This book is considered one of the most famous travel books in history. Ibn Battuta was known for his extensive travels, and because of his international fame, the Cambridge Society nicknamed him “the Prince of Muslim Travelers.” Ibn Battuta began his journey from Tangier, his hometown, intending to perform the Hajj pilgrimage to the Sacred House of God. He traveled without a companion or relative, and in every city he stopped, he took a friend who told stories about him and the city in which he met him. The duration of his travels was estimated at approximately thirty years. He dictated the details and anecdotes of those travels to Ibn Juzay al-Kalbi. After he finished writing them, he titled this book: “A Gift to the Observers on the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Travel.” Ibn Battuta did not limit himself to merely describing the places he visited, but rather he went on to elaborate on the ins and outs of cities and the natures of the different peoples he encountered. He narrated many fascinating tales that made him one of the pioneers of travel literature in Arabic literature, to the point that we cannot refer to a person who traveled extensively without calling him “Ibn Battuta.”
