Ibn Battuta's Travels: On to Egypt

Egypt From Tripoli the caravan proceeded without trouble across Libya to the eastern edge of the Maghrib. 

Ibn Battuta had completed the 2,000 mile trip across the Maghrib in about eight or nine months. Since the next pilgrimage season was still eight months away, he decided to be a tourist and visit Cairo, the largest capital of the Arabic-speaking world and the largest city anywhere in the world except those in China! Its population was estimated to be about 600,000 people.

Sometime in 1326, the caravan reached Alexandria at the western end of the Nile Delta.

Alexandria, Egypt Ibn Battuta was very impressed with Alexandria. Later he said it was one of the five most magnificent places he ever visited. At this time Alexandria was a busy harbor firmly controlled by Egypt's Mamluk warrior caste who had governed that country and Syria as a united kingdom since 1260. It was the Mamluks (Mamluk means "slave") who took over the rule of Egypt from their "masters", and were able to defeat the Mongols who had taken over Baghdad and other parts of the Islamic Empire.

Ibn Battuta spent several weeks in this busy port and saw such sights as the Pharos Lighthouse, one of the "Seven Wonders of the Ancient World" - which was pretty much falling apart at that time.

It was here that he tells of achievements and miracles of several scholars and mystics - include a Sufi mystic who predicted that the young pilgrim would travel and meet fellow Sufis in India and China. "I was amazed at his prediction, and the idea of going to these countries having been cast into my mind, my wanderings never ceased until I had met these three that he named and conveyed his greeting to them." [Gibb, p. 24]

Ibn Battuta visited other cities on the Nile Delta, and continued on to Cairo (or "al-Qahirah" - "the Victorious") founded in the 10th century by the Fatimid dynasty. On his way he passed the pyramids of Giza, but note how he describes them: "The pyramid is an edifice of solid hewn stone, of immense height and circular plan, broad at the base and narrow at the top, like the figure of a cone." [Gibb, p. 51] Obviously, he never saw them up close. 

Cairo, Egypt

"I arrived ... at the city of Cairo, mother of cities ... mistress of broad provinces and fruitful lands, boundless in multitude of buildings, peerless in beauty and splendor, the meeting-place of comer and goer, the stopping-place of feeble and strong. ... She [Cairo] surges as the waves of the sea with her throngs of folk and can scarce contain them..." 

Life inside the walled city was crowded and frantic. The narrow streets were filled with people, camels, and donkeys and lined with thousands of shops and markets. Armies of peddlers and vendors also jammed the streets.

Ibn Battuta goes on to describe the city's many mosques, colleges, hospitals, and convents which housed the poor. They were built by the amirs (military commanders) who competed "with one another in charitable works and the founding of mosques and religious houses." [Gibb, vol. I, p. 54] Visit the Gallery to see some of the buildings he saw.

Ibn Battuta was particularly impressed with a maristan, or hospital, for its beauty and for its service to the sick. Such hospitals demonstrated Islamic commitment to "charity", one of the Five Pillars of Islam. A later traveler echoed this enthusiasm:

"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." 

Nile Trip Ibn Battuta stayed in Cairo about one month, but he decided to proceed to Mecca on his own by way of Upper Egypt to the Red Sea port of 'Aydhad and from there by ship to Jidda on the Arabian coast. This was generally a safe route under the protection of the Sultan, but it took longer and was less traveled than the route across the Sinai. Ibn Battuta was probably interested in being a tourist again and chose this route.

His trip up the Nile took him almost three weeks. He traveled by land rather than on the river, and along the way he lodged at the homes of scholars, qadis (judges), and Sufis or in college dormitories.

He observed the Nile which usually floods in June and described its importance to the economy and taxation of Egypt.

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