Episode Transcript
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example that comes to mind is... Hello
1:09
everyone, it's Takuyi here. And I'm Gabby. And welcome
1:11
back to the podcast, my hoes. Welcome back and
1:13
I gotta say here guys, it has been a
1:15
ton of fun going through all these varying stories.
1:17
Thank you to everyone who's been sending in a
1:20
bunch of different suggestions about things it is that
1:22
we should do. If you have any ideas of
1:24
podcast episodes that you want to hear, make sure
1:26
to go to our website and definitely contact us
1:28
and send us in ideas as I love hearing
1:30
all of them. Also, if you all
1:32
want to have some fun with us, if you want to
1:34
go and actually explore places in Europe and around the world
1:37
with us, we are going to be leading a trip to
1:39
both Peru, which is going to be in July, and also
1:41
Germany, we still have some spots available. In
1:44
fact, there's still a couple early bird spots that are
1:46
left for the German trip. So if you go and
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click the link down in the description, make sure that
1:50
you try and get in on that as soon as
1:52
you can, because that is $200 off that
1:55
you can get on the trip, and you only have to
1:57
pay 25% upfront. Past that
1:59
you can have a payment plan option
2:01
and it makes things significantly easier for all
2:03
of you. Now
2:05
that all being said, the previous episode that we
2:07
did is that we went into a little bit
2:09
of Holy Roman and papal history, which I figured
2:12
that since we did that, we have covered a
2:14
lot of stuff that is European
2:16
history and that's not like,
2:18
it's not like something that was done intentionally.
2:20
Though Gabby, you have definitely said that we have
2:22
done a lot of European history recently. I
2:24
feel like it was a lot of history that everybody knows,
2:27
you know? At least to a degree. But
2:29
then again, I always end up running into the trap
2:31
of thinking, oh yeah, no, everyone knows this. And then
2:33
we keep on getting messages of like, why didn't you
2:35
explain this more? I didn't know anything about this. So
2:38
it just ends up falling into that same kind of trap. And
2:40
it just turns out that this is what people had been requesting
2:42
at the time. But I
2:45
did see something that would be incredibly fun. And I said
2:47
at the end of the previous episode that we were going
2:49
to be going into the story of Eden Batuta, which
2:52
I'm probably going to mispronounce a lot of names in here, but
2:54
I'm going to try my absolute best to work with this because
2:56
there is going to be a lot of varying
2:59
Arabic. And when I say Arabic, I
3:01
just mean Muslim names. And it's going
3:03
to primarily be from the lens of
3:05
Arabic writers. So there are many, many,
3:07
many more. How familiar
3:10
are you with Eden Batuta, Gabby? Not
3:12
at all. Then that is pretty
3:14
much every one that in the
3:16
Western world, when we go and study a lot
3:19
of different explorers in history, usually you're thinking Europeans,
3:21
right? Like when you think of the age of
3:23
exploration, you're thinking of Europeans in the 15th and
3:25
16th century, like Christopher Columbus
3:27
and others. Or the ocean blue. Literally
3:29
that, out to discover the new world.
3:31
Or in the case of earlier ones,
3:33
you think of like Marco Polo. And
3:36
Marco Polo was not just a pool
3:38
game for anyone who is curious. No,
3:40
we're talking about the Venetian explorer that
3:42
was known for the book, The Travels
3:44
of Marco Polo, which describes his voyage
3:46
and experiences in Asia. Polo
3:49
would travel extensively with his family, journeying from Europe
3:51
to Asia over the course of 1271-1295, and he
3:53
would actually be in China for 17 of those
3:55
years. In
4:00
1292, he left China and went
4:03
back along the way. He
4:05
went back to Europe. When he did so, he even had
4:08
adventures where he went and escorted a Mongolian princess who was
4:10
supposed to be sent to Persia. It
4:12
is fascinating. I know he deserves
4:14
his own story, but we're going
4:16
to get right back into that whole European thing again. So
4:18
we're going to talk about that at a later time. Either
4:22
way, the reason why I
4:24
bring that up is that there is
4:26
an individual in history who arguably traveled
4:28
the most that we have on record
4:31
of anyone in the, I'm not going
4:33
to say ancient world. That's not the
4:35
right terminology here. This
4:37
is a person who traveled,
4:40
God, I don't even know what was the distance in here, something
4:42
like 75,000 miles. Mr.
4:46
Rollwhite. Literally, he was Mr.
4:48
Rollwhite before he did this. Before
4:50
Pitbull. Before Pitbull was everything. This
4:52
is Ibn Battuta, the greatest medieval
4:54
Muslim traveler in history and the
4:57
author of one of the most
4:59
famous travel books, the Rilla, which
5:01
is just like the travels. Now
5:04
the actual book title that we're talking about here
5:06
is A Gift to Those Who
5:08
Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the
5:10
Marvels of Traveling, which is a way
5:12
longer title in the first place, but
5:15
also weirdly enough, Battuta, unlike
5:17
Polo, did not actually
5:19
keep any journal whatsoever
5:21
of his travels. Like this guy traveled for
5:24
25, 30 years and
5:26
he never kept a journal
5:29
from which to translate his
5:31
thoughts later into an
5:33
actual book. He
5:35
literally went back home and then composed
5:37
his Rilla from memory and this was
5:40
then written down and embellished upon by
5:42
another Islamic scholar, Juzay al-Khalbi, and this
5:44
would occur between the year 1352 to
5:47
1355. So
5:50
everything that we're going to hear
5:52
here at this point, just note,
5:54
some things need to be taken with a grain
5:56
of salt as this is literally from the memory
5:59
of a person. who
6:01
is doing so 30 years later
6:04
and on top of that is being embellished
6:06
upon by another person. Things could
6:08
be wrong due to mistranslation, it could also be
6:10
wrong due to not remembering something, there's just going
6:12
to be a lot of stuff that is going
6:14
to be happening. But either way still,
6:17
the great work that we're talking about is
6:19
something that covers huge to
6:21
the extent of travels. Something over the course
6:23
of like 75,000 miles or for those who
6:26
use the metric system, 120,000 kilometers. We're
6:30
talking about a trip that was
6:32
going to go through almost every
6:34
single Muslim country, though I
6:37
guess country is the wrong word to
6:39
use here in this regard, but Muslim
6:41
land going all the way into China
6:43
and even Sumatra, which is now part
6:45
of modern day Indonesia. He
6:48
was going to see things that very
6:50
few people ever in history
6:52
got to see, even
6:54
fewer got to see multiple of these things.
6:57
And he is one of the very, very,
6:59
very few sources that we have of some
7:01
of these places to actually be able to
7:03
understand what they were like. Question,
7:05
was he super rich? No,
7:08
actually, interestingly enough, he did come from a
7:10
wealthy ish or at least influential family, but
7:12
simultaneously he had to earn his living as
7:14
he was traveling. And I'm going to explain
7:16
that here in a second. So
7:19
even but it was born in the non-European
7:21
quarter of Tangier, Morocco on the 25th of
7:23
February 1304 and his full name. Get
7:28
ready for this. All right. As
7:30
it is given in the Rilla was
7:32
shams, I'll Din Abu Abdallah Muhammad even
7:35
Abdallah even Muhammad even even him even
7:37
Muhammad even use of alla what he
7:39
has done even but the two. I
7:43
love it. Yeah, dear Lord, that is love it.
7:46
Imagine filling in you like, you know, when you take
7:48
the essay to your the ACT and you have to
7:50
do the bubbles for your name. Oh my God, a
7:52
super long name. So I would be like
7:54
sweating. Imagine doing
7:56
that with that name. Yeah, exactly. Now
7:58
for anyone who is not a. aware of
8:00
this in Arabic, Ibn in his name means
8:02
son of in Arabic. So even within his
8:05
lineage, there were quite a lot of Muhammad's
8:07
in his lineage, which to be fair, that
8:09
is quite literally something that is the most
8:11
common name in the world. So
8:13
we are going to see a lot of that. So
8:16
all we know of his family specifically
8:18
comes from the Rilla, which records references
8:20
to his education and also his lineage.
8:22
That's it. That's all that
8:24
we have from this. What we know of him
8:26
is that he seems to have gone by the
8:28
name Shams al-Din, but we're just going
8:30
to call him Batuta, since that's what most
8:33
people know him as is Ibn Batuta. He
8:36
came from a very educated background,
8:38
a family of Qadis, which is
8:40
like Islamic judges, and he
8:42
was extremely dedicated and devoted to Islam, which
8:44
he studied extensively over the course of his
8:46
entire life. And before
8:49
we explain that and get into the
8:51
story, you were asking if
8:53
he came from a wealthy or a
8:55
judge as wealthy. I mean, if they took bribes, I'm sure
8:57
they could be. Oh, okay. Yeah, fair.
