Compare And Contrast Ibn Battuta And Jinville

In Sickness and in Health One aspect that many people read travel narratives for is the danger, the risk to the protagonist 's life as they travel through unknown lands. In a travel narrative, especially one written in an early part of human history, the chance of injury or illness is all too great. But what interests an audience is not just the thrill of how close the protagonist comes to death, but how the protagonist handles their suffering. This essay will compare Ibn Ibn Battuta and Joinville in how they handle the physical suffering of their protagonists, from Ibn Ibn Battuta pushing through multiple fevers to make it to Mecca, to Joinville holding his sickened priest upright to finish his Mass. Ibn Ibn Battuta was a known, famous …show more content…
However, their writings betray many similarities when it comes to the notion of sickness and danger to one 's life. In both cases, they call back to religion in some way, and faith is a high priority. The scene in Joinville 's account with the priest exemplifies this - it is more important that the priest finish the sermon than that he be allowed to collapse due to his illness. Ibn Battuta, as mentioned before, stubbornly follows after the light of his religion even during great sickness. Both see their Gods exacting justice on their foes in some way - Ibn Battuta with the incident where his group survives an attack, and Joinville with the incident of the rude knights. The travel narratives of Joinville and Ibn Battuta depict two men of different religions and times traveling the world and experiencing its perils. As in any good adventure novel, their characters experience great hardship and danger, and through the strength of their own faith they live through the impossible. Ibn Battuta lives through bouts of fever and bandits, Joinville lives through a terrible plague and an enemy siege. Both have the message that faith is both worthy of pulling through hardship for, and the method by which one can pull through