know where it is that they're supposed to go.

59:45

This meant that with them shifting north, it

59:48

was time for him to go back. And so

59:50

a month later, he was back in southern

59:52

Arabia. And from here he would

59:54

decide on another short adventure, this time

59:56

to take a small ship to the Gulf of Oman. did

1:00:00

not like the crew of the ship, he and

1:00:02

a friend decided that they would just go to

1:00:04

Kalhat on foot. I thought you were

1:00:06

going to say they decided to just sail their own

1:00:08

ship. Nope. They decided

1:00:10

to go on foot. They got a guide

1:00:12

that they hired to help them and this

1:00:14

almost cost them their lives because that guide

1:00:17

tried to kill them. Of course. The guy

1:00:19

tried to kill them and rob them and

1:00:21

take their clothes and valuables but unfortunately, even

1:00:23

Batuta had a spear and he was able to

1:00:26

get it and then control the robber until they

1:00:28

were able to break free. And

1:00:30

finally, after becoming extremely sick and thirsty

1:00:32

and walking with swollen and bloody feet,

1:00:34

they would arrive at Kalhat and he

1:00:37

would stay with the governor for six

1:00:39

days in recover. After

1:00:41

this point, he was thinking about a return trip

1:00:43

to Mecca, which would be his third visit and

1:00:46

traveling mostly by land now, he would reach Mecca in

1:00:48

the winter of 1330. After

1:00:51

all of the exhausting sea voyages, climbing

1:00:53

mountains in Yemen and traveling across the

1:00:56

equator through the hottest places on earth

1:00:58

and almost losing his life, he

1:01:00

was tired. He was looking forward

1:01:03

to a long rest. And for

1:01:05

a time, that is what he

1:01:07

would have. Oh, he stopped traveling? I

1:01:09

mean, I got a dysentery,

1:01:12

almost getting killed by your guide. It's

1:01:14

a lot. Distinky city? Yeah,

1:01:17

thing is, it's not over. There is

1:01:19

still more drain. Like this at this point, it's probably like

1:01:21

what? He's a third of the way halfway through the journeying

1:01:23

of what it was that he'd be doing. And

1:01:25

that is precisely why I think that we are going to leave

1:01:28

things here for that today. At this point,

1:01:30

we've been talking for almost an hour. And if I

1:01:32

tried to cover the rest of this tale, it would

1:01:34

end up going for another, you know, hour and a

1:01:36

half, probably. So there's no way that we can really

1:01:38

get into that. But this means that we're going to

1:01:40

be doing a part one and a part two. It's

1:01:43

been a while since we actually did a

1:01:45

multi-part series on the podcast. That wasn't the

1:01:47

patron exclusive. That was like eight parts of

1:01:49

the best revolution. That thing was supposed to

1:01:51

be literally three, like three podcasts long and

1:01:53

it ended up being eight. So

1:01:55

sorry about that. For anyone, my patrons are

1:01:58

listening to this right now. But here is my problem. to

1:02:00

you. This is not going to be like

1:02:02

the Crusades episodes, which was also like eight episodes, and

1:02:05

it's not going to be like the French Revolution, which was

1:02:07

eight episodes, I think, if I

1:02:09

recall correctly. No, this is going to

1:02:11

be a simple part one and part two. We

1:02:13

have actually skipped quite a lot of the little

1:02:15

stories that have happened, but there's no

1:02:17

way that I could have included all of that and

1:02:19

actually moved forward in a timely manner. If

1:02:22

you want to know those stories, if you want

1:02:24

to read all this for yourself, you

1:02:26

should check out his book. You should check out

1:02:28

the Rilla because a good percentage of

1:02:30

this information when I'm not talking about

1:02:32

context specifically comes directly from the Rilla,

1:02:35

which I was able to get a

1:02:37

free PDF of. So my

1:02:39

friends, thank you very much for listening. I appreciate

1:02:41

all of you and I hope you have a good rest of your

1:02:43

day. Make sure to join us for our next

1:02:45

episode that we're going to be covering into this and also

1:02:47

let us know what kind of episodes you would like to

1:02:49

see here in the future with, you know, whatever subjects or

1:02:52

things that come to mind. Also, don't

1:02:54

forget to check out the links down in the

1:02:56

description. If you want ad free episodes, you can

1:02:58

check out our Patreon, which is down there. And

1:03:00

don't forget to please sign up for our trips

1:03:02

that we're going to be doing through Peru and

1:03:04

Germany because right now there are only a couple

1:03:06

spots left for the early bird special. And

1:03:08

if those are out of your price range, come

1:03:10

to the Reckoning. It's in Kentucky. It's a local

1:03:13

LARPing event. It's kind of like a fantasy-type world

1:03:15

and we're gonna be part of the Hadrian Empire

1:03:18

and we would love to have more friends. Some

1:03:20

people absolutely hate this podcast and

1:03:22

if you hate me and you want to hit

1:03:24

me with a foam sword, go

1:03:26

join the other side and then

1:03:28

you could hit him with the foam sword. Literally do that.

1:03:30

Thank you very much my friends and I

1:03:32

will see you next time. Bye! you