8:59
Yes, yes. But this is a
9:01
crucial detail that I think needs
9:03
to be explained because many people
9:05
listening won't understand the details of varying
9:08
different religions. Like most people who are listening
9:10
to this probably know more about Christianity than
9:12
they do from Islam. And so what I'm
9:14
going to be explaining here directly comes from
9:17
the Encyclopedia Britannica for anyone wondering. But
9:19
what a Qadi is, is a
9:21
Muslim judge who renders decisions according
9:23
to Sharia law, like Islamic law.
9:26
The Qadi's jurisdiction theoretically includes civil
9:28
as well as criminal matters, but
9:31
in most cases, it is primarily
9:33
a civil thing, especially in relation
9:35
to advice and marriage and these
9:38
kinds of things. In
9:40
modern states, like if you look at
9:42
it nowadays, these are things that still
9:45
exist, but the Qadis that exist now
9:47
generally only hear cases that are related
9:49
to your personal issues and religious customs,
9:51
like those involving inheritance, marriage and divorce,
9:54
stuff like that. But
9:56
originally, the Qadi's work was
9:58
restricted to non-administrative tasks like
10:00
arbitrating disputes, rendering judgments and
10:02
matters that were brought before
10:04
him and eventually they would
10:06
go on to assume a
10:08
lot of important managerial roles
10:10
within communities. Things like
10:12
literally being the guardians of the
10:14
property for anyone who's orphaned. Like
10:17
if you had a bunch of soldiers who went out and
10:19
then they got killed, you know, and there's orphans that are
10:21
left behind, the property would be overseen by the judges to
10:24
make sure that they don't get taken advantage of and abused.
10:27
Also this applies to people who had
10:29
cognitive disabilities or just really in general
10:31
others that were not capable of actually
10:33
overseeing their own affairs and interests. He
10:36
even had control of marriages for
10:38
women who did not have any
10:41
parents. Like let's say that they didn't
10:43
have a father or an uncle or an older brother
10:45
or someone that was supposed to be managing
10:47
their marriage, right?
10:51
In that scenario... What does it
10:53
mean managing them, like managing
10:55
them getting married or managing them
10:57
being married? Both. Explain.
11:01
Well, specifically in this case is like if
11:03
you had a person who, let's
11:05
say that they had no male relatives, then
11:07
that means that in their marriage, it would
11:09
be the caddy that would be the person
11:11
that would be there to kind of protect
11:13
them, to oversee them. And
11:15
in the case of like
11:17
a person who is getting married, the
11:20
way that that would be organized to control, there's
11:22
a variety of different ways this could happen. And
11:24
I'm not going to speak for literally all societies,
11:26
but generally a caddy would be able to oversee
11:28
and influence how like if a marriage
11:30
was even going to go forth, because it would
11:32
be almost like being a guardian for
11:34
an orphan. That
11:36
sort of thing. Makes sense. Even
11:39
though there are cases of women
11:41
having more or certain
11:43
rights within Islamic societies, there
11:45
are many other cases where they do not and
11:47
are specifically they have a guardian that actually has
11:50
to control things. It really varies
11:52
depending upon the time, place and area
11:54
and the specific culture that is involved.
11:57
But that's what we're referring to here. Theoretically
11:59
though. The. Cardio Decision.
12:02
Was final. The all maps.
12:05
Ellie theoretically which is something that
12:07
with the in these communities gave
12:09
them very powerful roles in Muslim
12:11
societies. And because the Kati
12:13
performed in the central function in or the
12:16
Muslim society, the requirement to actually be one
12:18
of those was something that was very carefully
12:20
controlled and stipulated. You. Had to be
12:22
a adult Muslim Mail. Of good character
12:24
so no one who was corrupt though obviously
12:26
things could happen. They. Had to possess
12:29
sounds knowledge of Sharia law and was
12:31
a free man. You. Could not have
12:33
a slave that would grow to become
12:35
a. Gaudy. That couldn't happen. In
12:38
the Seventh and eighth centuries, the Totti were
12:40
expected to be capable of delivering or deriving
12:42
the specific rule of law firm their sources
12:44
and a cron. They had to know that
12:46
beat the traditions of the prophet, They had
12:48
to know the injure the consensus the community
12:50
They had no all these veering details. And.
12:53
Although this was the ideal of what
12:55
was supposed to happen, in practice, Muslim
12:57
states began to appoint parties on the
12:59
condition that the issue judgments according to
13:01
a very specific school of Islamic law,
13:04
because with time Islam would splinter into
13:06
varying different. Sorts.
13:08
Of Law for how it was supposed to. Work
13:11
and this was done specifically to guarantee ruler
13:13
ship control of the region and also to
13:15
guarantee that it was actually predictable Me knew
13:17
what was going to happen. Anyway,
13:20
The reason why I'm explaining of is the reason why
13:22
I'm having to establish with a hobby is is that.
13:25
This is what. What to
13:27
tell was. He was a copy.
13:29
He was very well educated. And.
13:32
Oh my God did he know this well and
13:34
he utters to Islam. According.
13:37
To the records, he memorized the
13:39
koran and as he reports, would
13:41
sometimes go and recited in it's
13:43
entirety. Twice. A day. For
13:46
like during his travels. Along and sicker.
13:48
Ah yes. Pretty extensive. I don't
13:50
know the actual page count of but it would
13:52
be, but you're talking about reciting something that is
13:54
essentially. The. Bible? Yeah, other. You
13:56
can recite the bible twice in one
13:58
day. Know and it's not as long as the
14:00
bible. I get it's not. But. Still,
14:03
That is reciting an entire
14:05
book. Twice per day.
14:07
And. That's just what he would do because he knew
14:10
it by heart or early. In
14:12
June Of Thirteen, Twenty five, This
14:15
is when he decided as a young man I
14:17
think he was twenty one years old at this
14:19
point. He decides that it
14:21
is time that he goes on his
14:23
first pilgrimage to Mecca and there he
14:25
would write quote I set out alone
14:27
having neither fellow traveler interest companionship I
14:29
might find here nor caravan was part
14:32
I might join. With. Swayed by
14:34
an over mastering impulse within me and
14:36
desire long cherished to my bosom to
14:38
visit the the lustrous sanctuaries. So.
14:40
I brief my resolution to quit my
14:42
dear one female and male and forced
14:44
took my home as birds forsake their
14:46
nests. My. Parents, being yet in the
14:48
bonds of life it weighed solely upon me, depart
14:51
from them. And both day and I
14:53
were afflicted with sorrow with the sense that the
14:55
separation. Some. Of us
14:57
love history others use to or never
14:59
did because history was presented as nothing
15:01
but the rote memorization of names, dates
15:03
and facts. Basically.
15:05
The story to the left out in that
15:08
made history kind of soft. My.
15:10
Name is Greg Jackson. I'm a
15:12
university professor with a Phd in history.
15:14
In bringing history to life is my
15:16
passion. That's. Why I created
15:18
my podcast history That Doesn't Sauce. I
15:21
want to teach you everything you need. You know about
15:23
us history but I do so through stories. Let
15:26
me tell you that George Washington
15:28
begging may not even pumps clear
15:30
bird seed in Union soldiers in
15:32
in in fire and sleep Frederick
15:34
Douglas risking his life, liberty and
15:36
about so many other cities as
15:38
the real experiences me to do
15:40
Susie's and social movement is congressional
15:42
to be hacked pop on the
15:44
way to describe the his that
15:46
Doesn't Saturday ensuing mean Professor Greg
15:48
Jackson every other week for a
15:50
new episode or I'd like to
15:52
tell you the story. Did
15:57
archaeologists discovered Noah's Ark? Is.
16:00
The Rapture Coming as soon as the
16:02
Euphrates River dries up to the Bible?
16:04
Condemn Abortion. Don't you wish you had
16:06
a trustworthy academic resource to help make
16:08
sense of all of this. I'm
16:12
Dan Feature and sees award winning bible
16:14
scholar and Six Sox sensation Doctor Damn
16:16
Mccloughan and we want to invite you
16:18
to the Data Over Dogma podcast where
16:21
our mission is to increase public access
16:23
to the academic study of the bible
16:25
and religion and also to combat the
16:27
spread of misinformation about the same. Thing
16:30
you know in a fun way. Every
16:33
week we tackle fascinating topics. we go
16:35
back to source materials in their regional
16:37
languages, and we interviewed top scholars in
16:39
the field. So whether you're a devout
16:42
believer for you're just interested in a
16:44
clear eyed, deeply informed look at one
16:46
of the most influential books of all
16:48
time. We think you're going to love
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the Data over Dogma podcast wherever you
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subscribe to awesome shows. This
16:57
was going to beat the hawks
16:59
which for people not familiar with
17:01
islam that is the sacred pilgrimage
17:03
in which you actually go to
17:05
the whole these sites. In.
