Ibn Battuta

Ibn Battuta’s remarks of his travels say a great deal about his own culture and norms. Almost every place he travels to he brings up women and how they are treated, as well as what their status is in that society. He is also very amused with the décor of the buildings in terms of gold and silver decorations. It seems as though he does not come from a wealthy society or his family is not on the wealthy status level. Battuta also seems to bring up the cleanliness of each area he travels to.

Ibn Battuta’s travels to Africa showed a lot about how he was brought up and also about his culture. He describes the occupants of the town of Zayla as “negro people” and when he arrives in the town of Kulwa he describes the Zanj people as “jet black in colour.” It seems as though his birthplace was not of many different races or cultures and you can see that in the different places he visits through his fascination with the people. It is also very clear that Battuta dislikes Zayla greatly because it “is the dirtiest, most abominable, and most stinking town in the world.” His perception of Africa through his explanations seems to be the most negative of all the places he visits. He dislikes the area so bad that he chooses to spend the night at sea, regardless of how rough the sea was. The reason for the stench was due to the blood from the slaughtered camels and the amount of fish the area has. Battuta seems to disagree with the slaughtering of hundreds of camels for food. The practice that involves the merchants and the men on the sumbuqs seems very weird how Battuta explains it. It just seems as though the men are slaves to the merchants since they have to sell the merchants’ goods. When his travels take him to Mombasa, he isn’t too impressed of the island. The island, according to him has to have a great deal of food and supplies sent in by Swahili. Battuta is very interested in the character of the people he comes across or hears of. He makes a note of the generosity of...