Travel · a Light

The first great travel book was written as penance

Ibn Jubayr, a secretary in Granada, set out for Makkah in 1183 and came back two years later by way of Baghdad, Damascus, Acre and Sicily. He wrote it up day by day, and the result set the shape of the rihla, the travel book, for everybody after him, including Ibn Battuta, who copied passages from it without saying so. The story that he went in penance, having been made to drink wine by his governor, is told in the sources and may well be true. What makes the book unusual is that he wrote down things that did not suit him. Passing through Crusader ruled Palestine he found Muslim farmers under Frankish lords paying a fixed tax and otherwise left alone, said their condition looked better than that of their brothers under Muslim lords, and admitted that it troubled him.

Ibn Jubayr · 1183 to 1185