17:07
Mecca. This. Is where you go
17:10
to the at Aqaba. This is where.
17:12
Did. This is easily be holiest site
17:15
in all of his last. Financially.
17:18
He said himself only up to specifically
17:20
accomplish the pilgrimage. He didn't really have
17:23
any kind of thought about going further
17:25
than Mecca. There was no plan to
17:27
become mister worldwide. As you said, gabby,
17:30
That wasn't supposed to happen. And
17:32
from there he would travel across North
17:35
Africa to Tunis, whereupon entering the city.
17:37
He would record how he felt
17:40
incredibly lonely and homesick. As.
17:42
He would say pounds Hope would come forward
17:44
on all sides and greet in question one
17:46
another, but not a soul said a word
17:48
to be greeting to me since there was
17:50
none of them that I knew. i
17:52
felt so sad at hard on account of my
17:55
loneliness that i could not restrained the tears that
17:57
started to or that started to my eyes and
17:59
wept federal And I mean,
18:01
come on, look, back
18:03
in the day, travel was not easy.
18:05
You and I travel a lot. Like we do
18:07
this a lot. And even then, we still
18:10
can kind of get homesick and tired of it
18:12
from being away for a time. I think it
18:15
only happens when you're in like a town
18:17
or city where it's just not,
18:20
you're not vibing with it. Yeah, that's true.
18:22
And then you're like, ooh, time to go. And you got
18:24
to think about this though, back in the day, it
18:26
would have been way harder for people. It would have
18:28
been much harder, longer, and way more scary of a
18:30
journey. Literally anyone in this scenario
18:32
would feel a little bit homesick, you know? But
18:35
when he did this, he was being consoled
18:37
by a fellow pilgrim who introduced him to
18:39
other educated men. And with this
18:42
help, he was able to find lodging at the
18:44
College of Booksellers. From there,
18:46
he would leave Tunis for Alexandria, Egypt, and
18:48
the company of a caravan for protection on
18:50
the road, which is a strategy that he
18:52
would very often employ, oftentimes employ throughout his
18:54
travels. Back in the day, you
18:56
didn't really want to be traveling alone. It
18:59
was very risky from, you know, bandits, disease,
19:01
literally anything could happen. And
19:03
in Alexandria, he would meet a very
19:06
devout mystic by the name of Baham
19:08
al-Din, who, according to a story, would
19:10
prophesize that he would visit Sindh, which
19:12
is in Pakistan, he would visit India
19:15
and China. And there he would enjoy
19:17
the hospitality of al-Din's three brothers who
19:19
lived in those regions. So
19:21
kind of a bit of prediction or foreshadowing to
19:24
come. Do we know that that
19:26
actually happens? No, but that is the story that
19:28
he would say. Later
19:30
on, while he was in Alexandria, while
19:32
staying with the Sheik al-Mashidi, even Matuta
19:34
would have a dream, apparently, in which
19:36
he was carried by a great bird
19:38
to Mecca, but then beyond to lands
19:40
that he never thought to see. The
19:43
Sheik would go and interpret his dream for him
19:46
as being a sign that he would reach Mecca,
19:48
but his travels were going to take him
19:50
way further than that. And
19:53
these experiences that he would have in
19:55
Alexandria would cause him to re-think his
19:57
original plan. Was he really going to just
19:59
return to Mecca? turn home after the pilgrimage? No,
20:02
instead he was thinking what would
20:05
happen if he would travel, not
20:07
for the sake of going to any particular place,
20:09
but just literally travel for the sake of traveling.
20:12
The journey over the destination was gonna be the thing
20:14
that was going to be more important. You
20:17
know, it's kinda like one of the things that we do. You
20:19
know how like when we're planning to actually go to a place,
20:21
we're like, hey, do we want to make a plan of every
20:23
single site that we're gonna be going to? No,
20:27
we're just gonna frickin' go. We
20:29
just go for it. We just literally go for it and see
20:31
what it is that we find, and we ultimately end up having
20:33
a lot more fun, I think, because then we don't have to
20:35
stress about going to each and every
20:37
single thing and hitting every single target, you know?
20:41
Well, either way, from Alexandria,
20:43
he would go to Cairo, and
20:45
from there he would move through Palestine and
20:47
Syria towards Mecca, and when he
20:49
would travel through Palestine, he would write,
20:51
quote, I visited Bethlehem, the birthplace of
20:53
Jesus. The site is covered by
20:55
a large building, and the Christians regard it with
20:58
intense veneration and hospitably entertain
21:00
all who alight at it, and
21:03
upon reaching Jerusalem, he would marvel at the
21:05
Alaska Mosque, writing that the sacred mosque is
21:07
the most beautiful building, and it is said
21:09
to be the largest mosque in the world.
21:12
In Damascus, he would say that it was
21:15
the city which surpasses all other cities in
21:17
beauty, as he would write that he would
21:19
record the generosity of the government and the
21:21
upper classes in providing endowments to those that
21:24
were less fortunate and for developing varying parts
21:26
of the city. This
21:28
was going to be something that he
21:30
would marvel at, just the differences in
21:32
all the varying peoples around the world,
21:34
and he, in particular, loved the beautiful
21:37
old cities of Islam. He had the
21:39
most to say when describing things like
21:41
this. And the
21:43
Hajj caravan that he had joined,
21:45
that he would be a part of, that
21:47
it was steadily moving towards Mecca, with time
21:50
it would grow and grow and grow. This
21:53
is something that as people would move towards
21:55
it, you would naturally want to gravitate towards
21:57
a caravan like this. And
21:59
this... This would be all for safety, for your
22:01
own kind of security. And
22:03
the one that he was a part
22:06
of was likely composed of several thousand
22:08
people. That
22:10
is really extensive, especially considering back in the
22:12
day. And
22:15
every person that participates in a
22:17
caravan like this, they're responsible for
22:19
themselves. They need to make sure
22:21
that if they are going to be riding an animal, that
22:23
that is their own, that they have secured that. They need
22:25
to have their own supplies. They need to have money to
22:27
pay for all the very different expenses that are going to
22:29
come up. But because Ibn
22:31
Battuta was still young and
22:34
poor and an unemployed pilgrim,
22:37
he couldn't really do much. And
22:39
so he took whatever support, whatever charity, anything
22:42
that he could get and he would take
22:44
it. For his words, he
22:46
managed to make friends with a law professor
22:48
who would quote, hire camels for me and
22:50
gave me traveling provisions and money in addition
22:53
saying to me that it will come in
22:55
useful for anything of importance that you may
22:57
need or you may need of, may God
23:00
reward. And from there, he
23:03
was actually able to begin his hodge.
23:06
I want to go on a journey with a camel.
23:09
Maybe like a short one. It wasn't mean though.
23:11
I like 10 miles. Can a camel? Yeah, I'm sure
23:13
they can do a light 10 miles. Yeah,
23:15
they definitely can. Camels
23:17
are creatures of endurance rather than speed.
23:20
They can go on and walk much
23:22
greater distances than horses can. Are
23:24
elephants the ones where they get back
23:26
problems from being ridden? They do. Yes.
23:30
Elephant spines were not designed in order to be able
23:32
to accommodate saddles and things like that. So
23:35
they also, this has been a PSA
23:37
to anyone who I see on an elephant.
23:40
Don't do that. I mean, they're nice. Don't
23:43
do that. Like it's one of those
23:45
things where the, you would see these constructions
23:47
of like war platforms that would go on
23:49
their back and those, the only reason the
23:51
elephants are able to actually sustain those during
23:53
times of war is because they were designed
23:55
in such a way to redistribute the weight
23:58
as much as possible. there
24:00
are these scenarios of, and this is gonna
24:02
sound bad when I say this, American
24:05
tourists and others
24:08
that would go to places like in Thailand
24:10
and others where you can go and ride
24:12
elephants, and the
24:14
tourists of these were much
24:17
larger, we should say, than the average
24:20
person. The
24:22
reality of it is that when you
24:24
put a person that weighs two and
24:26
a half to three times as much
24:28
as the average person on
24:30
the back of an elephant, this is
24:32
something that can actually hurt them. Also
24:35
when you see like three people on one, you're like, why?
