Ibn Battuta

Posted at Apr 29/2007 02:32AM:
Harry Anastopulos: A Muslim traveler from 14th-century Morocco. His book is credited as comprising "one of the longest and most complex travel works" to be passed down from the Islamic Middle Ages. Boasting a markedly raw and unapologetic tone in his narrative, he offers up a unique perspective as the foreign traveller discovering the inner workings of faraways lands from Mesopotamia to perhaps even China. Because he was both a Muslim and a crafty networker, Ibn Batutta often made his way into the established ruling parties of many of these locales that would have been closed to non-Muslims. This in itself is a testament to both the breadth of Islamic influence and the extent to which the flourishing of Islam allowed for unprecedented contact between lands and peoples ranging from North Africa to East Asia.