Book contents
- Frontmatter
- III CATHAY UNDER THE MONGOLS. EXTRACTED FROM RASHIDUDDIN
- IV NOTICES OF THE LAND ROUTE TO CATHAY AND OF ASIATIC TRADE IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY
- V JOHN DE' MARIGNOLLI AND HIS RECOLLECTIONS OF EASTERN TRAVEL
- VI IBN BATUTA'S TRAVELS IN BENGAL AND CHINA
- VII THE JOURNEY OF BENEDICT GOËS FROM AGRA TO CATHAY
- APPENDIX I LATIN TEXT OF ODORIC, FROM A MS. IN THE BIBLIOTHÈQUE IMPÉRIALE
- APPENDIX II OLD ITALIAN TEXT OF ODORIC, FROM A MS. IN THE BIBLIOTECA PALATINA AT FLORENCE
- APPENDIX III TRANSCRIPT FROM THE ORIGINAL MS. OF THE FIRST TWO CHAPTERS OF PEGOLOTTI
- INDEX TO “CATHAY AND THE WAY THITHER”
VI - IBN BATUTA'S TRAVELS IN BENGAL AND CHINA
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 October 2010
- Frontmatter
- III CATHAY UNDER THE MONGOLS. EXTRACTED FROM RASHIDUDDIN
- IV NOTICES OF THE LAND ROUTE TO CATHAY AND OF ASIATIC TRADE IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY
- V JOHN DE' MARIGNOLLI AND HIS RECOLLECTIONS OF EASTERN TRAVEL
- VI IBN BATUTA'S TRAVELS IN BENGAL AND CHINA
- VII THE JOURNEY OF BENEDICT GOËS FROM AGRA TO CATHAY
- APPENDIX I LATIN TEXT OF ODORIC, FROM A MS. IN THE BIBLIOTHÈQUE IMPÉRIALE
- APPENDIX II OLD ITALIAN TEXT OF ODORIC, FROM A MS. IN THE BIBLIOTECA PALATINA AT FLORENCE
- APPENDIX III TRANSCRIPT FROM THE ORIGINAL MS. OF THE FIRST TWO CHAPTERS OF PEGOLOTTI
- INDEX TO “CATHAY AND THE WAY THITHER”
Summary
INTRODUCTORY NOTICE
Abu-abdullah Mahomed, called Ibn Batuta, The Traveller (par excellence) of the Arab nation, as he was hailed by a saint of his religion whom he visited in India, was born at Tangier on the 24th February, 1304.
The duty of performing the Mecca pilgrimage must have developed the travelling propensity in many a Mahomedan, whilst in those days the power and extension of the vast freemasonry to which he belonged would give facilities in the indulgence of this propensity such as have never been known under other circumstances to any class of people. Ibn Batuta himself tells us how in the heart of China he fell in with a certain Al Bushri, a countryman of his own from Ceuta, who had risen to great wealth and prosperity in that far country, and how at a later date (when after a short visit to his native land the restless man had started to explore Central Africa), in passing through Segelmessa, on the border of the Sahra, he was the guest of the same Al Bushri's brother. “What an enormous distance lay between those two!” the traveller himself exclaims. On another occasion he mentions meeting at Brussa a certain Shaik Abdallah of Misr who bore the surname of The Traveller.
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- Cathay and the Way ThitherBeing a Collection of Medieval Notices of China, pp. 395 - 526Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010First published in: 1866