Ross Dunn here recounts the great traveler's remarkable career, interpreting it within the cultural and social context of Islamic society and giving the reader both a biography of an extraordinary personality and a study of the hemispheric dimensions of human interchange in medieval times.

Ross E. Dunn is Professor of History at San Diego State University.

"Ibn Battuta set off from his native Tangier on the hajj to Mecca. . . . He visited not only Mecca, but also Egypt, Syria, Persia, Iraq, East Africa, the Yemen, Anatolia, the steppelands of southern Russia, Constantinople, India, the Maldives, Sumatra, and China. . . . An excellent synoptic introduction to the Muslim world in the Middle Ages."—Times Literary Supplement





"Dunn has produced an attractive, intelligent, and useful book, and one that is a pleasure to read."—John N. Mattock, The International History Review

"Professor Dunn's book is based on Ibn Battuta's own writings. . . . and provides a commentary on the society and places which he visited, making admirable use of the great increase of our knowledge over the last generation. The result is fascinating."—Taya Zinkin, Asian Affairs