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never went into China nor the island of Ceylon, nor the Maghrib, nor al-
Andalus, nor the Negrolands, so that I have outdone him by visiting these
regions.''
21
Ibn Battuta had survived an attack by Hindu rebels, civil wars and the
Black Death (in Palestine during his homeward journey), and the rigors of
fourteenth-century travel, often through arid and remote tracts of land.
Yet, in some ways his travels, a third of the way round the world and back
again, were easier than they would have been for a Christian from Europe.
This is because the Muslim world was large and spreading during the
fourteenth century. Christian travel through Muslim lands was often pro-
scribed, despite Marco Polo's good fortune, as we will see. It was partly
because of this di≈culty—in particular, for Christians traveling along the
Silk Road—that led European maritime nations to develop ocean-going
ships so that they could trade with the fabulously wealthy (to them) Orient
by sea. Fifteenth-century Europe knew that great wealth lay further east, in
regions they could not reach by land. By this time they had the means, as
well as the motive, to get there by sea.
21. Dunn (1989). Ibn Battuta is now well-known online. For a more detailed account of
his travels, see Dunn.
