Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta are two very famous explores who are known for traveling great distances during a time when such a thing was unheard of, and who kept detailed logs of their journeys. Ibn Battuta’s journey was based off of his religion, and his desire to visit all of the major religious sites and meet important religious leaders. He traveled a total of 75,000 miles over the course of 29 years. Marco Polo was an Italian traveler who claims to have met and become close to Kublai Khan, and began traveling on his behalf. He returned home to Italy 24 years after he left.
Ibn Battuta visited a place called Zafari, and talked about his positive experience at a hospice in the city. “I went out to this hospice and spent a night in it, enjoying …show more content…
He doesn’t give his opinion on the religion, even if the religion is completely different from his own, “They worship idols; are of a dark complexion, and of evil disposition, and are skilled in the art of magic, and the invocation of demons, a study to which they continually apply themselves” (86). He uses words such as evil to describe these people, so clearly his beliefs do not coincide with these people, but he still takes the time to write down their religion because he considers it to be of importance. Ibn Battuta was Muslim, and most of his journey was focused on going to religiously important places, and meeting with religious leaders, so he wrote from an Islamic point of view. He talks about one instance which he refers to as “A miraculous grace” (393). The ship he was in got caught in a storm and after the storm was over he ask a man who knew the Quran by heart, what he saw. The man said “When the storm came, I kept my eyes open, watching to see whether the angels who received men’s souls had come. As I did not see them I said “Praise be to God” (393). Obviously Battuta focused on religious stories that dealt with his religion, so it is easy to see why most of his records of his journey focus solely on his …show more content…
He says “It is asserted as a well-known fact that this desert is the abode of many evil spirits, which amuse travelers to their destruction with most extraordinary illusions” (100). I find this hard to believe, “Marvelous indeed and almost passing belief the stories related to these spirits of the desert…” (101). Polo didn’t dispute or try to argue with the legend, but I don’t think he necessarily believed in it either. Ibn Battuta mentioned an island in India that had coconuts the size of a human head, and told the story of how the coconuts got to be so big. The story is that the King’s philosopher told him to cut the vizier’s head off and plant it in the ground, and from that a plant would grow and produce the largest coconuts in India. I don’t believe this story, and neither did Battuta, “This story is a fiction, but we have related it because of its wide circulation among them”
Ibn Battuta visited a place called Zafari, and talked about his positive experience at a hospice in the city. “I went out to this hospice and spent a night in it, enjoying …show more content…
He doesn’t give his opinion on the religion, even if the religion is completely different from his own, “They worship idols; are of a dark complexion, and of evil disposition, and are skilled in the art of magic, and the invocation of demons, a study to which they continually apply themselves” (86). He uses words such as evil to describe these people, so clearly his beliefs do not coincide with these people, but he still takes the time to write down their religion because he considers it to be of importance. Ibn Battuta was Muslim, and most of his journey was focused on going to religiously important places, and meeting with religious leaders, so he wrote from an Islamic point of view. He talks about one instance which he refers to as “A miraculous grace” (393). The ship he was in got caught in a storm and after the storm was over he ask a man who knew the Quran by heart, what he saw. The man said “When the storm came, I kept my eyes open, watching to see whether the angels who received men’s souls had come. As I did not see them I said “Praise be to God” (393). Obviously Battuta focused on religious stories that dealt with his religion, so it is easy to see why most of his records of his journey focus solely on his …show more content…
He says “It is asserted as a well-known fact that this desert is the abode of many evil spirits, which amuse travelers to their destruction with most extraordinary illusions” (100). I find this hard to believe, “Marvelous indeed and almost passing belief the stories related to these spirits of the desert…” (101). Polo didn’t dispute or try to argue with the legend, but I don’t think he necessarily believed in it either. Ibn Battuta mentioned an island in India that had coconuts the size of a human head, and told the story of how the coconuts got to be so big. The story is that the King’s philosopher told him to cut the vizier’s head off and plant it in the ground, and from that a plant would grow and produce the largest coconuts in India. I don’t believe this story, and neither did Battuta, “This story is a fiction, but we have related it because of its wide circulation among them”