24:37
Yeah, that is not something that you should be doing. No,
24:40
absolutely not. But at least
24:42
in this scenario with the camels, even
24:45
Matutto was able to actually begin his hodge, so it was something
24:47
that was helpful for him. And
24:49
when this would happen, there wasn't going to
24:51
be any kind of serious incidents. Nothing would
24:53
happen. The caravan would end up
24:55
arriving at Medina, which is the city of
24:57
the Apostle of God from this. This would
24:59
be the place where like Muhammad and a
25:01
small group of followers had retreated from Mecca
25:03
when it had been hostile to him. And
25:06
his flight to Medina, which is the
25:08
the Hirdra, this would mark the beginning
25:10
of the Muslim calendar. When the Prophet
25:13
had died back in 632, his grave
25:15
in Medina became the site of pilgrimage
25:17
that is the second holiest site in
25:19
Islam. It is second only to the
25:21
Kaaba itself in Mecca. So it's
25:23
extremely important, which is why they talk
25:26
about in Islam, the twin cities of
25:28
Mecca and Medina. So
25:30
then traveling for several more days
25:32
and visiting more holy sites, they
25:34
finally came close to Mecca. And
25:37
when he arrives there, he performs the
25:39
rituals that are necessary for every Muslim to
25:41
do dressed in the simple white ear and
25:44
cloth that he had worn since he left
25:46
Medina. And first he went to
25:48
the Kaaba, the holy shrines are shaped
25:50
like a giant cube. And there he
25:52
would describe the standing at Arfat, which
25:54
is an essential part of the Hach.
25:57
What would happen during this event is that on the
25:59
ninth day the month of the Hajj,
26:01
pilgrims would go to the plain called the
26:03
Arafat which was 12 miles east
26:05
of Mecca, and there they would stand
26:07
before the Mount of Mercy where Adam in
26:09
Islam had prayed and where Muhammad gave his
26:12
farewell sermon in 632, and there they would
26:14
recite prayers,
26:16
listen to sermons until sunset, and then
26:18
on the 10th morning there is supposed
26:20
to be a feast, and the pilgrims
26:22
will pick up a handful of pebbles
26:24
and cast seven of them at the
26:26
western pillar of Mina, just as Abraham
26:28
threw stones at the devil to suggest
26:30
that Abraham didn't need to sacrifice his
26:32
son as God had commanded. Because
26:35
there's variance to the story depending upon
26:37
whether you're looking at it from Judaism,
26:39
Christianity, or Islam, and that is
26:42
the story that goes within Islam. Even
26:45
Battuta would stay in Mecca for three weeks,
26:48
and there he would make visits to other
26:50
sites he would meet with holy men, and
26:52
he would study with them. It's
26:54
at this point that even
26:56
Battuta had actually graduated from
26:58
his initial goal. He had achieved
27:01
the status of Al-Hajj, as in
27:03
one who had been on the
27:05
Hajj, which was a very important
27:07
status for a Muslim scholar. It's
27:10
really an important status for any Muslim,
27:12
but especially important to a Qadi. That
27:14
was a huge mark of what's
27:17
the right word? Paidi? I
27:19
think that would be the right word that I
27:22
would use here. It was something that was hugely
27:24
important to status and conviction. The
27:27
thing is, do you have any idea how long it took
27:29
for him to reach this point, Gabby? A
27:32
few years. Actually, close. It
27:35
took him a year and a half to reach his destination.
27:37
See, I was guessing a couple, but I was like, ooh, I
27:39
need to leave it more vague. No, see,
27:42
literally, that is, it takes a long
27:44
time to be able to do any
27:46
of this. And he started from Morocco,
27:48
meaning he had walked all the way
27:50
across North Africa, going all the way
27:52
down from Egypt, down into Arabia, just
27:55
to get to this point. And
27:58
he would actually go and make three of them. other
28:00
trips to Mecca in his lifetime. But
28:03
that wasn't going to happen yet. Rather
28:06
than return home, he thought about all the
28:08
things that he had done, all the things
28:10
that he wanted to do, and instead of
28:12
simply getting a permanent job, no, he could
28:15
instead travel. He could continue
28:17
to find work as a scholar or
28:19
a judge, something that everyone in the
28:21
Islamic world needed at random points and
28:23
was always welcome whenever they would show
28:25
up. His homesickness was
28:27
gone, but Tutu had
28:29
decided that he was going to see the
28:32
world. So
28:34
it was then that on November 17th, 1326,
28:36
Ibn Battuta would leave Mecca and from there
28:39
join a caravan of pilgrims in an official
28:41
caravan of the Persian state. There
28:43
he was treated to a half of a
28:45
double camel litter by a rich official who
28:47
was quite impressed with Ibn Battuta's learning and
28:50
also friendly personality. This was something
28:52
that was going to become very common for
28:54
him throughout his travels, that he always seemed
28:56
to know how to ingratiate himself into the
28:58
upper echelons of society and make friends with
29:00
people, something that would be very important to
29:03
guaranteeing him safe passage and also for supplying
29:05
him with any kind of goods, food, and
29:07
anything else that he needed. They
29:09
marched at night by torchlight so that,
29:12
quote, you saw the countryside gleaming with
29:14
light and darkness turn into a radiant
29:16
day. There was that many people with
29:18
torches. The
29:21
wife of the caliph had paid for the construction
29:23
of a chain of different watering tanks and wells
29:25
along the trail in order to keep the caravan
29:27
safe, and the entire journey from
29:29
Mecca to Mesopotamia took approximately 44 days,
29:34
which is a long time, but
29:36
that was short in comparison to what the
29:38
initial Hajj had taken. In
29:40
Al-Najaf, Ibn Battuta would visit a holy
29:42
site that was important to all Muslims,
29:44
but especially important to the Shia communities
29:46
that lived there, because in
29:48
Al-Najaf was the mausoleum of
29:50
Ali, who was the fourth
29:52
caliph and successor to Muhammad.
29:55
This was Muhammad's nephew and son-in-law,
29:57
and it was here that even
29:59
Battuta would meet Sufi Muslims for
30:01
the first time, people who would
30:04
try to find God through experiences,
30:06
things like twirling around in a
30:08
trance, using music, poetry, all kinds
30:10
of stuff in order to communicate
30:12
with God. When you say
30:14
twirling around, like, spinning until you're
30:16
dizzy. Have you heard of the term Whirling Dervish?
30:19
No. Okay, so this is an old
30:21
term and in many cases it has a kind of
30:23
a racial connotation to it
30:25
here. It's something that
30:28
was used as a insult even back
30:30
in the day, but the initial terminology
30:32
for what it would be referring to
30:34
for like Sufi Whirling Dervishes is specifically
30:36
they would dance with
30:38
lots of spinning. Imagine
30:41
it like what our daughter does, what Joya does, where she
30:43
just continuously spins and spins and spins and spins and
30:45
spins and she does it until she gets super dizzy and
30:47
falls over laughing. This
30:49
is pretty much what they did,
30:51
along with many, many, many other things because
30:54
the senses that they tried
30:56
to impart upon their body was
30:58
to give them almost out of body
31:00
experience without actually having, you know, substance
31:02
abuse or anything like that. Okay.
