Ibn Battuta had feared for his life working as a judge under the moody and tyrannical Sultan of India, Muhammad Tughluq. But the Sultan had a task in mind, one that Ibn Battuta found fascinating. He wanted to make Ibn Battuta his ambassador to the Mongol court of China. He would accompany 15 Chinese messengers back to their homeland and carry shiploads of gifts to the emperor. Now he could get away from Muhammad Tughluq and visit more lands of Dar al-Islam in a grand style!
In 1341 Ibn Battuta set out from Delhi at the head of a group bound for China. Gifts from Muhammad Tughluq to the Mongol Emperor included 200 Hindi slaves, singers and dancers, 15 pages (boy servants), 100 horses, and great amounts of cloth, dishes, and swords. There were about 1,000 soldiers under his command to protect the treasure and supplies until they could board ships to China.
A few days outside of Delhi the group was attacked by about 4,000 Hindu rebels. Although vastly outnumbered, they defeated the rebels easily. Later, there was another attack and Ibn Battuta was separated from his companions. Suddenly a force of Hindus jumped out of the woods. Ten horsemen chased him at full gallop across the fields. He was able to outride three of them, and then hid from the rest in a deep ditch. After escaping, he was again confronted, this time by forty Hindus who robbed him of everything except his shirt, pants, and cloak. Some robbers kept their prisoner in a cave overnight and planned his death in the morning. Fortunately, Ibn Battuta who now had almost nothing more to rob, was able to convince his captors to let him go in exchange for his clothes.
Eight days later, exhausted, barefooted and wearing nothing but his trousers, Ibn Battuta was rescued by a Muslim who carried him to a village. Two days later he rejoined the party and was ready to proceed on his original mission to China.
The group continued to Daulatabad without further trouble. There they entered the city's fort which was surrounded by a wall 80 to 120 feet high on all sides and two and a half miles long. Here they were safe. [In two years this fort would be taken over by rival officers in rebellion against Sultan Muhammad Tughluq and they would start an independent Muslim kingdom.]
After a few days rest they continued to the coastal city of Cambay filled with foreign traders who lived in fine homes. Within days the group was at Gandhar where they boarded four ships. Three were large dhows to carry to the gifts, including the 100 horses and 215 slaves and pages. The fourth was a war ship which carried soldiers to defend them against attack from pirates. (About half of the soldiers were from Africa and were skilled archers and spear throwers.)
Using the monsoon winds to propel them, the four ships headed south and arrived in the port of Calicut. There they were received with "drums, trumpets, horns, and flags... We entered the harbor amid great ovation [cheering] and pomp, the likes of which I have not seen in these parts." In the same harbor were 13 Chinese junks, much larger ships than his dhous. Ibn Battuta admired these huge ships with their luxury accommodations - private cabins with lavatories! It would be on three of these large ships that they would continue to China. So the crew transferred the gifts including horses and slaves to the junks. Ibn Battuta spent the day in the mosque and planned to board the ship that afternoon.
Ibn Battuta was impressed with the Chinese junks. They were much larger than a dhou, some with five decks and five masts or more! They had interior cabins and even private lavatories! A crew of a junk might be up to 1,000 workers! But Ibn Battuta said they weren't as safe near the shore.
But before he got on his ship, a terrible event occurred. A violent storm came up. Because the harbor was not very deep, the captains of the junks ordered the ships to wait out the storm in deeper water out to sea. Ibn Battuta waited helplessly on the beach all night and the next morning watched in horror as two ships were pushed onto shore, broke apart, and sank. Some of the crew on one of the junks were saved, but no one survived from the other ship - the one that he was supposed to be on. "The slaves, pages, and horses were all drowned, and the precious wares either sank or washed up on the beach, where the [governor's soldiers] struggled to prevent the townsfolk from making off with the loot." [Dunn, pg. 225.] The other ship carried Ibn Battuta's luggage, servants, and slave-girls - one of whom was carrying his child. The captain of that ship had set sail for China without him or the goods that he was to present to the Emperor of China.
