Ibn Battuta's Travels: Damascus and on to Medina 

Damascus, Syria Damascus had once been the capital of the Umayyad Empire. At the time Ibn Battuta visited Damascus, it was an international supermarket. Its population was about 100,000 people. Damascus was a center of trade routes which linked Egypt and Persia, and Asia Minor and the Black Sea region. And it was a center of learning.

Ibn Battuta was very impressed with the beauty of Damascus, saying "Damascus is the city which surpasses all other cities in beauty..." [Gibb, p. 118] Below is the Umayyad Mosque (or "Great Mosque") of Damascus, built in the 8th century. It was famous as a center of learning throughout the Muslim world. Ibn Battuta describes it as "the greatest mosque on earth ..., the most perfect in architecture, and the most exquisite in beauty..." [Gibb, p. 124]

During his stay in the city, Ibn Battuta may have lived in this mosque's dormitory, sitting beneath the marble columns and listening to lecturers and Koranic readers.

"In this mosque also there are a great many students who never leave it, occupying themselves unremittingly in prayer and recitation of the Koran . . . The townsfolk supply their needs of food and clothing, although students never beg for anything of the kind from them." [Gibb, vol. I, p. 129]

Ibn Battuta would have studied like the students in the painting at right. (It is a painting of a Muslim school built in Jerusalem in 1329 near the time of Ibn Battuta's stay.) Notice that the students sit around a wise or holy man and learn from him and read from the Koran held in a bookstand. At the end of their studies they can earn a certificate or credential so they, too, may teach or get a judgeship eventually.

Other sites are described in his travels near Damascus, one being "the Cave of Blood, above which [can be seen] the blood of Abel, the son of Adam (on him be peace), God having caused a red trace of it to remain on the stones. This is the place in which his brother [Cain] killed him and dragged his body to the cave." [Gibb, vol. I, p. 145.]

Ibn Battuta stayed in Damascus for only 24 days, and he spent much of his time studying and meeting famous teachers and judges. But "he could not have devoted his every waking moment to his studies since he was by no means free of more mundane concerns. For one thing, his entire stay in Damascus took place during the month of Ramadan, when Muslims are required to fast during daylight hours, a strenuous obligation that upset the normal routines of daily life. He also admits in [his book] that he was down with fever during a good part of his stay and living as a house guest of one of ...[his] professors, who put him under a physician's care. On top of that, he found time ... to get married again." [Dunn, pp. 61 - 62.] Ibn Battuta claimed to have earned additional credentials for his studies in Damascus to help get him a job once he finally reached India.

Another wife, a divorce, and a son! And of course he tells of the important holy men, judges, or high officials he met. He almost neglects to tell the readers that here he married again, but divorced shortly afterward, and later we learn that he had fathered a son. (He learned about having a son after he had continued on, and later sent a present of money to him. Unfortunately, the son died at the age of ten and they could not meet.) Again, wives and now children will enter and exit his story without much explanation. A Muslim man can have as many as four wives at one time. It's hard to count how many wives (and concubines, or lovers) he had in his lifetime!

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