31:06
So spinning, doing these
31:08
actions, imagine it like a
31:10
much more lively variant of some of those
31:12
churches that you would see in the United
31:14
States where they would be taken over by
31:16
the Holy Ghost if you've seen anything like
31:18
that, like the videos of it. Yes,
31:21
I have. Okay. So we have
31:23
something called a Shoutr Baptist, not sure if
31:25
we have that in the US. I just
31:27
know that's what they're called back home and
31:29
they would do these TV shows where they
31:31
would do that. It
31:34
was always interesting to watch the live
31:36
streams of the sermons. Oh,
31:38
I bet. I bet. And the
31:40
thing about this, and I have to specify this because when
31:42
I mentioned Sufi Muslims, it
31:45
would be a disservice for me not to mention that
31:47
this is one of the variants
31:50
of Islam that has been continuously
31:52
discriminated against in many parts of
31:54
history. Like when
31:56
hardline Islamic extremist factions would come
31:58
into power. Sufi Islamists
32:00
in general are seen as heretics by
32:03
many of these and have a tendency
32:05
to be eradicated why
32:08
because they're seen as something that is
32:10
a How do
32:12
I even explain this? That it's
32:14
it's seen as a kind of heresy
32:16
for some hard-line Muslims. Okay, so
32:19
they're seen as not being
32:22
real Muslims What yeah,
32:25
is it like how in sometimes in Christianity
32:27
people look at other Christians and they're like you're
32:29
not a real Christian sort of yes And
32:31
you know how there's that whole thing with the
32:34
Jesuits and what they would do to convert natives
32:36
for like ingratiating some of the natives beliefs into
32:38
Christianity and in order to try to make the
32:40
transition easier Yes Sufi Muslims
32:42
would oftentimes be in areas that
32:45
were more multicultural and They
32:48
tended to do the same kind of thing
32:50
of taking upon some local customs and other
32:52
thing and integrating it into their practices That
32:54
was off. That was something that made them be
32:56
viewed by more problematic
33:00
Islam sex as being heresy
33:04
So they had the tendency to be strongly discriminated
33:06
against but when he witnessed this this was something
33:08
that he was meant He was fascinated by it
33:11
more than anything else So
33:13
once he left this region after leaving Clinton
33:15
the small caravan would travel to green-brown valleys
33:18
for several days at a time Without
33:20
encountering any towns the only people that
33:22
they ever managed to encounter during this
33:25
time were Berber camps and groups of
33:27
camel herds This
33:29
is where they would then arrive
33:31
at Basra something that was a
33:33
city that was famous in Islamic
33:36
history but
33:39
Even Batuta was very disappointed by this this
33:42
was a city that Years
33:44
before had been famous for
33:46
being come utterly beautiful But
33:50
the city had drastically shrunk in population
33:52
and importance from what it once was
33:55
When he attended a Friday service in the
33:57
mosque, he was surprised that there were large
33:59
amounts of of errors in grammar that was
34:01
being committed by the leader. He
34:03
learned that in this town, there was not
34:05
a man left who knew anything about the
34:07
science of grammar. It had transformed
34:10
from a city of beauty and wonder and
34:12
education and learning to a
34:14
complete backwater. And
34:16
you may wonder, why did that happen?
34:19
Why did that happen? The Mongols killed
34:21
everybody. That checks out,
34:23
actually, yeah, that'll do it. That'll
34:25
do it. Yeah, we're gonna talk about this a little bit,
34:27
I'm sure, when we go into some of the Mongol conquest and talking
34:29
about those in history. But do you remember that when I talked about
34:31
the, like, Timur Lane and
34:33
other different Mongol conquerors who came in
34:36
and built literal pyramids of skulls? Sometimes,
34:40
when you say something so brutal, I just block
34:42
it from my memory. Yeah, so
34:44
the Mongols had come in here earlier,
34:46
and this is before Timur Lane. Timur
34:49
Lane hasn't even happened yet, and the
34:51
regions in this have been largely depopulated.
34:53
I think I saw something in here
34:55
looking at it before, and I cannot
34:57
remember if I put this in here,
34:59
but the region around there was estimated
35:03
100 years earlier to have a population of about
35:05
two and a half million, and
35:07
that was reduced to around
35:09
700,000. I
35:13
think it was the number, or it was a
35:15
ridiculously small number, like reduced by over 75% by
35:17
the time that
35:20
even Batuta arrives, because that many people
35:22
had been killed. It
35:24
was, or not even by the time
35:27
that he arrived, but afterwards with Timur Lane, it was
35:29
horribly brutal. And
35:31
so he continued on from his journey after being disappointed
35:33
by the city that still had managed to survive, even
35:36
if it had shrunk, by taking a
35:38
small sailboat up the river to the city of Abadan.
35:41
And along the river, he saw an uninterrupted
35:43
succession of fruit gardens and overshadowing pong groves,
35:45
both to the right and left, with traders
35:47
sitting in the shade of the trees, selling
35:50
bread, fish, dates, milk, and fruit,
35:53
and it was a luscious and beautiful place. Further
35:56
on in a marshy area far from civilization,
35:58
he looked up a famous hermit. who
36:00
seemed so peaceful and happy with his
36:02
life that for a while Batuta even
36:04
thought that his journey was going to
36:06
end right here. That this
36:09
was an Islamic scholar that had
36:11
found it all, that was completely
36:13
satisfied with life and was a
36:15
wonderful, knowledgeable person. And
36:18
he thought this is where he could potentially spend the
36:20
rest of his life in service to that holy man.
36:23
But no, the next day, he was back on
36:26
the road heading to Ishaan, the orchard city.
36:32
Now, Ishaan, which is in modern day Iran, this
36:34
was another city that had been destroyed by the
36:37
first Mongol invasion, but the future
36:39
destruction by the later Mongol leader, Tamar
36:41
the Lame or Tamerlane, oh God,
36:44
that was going to be so much worse.
36:47
Tamerlane was the guy who would dominate
36:49
all of Persia from 1387. And
36:51
I think I'm pretty sure we did
36:54
a patron exclusive podcast episode
36:56
on specifically that guy. His
36:59
invasion of one city of Ishaan alone, that
37:01
led to more than 70,000 deaths. And
37:05
this is where the records would say that he stacked
37:07
heads like pyramids, which
37:09
is quite brutal. Even
37:12
Batuta would lodge for two weeks there at a
37:14
large Sufi center and there he would see the
37:16
sites meet with religious and legal scholars
37:19
and in general, just enjoy himself before moving
37:21
on. Afterwards, you would go and
37:23
visit Shiraz after traveling another 300 miles to the south.
37:27
And Shiraz luckily had not been destroyed
37:29
by the Mongols. The thing
37:31
was, it was way too far south and it
37:34
was way too hot. It just wasn't a climate
37:36
that was suitable to be able to be reached
37:38
by the Mongol hordes. So
37:40
the city actually ended up surviving. And
37:43
this would end up growing in massive size due
37:45
to the sheer amount of refugees that were fleeing
37:47
from the north. The arrival
37:49
of well educated fugitives would stimulate this
37:51
huge cultural growth in literature and art
37:53
and everything, which would amaze Batuta who
37:56
would say that quote, its inhabitants are
37:58
handsome and figure and clean in their
38:00
dress. In the whole east, there is
38:02
no city except Shiraz, which approaches Damascus
38:04
and its beauty of its bazaars, its
38:07
fruit gardens, and its rivers. It
38:09
was astounding. And it was
38:11
here that I found a very funny story over
38:13
the course of researching this, that Ibn Battuta heard
38:15
of the miracle of a sheik there, a local
38:17
leader. And the whole reason that I put in
38:20
this in the first place, Gabby, is because I
38:22
knew you would appreciate it. It is the story
38:24
of a guy who got saved by an elephant.
38:27
How? What occurred?
38:30
So I copied an abridged version of it into
38:32
here because there's no way I'm going to be
38:34
able to relate the entire thing, but as the
38:36
story goes, it is related on one occasion that
38:38
the sheik of this region set out for a
38:40
mountain, accompanied by 30 poor brethren.
38:43
They became hungry on the way to the mountain
38:46
and lost their bearings. They asked the sheik to
38:48
allow them to catch one of the small elephants,
38:50
which are exceedingly numerous in that place, and are
38:52
transported to the capital of the King of India.
38:55
The sheik forbade them, but their hunger
38:57
got the better of them. So they
38:59
disobeyed his instruction and seizing a small
39:01
elephant, they slaughtered it and ate its
39:03
flesh. The sheik, however,
39:05
refused to eat it. That
39:07
night as they slept, the elephants gathered
39:09
from every direction and came upon them.
39:12
They went about smelling each man and killing
39:14
him until they made an end of all
39:16
of them. The elephants then
39:18
smelled the sheik too, but offered no
39:21
violence to him. One of
39:23
them took hold of him, wrapped its trunk around
39:25
him, set him on his back, and brought
39:27
him to the place where there was some habitation. Then
39:30
the elephant as it came near the people of the village
39:32
seized him with its trunk and gently lifted him
39:34
off his back to the ground in full view
39:36
of them. The people then came
39:39
up and touched his robe for a blessing
39:41
and took him to their king where he
39:43
received a reward from three rubies. So
39:46
as the story goes, what ended up happening
39:48
is they go out there into the middle
39:50
of nowhere, they get lost, the men become
39:52
hungry, and they kill an elephant to eat
39:55
it. This is apparently in
39:57
a number of Muslim societies, very
39:59
badly. like you do not want to
40:01
eat the flesh of an elephant. While technically
40:03
you can, there
40:06
are a number of people who believe that
40:08
the eating of elephant flesh is prohibited in
40:10
the Quran. It
40:13
varies depending upon the time and place, but others
40:15
will say that it's extremely bad luck, and this is
40:17
why they did not do it. So it's
40:19
a funny little story about a guy who actually ends
40:21
up surviving by not eating something while everyone else around
40:23
him get killed. Either
40:25
way, from here, even Batuta would
40:27
continue on with other traveling companions and eventually
40:30
arrive at Baghdad, which was
40:32
at one time the capital of
40:34
the entire Abbasid Empire. The
40:37
thing is, and this is, I know that we talked
40:39
about it before when we talked about the Mongol invasions,
40:41
but yeah, Baghdad had
40:44
been destroyed. There he
40:46
went to honor its past and walk amongst
40:48
the ruins, and there he would imagine the
40:50
ghost of those who had lived in this
40:52
once magnificent capital city, which
40:54
at a time had had a population of
40:57
around a million people. But
41:00
that was no longer the case. As
41:02
he would describe it, quote, her outward
41:05
lineaments had departed and nothing remains of
41:07
her but the name. There
41:09
is no beauty in her that arrests the
41:11
eye or summons the busy passerby to forget
41:13
his business and to gaze. Which
41:16
I mean, to be fair, it literally wasn't as
41:18
bad as that. The Mongols had managed to leave
41:20
many of the public buildings standing and quite a
41:22
number of people still alive. They didn't kill a
41:24
lot of people, but they did actually end up
41:27
preserving quite a bit of it. In
41:29
fact, the army that had conquered
41:31
Baghdad had just finished stacking the
41:33
place and then immediately afterwards started
41:36
a restoration program in order to
41:38
rebuild it. But
41:40
it didn't matter. The destruction that had
41:42
been brought by the Mongol Empire in
41:44
the first place meant that Baghdad was
41:46
no longer going to be the
41:49
most important cultural center in the
41:51
region. And even
41:53
though most colleges were in ruins, one
41:56
college, though, had been built in 1227, years
42:00
before even Batuta had arrived and
42:03
weirdly enough fun fact that is
42:05
still operating to this day. It
42:08
has been restored and it's still open despite
42:10
the decades of war and conflict going on
42:12
in Iraq. So what I'm
42:14
talking about here is the it's just a fun fact
42:16
for anyone who is curious about this. The Al and
42:18
I'm gonna you know I'm gonna butcher the pronunciation of
42:21
it. Al-Musin-Siriya University.
42:25
He was founded in Baghdad by Caliph
42:27
Al-Musin-Siriya in 1227 and
42:30
is one of the oldest universities in the
42:32
world having survived the 1258 Mongol
42:34
invasion and also when it was bombed back
42:36
in 2007 by Sunni extremists. So
42:40
that's a fascinating little story right there. Anyway
42:44
in Baghdad he learned that Abu
42:47
Sayyid who was the Khan himself
42:49
like the Mongol Muslim ruler he
42:51
was staying there and soon he
42:53
was going to be leaving to his summer palaces
42:56
in the Sultaniyah. Even Batuta
42:58
would jump at the chance to try and
43:00
meet another ruler and he got himself invited
43:02
onto the royal caravan. The Il
43:04
Khan was about a year younger than him
43:06
and he would describe the king as being
43:09
the most beautiful of God's creatures. Which
43:11
I have to say from the beginning is
43:13
a very interesting way to describe
43:16
someone but remember how I
43:18
said that this guy would constantly ingratiate
43:20
himself into the upper echelons of different
43:22
societies. Yeah. This
43:24
was pretty much a tactic that would be used by any
43:27
chronicler or writer or anything is that
43:29
if you were going to be serving
43:31
or rather relying on the patronage of
43:33
a wealthy client you
43:36
wanted to make sure that you are you know on their
43:38
good side. He may have
43:40
actually been the most beautiful creature as
43:42
what Batuta would describe but we
43:45
don't really know. We would know
43:47
that he would admire him as a
43:49
true Muslim who would write both Arabic
43:51
and Persian. He could play the lute.
43:53
He could compose songs and poems and
43:55
apparently was a very wise ruler. The
43:58
Il Khan was an example of how
44:00
the Mongol warriors, their descendants
44:03
would eventually transition to becoming
44:05
not Mongols, but becoming
44:08
basically Persian and Muslim. If
44:11
the stories are to be believed, he was
44:14
a fantastic ruler, but this
44:16
was also not going to last. The
44:18
entire region at this point in
44:20
history is very unstable, and the
44:22
political foundations that he had made
44:24
over the past eight years where
44:26
he had ruled wasn't strong enough
44:28
to survive when he actually died.
44:31
So when he did die, his regime
44:33
in the entire region would collapse into
44:35
warfare in 1335, and
44:39
from there it was not going to be
44:41
pretty. Even Batuta would later
44:43
be told of the murder of Abu Sayyid by one
44:45
of his wives, who apparently – Gabi, remember when we
44:47
talked about the whole thing with – you
44:50
making a video about me and the Ottoman
44:52
Sultan and a harem and everything like
44:54
that? Yes, yes. Listen, one
44:57
of his wives poisoned him, okay?
45:00
One of his wives. One of his wives, yes, because he had
45:02
multiple. Maybe they all plotted it together. Maybe they were sick
45:04
of him. Well, no, but apparently this one
45:06
did it according to the story because she was
45:08
jealous of him loving another one of the wives.
45:10
Honestly, I could see that happening.
45:13
But you see exactly why that was something that
45:15
was never really all that stable. There was
45:17
always competition and jealousy. Yeah, but it's
45:19
like a reality TV show, but IRL. You
45:22
know, you get to live the drama. Yes.
45:25
Yes, yes. Live, or
45:27
in this case, literally be poisoned. Oh, I
45:30
wouldn't be poisoned – well, I might be if one of the other
45:32
wives hates me, I guess. No, no, very well could happen.
45:34
That was a thing that happened. And they would also try
45:36
to poison your children. Not
45:38
fun. Sounds very stable,
45:41
honestly. Anyway, after
45:43
– But anyway, that's why I'd let you have five wives.
45:46
I don't appreciate that thought. But
45:49
after he would die, the Amirs, which are the
45:51
military leaders of society, they would end up fighting
45:53
amongst each other for leadership. But
45:56
that has not happened yet at this point of the
45:58
story. For now, it's just fun travel. So,
46:01
Ibn Battuta would continue with the Royal Caravan
46:03
for 10 days, and from there
46:05
he would decide to join a part of
46:07
the caravan that was going to go north
46:10
to Tabriz, which was one of the most
46:12
important cities in Persia and was now part
46:14
of modern day Azerbaijan, the first
46:16
capital of the Ilkans. With
46:19
the advance of the Mongol army, the inhabitants
46:21
of Tabriz had been smart enough to actually
46:23
open their gates and welcome them into their
46:25
city without a fight, meaning they
46:28
didn't all get slaughtered. So
46:30
Tabriz effectively became the capital of
46:32
the conquering army, and this
46:35
city became an extremely important place
46:37
along the Silk Road with colonies
46:39
of people from all over the
46:41
world, from Venice, from Genoa, from
46:43
other European countries, as well as
46:45
Armenians, Arabs, and even Chinese traders.
46:47
It was a multicultural city that
46:49
was the staging point in between
46:51
East and West. There was
46:53
also actually a number of Christian churches there.
46:56
This city was one of the greatest
46:59
centers of learning and culture in the
47:01
world after the Mongol invasion. And
47:04
Ibn Battuta spent almost no time
47:07
exploring Tabriz though, because he
47:09
had to get back to Baghdad and
47:11
join another Hajj caravan. On
47:14
his way back he would tour other places, some
47:16
of them being described by Marco Polo, which is
47:18
the guy we talked about before, the Italian traveler
47:20
who had gone to this area 55
47:23
years earlier on his way to China. And
47:25
once he was back in Baghdad, the governor
47:27
would show him charity by giving him a
47:29
camel litter. He was then
47:31
expecting an easy trip returning home, but
47:35
you know what happened? It
47:37
was not an easy trip returning home. No,
47:39
in fact, you could say that the trip was pretty,
47:42
it was pretty shitty. What
47:44
happened, dysentery? Literally dysentery.
47:46
Yeah, I love how you knew where I
47:49
was going with the pun for that. He
47:51
literally got sick with dysentery and was just
47:53
shitting himself the entire way back. So reportedly
47:55
he had to get down from his litter
47:57
many times a day in order to relieve
48:00
himself, and by the time he
48:02
got to Mecca, he was incredibly
48:04
weak, because he
48:06
was constantly shitting himself. By
48:09
this point, naturally, when one is
48:11
suffering from dysentery, even Batuta needed
48:13
arrest. In
48:15
like over the course of a year, he
48:17
had managed to travel some 4000 miles. He
48:21
had crossed many different mountains, deserts, he had
48:24
visited some of the greatest cities of Iraq
48:26
and West and Persia. He had met with
48:28
scholars, with saints, and judges. He even met
48:30
a literal Mongol king. And
48:33
after around one year in Mecca, where
48:35
he would live a life of prayer
48:37
and learning and brotherhood and friendship, well,
48:41
he got bored. And he needed
48:43
to travel again. Me. Yep,
48:46
literally, that's what ends up happening with us. Every time we come
48:48
back, they call me, and I'm so tired, I don't want to
48:50
travel anymore. He's here for more than two months. Not
48:52
even two months. I don't
48:54
think we've made it to two months. It's usually
48:56
like a month. And we're like, Ooh,
48:58
this is kind of boring. True. But
49:00
honestly, half of that is not our own fault, because
49:02
we'll usually end up having some kind of event or
49:04
something else that we have to do for work and
49:07
actually travel. Yeah, true. It's only the last two trips
49:09
that we've been able to take care of ourselves to
49:11
do just because we wanted them versus because we had
49:13
to go to an event. Either
49:16
way, he was going to
49:18
travel again. And this time, he
49:20
was going to go to Africa. So
49:23
after Ibn Battuta had lived and studied in Mecca
49:25
for a year, he started his next adventure. From
49:28
Mecca, he would go on to Jiddah on
49:30
the Red Sea coast, where he and other
49:32
pilgrims would be crammed onto this tiny little
49:34
ship. The
49:37
region here in... I'm
49:39
not so at the right word that I should use here, but it's
49:41
like the Eastern Islamic region
49:43
going into the Indian Ocean, the type
49:45
of ship that they used here was
49:48
called a dal. And
49:50
this was a very good ship, a design
49:52
which was used for like over a thousand
49:54
years. And this was
49:57
Ibn Battuta's first time traveling
49:59
a sea. He
50:01
had never done this before. So
50:03
as you can probably guess, he wasn't really
50:05
looking forward to it. The
50:07
Red Sea is not normally easy to navigate. It has
50:09
a lot of coral reefs. It's got a lot of
50:11
rocks under the waterline. Storms
50:14
were very common here, as were pirates who were
50:16
going to wait for the ships with travelers so
50:18
they could rob and kill them. And
50:20
ships, especially something that was a smaller dao,
50:23
so it was great in places like the
50:25
Mediterranean, they were good
50:27
at riding the winds for the
50:29
monsoons. They were quite weak in a
50:31
storm, which made the
50:34
trip very hostile and a very real
50:36
possibility that everything could have just collapsed
50:39
and they may not have ever gone
50:41
to their destination. Which in this
50:43
case, almost happened, at
50:45
least Perpetuta. As he
50:47
would say, quote, we traveled on the sea
50:49
with a favoring wind for two days, but
50:52
thereafter the wind changed and drove us off
50:54
course. The waves of the sea
50:56
entered in amongst us in the vessel and the
50:58
passengers fell grievously sick. In
51:00
other words, this very shallow vessel that
51:02
they were in was getting just constantly
51:04
bombarded by waves that was going over
51:07
top into the boat itself. And
51:09
from that, he
51:12
and others got really sick, like
51:14
really seasick. Eventually,
51:17
the ship would have to head for
51:19
shore. And fortunately, even Perpetuta and
51:21
the other seasick passengers were able to then
51:23
rent camels and continue south on land because
51:25
quite literally they gave up. They could not
51:27
do it anymore. They just they could not
51:29
go by boat, even though it technically speaking
51:31
should have been faster. This
51:33
is like realistic travel adventures.
51:36
Literally a novel. Very little risk.
51:39
Yeah. And when he would go
51:41
there, he still would go to all the coastal cities.
51:43
He would go and visit there. He would go to
51:45
the villages and the high mountains of Yemen. And
51:48
in Thais, which was high on a mountain
51:50
slope, he would end up staying the Sultan
51:52
who would give him a horse. And
51:55
after a brief stay in Thais, he would continue
51:57
down to the coastal city of Aden which
52:00
is the city that guards the entrance to the Red
52:02
Sea. And there was
52:04
a place that was extremely
52:06
rich, especially thanks to his
52:08
geography. What do
52:10
you mean? Well, you see, Aiden was a city
52:12
that was built in the crater of an extinct
52:14
volcano with the eastern side being exposed to the
52:16
sea. And the harbor was surrounded by
52:19
stone walls and sea gates for protection. Because
52:21
of where it was situated, Aiden was able
52:23
to charge a tariff on, or like, you
52:25
know, attacks on basically any kind of good
52:27
that came through this port. So
52:30
ships were constantly bringing spices,
52:32
medicinal herbs, dyes, cloth, iron,
52:34
steel, silk, cotton, pearls, literally
52:36
anything you can imagine of
52:39
value, they were bringing it
52:41
here, all of this stuff.
52:43
And because they were, from where they were
52:45
situated, they were able to tax everything that
52:47
was going through it, making it a very
52:49
fabulously wealthy place to be. In
52:52
the time that Aiden Batuta lived, Muslim
52:54
traders had pretty much total control over
52:56
the western half of the Indian Ocean
52:58
trading centers. The entire thing was pretty
53:01
much like a massive Muslim lake around
53:03
which all these merchants had started businesses
53:05
and they could depend upon trade by
53:07
ship. These communities would
53:09
develop all over the varying coastal
53:11
places across India, Africa, et cetera.
53:14
And here they would develop places that would
53:16
be safe harbors to propagate Islam and also
53:18
make a ton of money. In
53:21
these places, if you were a person with
53:23
any kind of real brain, any kind of
53:26
real education, any kind of thought, you
53:28
could go here and you could probably
53:30
live a pretty good life, at
53:33
least if you were Muslim. Like
53:35
the thing is, it didn't really matter at this point
53:37
for what your racial background was because these were strong
53:40
multicultural centers. The one thing that
53:42
pretty much united all of them
53:45
was Islam. And this is the
53:47
network that even Batuta was able to travel. Because
53:50
the world was not completely
53:53
Muslim, here it was
53:55
more of a minority religion that was specifically among
53:57
traders. He would have a little bit more of
53:59
a difficult time. But because there
54:01
were always these isolated spots of Muslims
54:03
and wherever he went He would be
54:05
able to go and actually have some
54:07
kind of safety net now
54:10
still each site there was going to be
54:12
someone there a Fellow Muslim
54:14
a pilgrim a scholar someone he was able to
54:16
work with This was part of
54:18
the international brotherhood of Islam and he was going
54:20
to take advantage of all the charity that could
54:22
be offered here From Aiden
54:25
even Batuta would then decide to
54:27
have another adventure Before settling
54:29
down to try and have a permanent job down
54:32
the coast of East Africa at this time The
54:35
weather conditions were just right for the trip and
54:37
it was very easy to get a dow sailing
54:39
south The trading ships made their
54:41
way down the east coast of Africa stopping
54:43
it towns to trade for goods such as
54:46
ivory gold skin oil
54:48
animal skins slaves Ambergris
54:50
perfumes all the really valuable
54:52
trade goods His first
54:54
stop was a place called Zila which was a
54:57
port of the Christian kingdom of Ethiopia and
54:59
there it had a large Muslim Trading community whether
55:02
you would describe this place though was
55:04
not very kind as he would say
55:06
that it was the quote dirtiest most
55:08
disagreeable and most stinking town in the
55:10
world Oh Yeah,
55:13
the whole reason it wasn't because of necessarily
55:15
the people who lived there But rather because
55:17
of what they did it was
55:20
a massive harvesting station for fish like
55:22
there was fisheries were huge there So
55:24
they would fetch the fish and they
55:26
would butcher them there and also
55:28
they would butcher Camels so the blood of
55:30
the camels would fill the alleyways you would
55:32
say This meant that the
55:34
entire place raked of a fish market
55:37
and slaughterhouse So
55:39
to avoid that smell he would spend the night
55:41
on the ship even though the water at the
55:43
time was rough But he just he could not
55:45
deal with the stink of it He
55:48
then continued southward and 15 days later He
55:51
would reach Mogadishu which was the busiest
55:53
and richest of the East African ports
55:55
The Indian Ocean ports had long been active trading
55:57
centers for the Persian Arabic Indian and Europe
56:00
European merchants and these merchants would bring
56:02
their language, their culture and religion to
56:04
the region. As an example,
56:06
even Batuta even found that the
56:08
Sultan of Mogadishu both spoke his
56:10
native Somali but also Arabic which
56:12
waited a great thing for him
56:14
to be able to communicate with
56:17
and that his chief legal advisor
56:19
was actually an Egyptian. Multicultural!
56:22
Literally, that's all of these. Every place that
56:24
you see along here along Africa in these
56:26
regions, in these Islamic trading communities is that
56:28
everything are multinational merchant
56:31
communities. Everything is about
56:33
foreign trade. So they are hugely multi...
56:36
not multipolar. That's not the right word. What am
56:38
I thinking of this word here? They were
56:40
diverse. We're just going
56:43
to say they were very diverse and
56:45
they were largely populated in the outskirts
56:47
by black Africans that would speak African
56:49
languages like Somali in Mogadishu and Bantu
56:52
further south. And what would happen,
56:54
remember how I said that if you were a
56:56
Muslim merchant of with any kind of degree of
56:58
brains you could go down there and make a
57:00
good fortune? These landless
57:02
but somewhat wealthy Muslim men would end
57:04
up going down from Arabia and other
57:07
regions and they would make their fortunes
57:09
in these spots along the coast of
57:11
Africa and they would intermarry into the
57:13
local tribes. So they would oftentimes have
57:16
wives that were there as well as
57:18
back home. In some
57:20
areas this coastal mingling of languages would eventually
57:22
develop into language we know today of Swahili.
57:26
Because like Swahili was a combination
57:28
between local African languages and
57:31
Arabic. And that's where that comes from.
57:34
Since Ibn Battuta was a genuine real scholar
57:36
of Islam and law now, he was a
57:38
very welcome guest for all the local officials
57:40
that loved to have him. Everywhere
57:42
he went there would be feasting, he would
57:45
meet with important people, this would go on
57:47
for weeks before the ship would then continue
57:49
southward to Zanz and then Mombasa. And
57:52
from there he would continue to the
57:54
islands of Pemba and Zanzibar and finally
57:56
arrive at Kilwa in what is now
57:58
today part of Tanzania. This
58:01
was a hugely important trading city, something
58:03
that I when remember when we were
58:05
talking about varying different African kingdoms, I
58:07
specifically talked about Kilwa and Zanzibar. This
58:10
is something that probably deserves its own episode in the
58:12
future here. This was a ridiculously
58:15
rich city, famous for its gold
58:17
and its citizens had a very
58:19
high standard of living. The
58:21
ruling class lived in stone houses that were
58:23
up to three stories high, which was very
58:25
rare, especially in these parts of Africa here.
58:28
And these places even were equipped with
58:31
indoor plumbing. Most of the
58:33
population also lived in mud walled houses with
58:35
thatched roofs, but it was significantly better than
58:37
most huts that other people were living in.
58:40
Ibn Battuta there probably would go and
58:43
pray at the great mosque Kilwa, which
58:45
was one of the major important Islamic
58:47
sites of the region, but that
58:49
thing is now in ruins. Because
58:52
Ibn Battuta would go and describe
58:54
this in
58:56
intricate detail, it is
58:58
an extremely valuable resource because the
59:01
unfortunate reality is that again, the
59:03
entire thing is in ruins, meaning his is
59:06
one of the only key sources that we
59:08
have to study. And so historians have
59:10
to look at specifically his descriptions to know
59:12
what things actually looked like, which
59:15
is sad, but also on the same
59:17
end, cool. Because if this guy had
59:19
decided to just not travel, we
59:22
probably wouldn't have descriptions of all these things
59:24
that were major important sites. Like this
59:26
stinky city. Like this stinky city,
59:28
exactly. So Ibn Battuta
59:30
would stay in Kilwa for about two weeks and
59:33
with the changes in the monsoon winds, which that's
59:35
the thing, the traders follow the seasons of the
59:37
winds for what would happen for their, for when
59:39
they shift south and north, this is how they
59:42
know where it is that they're supposed to go.
59:45
This meant that with them shifting north, it
59:48
was time for him to go back. And so
59:50
a month later, he was back in southern
59:52
Arabia. And from here he would
59:54
decide on another short adventure, this time
59:56
to take a small ship to the Gulf of Oman. did
1:00:00
not like the crew of the ship, he and
1:00:02
a friend decided that they would just go to
1:00:04
Kalhat on foot. I thought you were
1:00:06
going to say they decided to just sail their own
1:00:08
ship. Nope. They decided
1:00:10
to go on foot. They got a guide
1:00:12
that they hired to help them and this
1:00:14
almost cost them their lives because that guide
1:00:17
tried to kill them. Of course. The guy
1:00:19
tried to kill them and rob them and
1:00:21
take their clothes and valuables but unfortunately, even
1:00:23
Batuta had a spear and he was able to
1:00:26
get it and then control the robber until they
1:00:28
were able to break free. And
1:00:30
finally, after becoming extremely sick and thirsty
1:00:32
and walking with swollen and bloody feet,
1:00:34
they would arrive at Kalhat and he
1:00:37
would stay with the governor for six
1:00:39
days in recover. After
1:00:41
this point, he was thinking about a return trip
1:00:43
to Mecca, which would be his third visit and
1:00:46
traveling mostly by land now, he would reach Mecca in
1:00:48
the winter of 1330. After
1:00:51
all of the exhausting sea voyages, climbing
1:00:53
mountains in Yemen and traveling across the
1:00:56
equator through the hottest places on earth
1:00:58
and almost losing his life, he
1:01:00
was tired. He was looking forward
1:01:03
to a long rest. And for
1:01:05
a time, that is what he
1:01:07
would have. Oh, he stopped traveling? I
1:01:09
mean, I got a dysentery,
1:01:12
almost getting killed by your guide. It's
1:01:14
a lot. Distinky city? Yeah,
1:01:17
thing is, it's not over. There is
1:01:19
still more drain. Like this at this point, it's probably like
1:01:21
what? He's a third of the way halfway through the journeying
1:01:23
of what it was that he'd be doing. And
1:01:25
that is precisely why I think that we are going to leave
1:01:28
things here for that today. At this point,
1:01:30
we've been talking for almost an hour. And if I
1:01:32
tried to cover the rest of this tale, it would
1:01:34
end up going for another, you know, hour and a
1:01:36
half, probably. So there's no way that we can really
1:01:38
get into that. But this means that we're going to
1:01:40
be doing a part one and a part two. It's
1:01:43
been a while since we actually did a
1:01:45
multi-part series on the podcast. That wasn't the
1:01:47
patron exclusive. That was like eight parts of
1:01:49
the best revolution. That thing was supposed to
1:01:51
be literally three, like three podcasts long and
1:01:53
it ended up being eight. So
1:01:55
sorry about that. For anyone, my patrons are
1:01:58
listening to this right now. But here is my problem. to
1:02:00
you. This is not going to be like
1:02:02
the Crusades episodes, which was also like eight episodes, and
1:02:05
it's not going to be like the French Revolution, which was
1:02:07
eight episodes, I think, if I
1:02:09
recall correctly. No, this is going to
1:02:11
be a simple part one and part two. We
1:02:13
have actually skipped quite a lot of the little
1:02:15
stories that have happened, but there's no
1:02:17
way that I could have included all of that and
1:02:19
actually moved forward in a timely manner. If
1:02:22
you want to know those stories, if you want
1:02:24
to read all this for yourself, you
1:02:26
should check out his book. You should check out
1:02:28
the Rilla because a good percentage of
1:02:30
this information when I'm not talking about
1:02:32
context specifically comes directly from the Rilla,
1:02:35
which I was able to get a
1:02:37
free PDF of. So my
1:02:39
friends, thank you very much for listening. I appreciate
1:02:41
all of you and I hope you have a good rest of your
1:02:43
day. Make sure to join us for our next
1:02:45
episode that we're going to be covering into this and also
1:02:47
let us know what kind of episodes you would like to
1:02:49
see here in the future with, you know, whatever subjects or
1:02:52
things that come to mind. Also, don't
1:02:54
forget to check out the links down in the
1:02:56
description. If you want ad free episodes, you can
1:02:58
check out our Patreon, which is down there. And
1:03:00
don't forget to please sign up for our trips
1:03:02
that we're going to be doing through Peru and
1:03:04
Germany because right now there are only a couple
1:03:06
spots left for the early bird special. And
1:03:08
if those are out of your price range, come
1:03:10
to the Reckoning. It's in Kentucky. It's a local
1:03:13
LARPing event. It's kind of like a fantasy-type world
1:03:15
and we're gonna be part of the Hadrian Empire
1:03:18
and we would love to have more friends. Some
1:03:20
people absolutely hate this podcast and
1:03:22
if you hate me and you want to hit
1:03:24
me with a foam sword, go
1:03:26
join the other side and then
1:03:28
you could hit him with the foam sword. Literally do that.
1:03:30
Thank you very much my friends and I
1:03:32
will see you next time. Bye! you
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