Ibn Battuta was now alone, penniless, and ashamed - a failure as the leader for the trip to China for the Sultan of Delhi - but lucky to be alive. There was still a chance that he could catch up with the other ship, so he tried to track it down. After ten days he arrived in another port and waited for the ship which never turned up. (About three months later he learned that it had reached Indonesia and was seized by an infidel king of Sumatra. The slave-woman who was carrying Ibn Battuta's child had died. His other slaves and his possessions were taken by the king of Sumatra.)
Where was he to go? He wanted to return to the Sultan Muhammad Tughluq, but he feared that he would be executed for his failed trip. Instead of going back, he stayed and made another serious mistake - he became involved in a war between two governors, and the one he supported came out the loser. He felt he had to leave India altogether before further disaster struck. [Learn more about it by pressing here.]
And so he planned to continue on to China on his own. But again, he decided to take the long way - this time to make a brief tour of the Maldive Islands, then continue to Sri Lanka (Ceylon) to make a pilgrimage to the sacred Adam's Peak. And then he would go on to China.
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Courtesy Island Dreams Travel
The Maldive Islands
The Maldive Islands were important in medieval times for their exports: coconut fiber used to make ropes and cowrie shells which were used as currency (money) in Malaysia and in parts of Africa. About the middle of the twelfth century the people of Maldives converted from Buddhism to Islam when a pious Muslim from north Africa rid the land of a terrible demon. (The demon had demanded a young virgin each month - and the Muslim hero offered to take the place of the girl. Before the sacrifice, he recited the Koran throughout the night, and the demon could do nothing out of fear of the Sacred Word.) These islands rise only a few feet above the surface of the sea and stretch for about 475 miles like a white pearl necklace.
Ibn Battuta had not planned to spend much time here as he arrived at the capital, Male. But the rulers happened to be looking for a chief judge, someone who knew Arabic and the laws of the Koran. The rulers were delighted to find a visitor that fit their requirements. They sent Ibn Battuta slave girls, pearls, and gold jewelry to convince him to stay. They even made it impossible for him to arrange to leave by ship - so like it or not, he stayed. He agreed to remain there with some conditions, however: he would not go about Male on foot, but be carried in a litter or ride on horseback, just like the king or queen! He even took another wife after staying there less than two months, a noblewoman related to the queen. It seems as though Ibn Battuta was playing politics. He was now part of the royal family and the most important judge.
He set about his duties as a judge with enthusiasm and tried with all his might to establish the rule of strict Muslim law and change local customs. He ordered that any man who failed to attend Friday prayer was to be whipped and publicly disgraced. Thieves had their right hands cut off, and he ordered women who went "topless" to cover up. "I strove to put an end to this practice and commanded the women to wear clothes; but I could not get it done."
He took three more wives who also had powerful social connections, and seems to brag: "After I had become connected by marriage ... the [governor] and the people feared me, for they felt themselves to be weak."
And so he began to make enemies, especially the governor. After nasty arguments and political plots, Ibn Battuta decided to leave after almost nine months in the islands. He quit his job as qadi, but he really would have been fired. He took three of his wives with him, but he divorced them all after a short time. One of them was pregnant. He stayed on another island, and there he married two more women, and divorced them, too. He tells us about marriage and divorce in the Maldives at the time:
"It is easy to marry in these islands because of the smallness of the dowries and the pleasures of society which the women offer... When the ships put in, the crew marry; when they intend to leave they divorce their wives. This is a kind of temporary marriage. The women of these islands never leave their country."
Later, he even thought about going back to the Maldive Islands and taking over under the support of an army commander in southern India. But that was not to be.
On to Ceylon (Sri Lanka)
Ibn Battuta visited Ceylon (Sri Lanka) on his way to China so that he could go on a pilgrimage to a holy site there: Adam's Peak. The mountain was sacred to Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists alike, for near the summit was a depression in a rock that looked like a huge footprint. For Buddhists it was the footprint of the Buddha, for Hindus, the print of Shiva. For Muslims it was the footprint of Adam, the first man and first prophet who had been thrown there by God from the seventh heaven. There he stayed for a thousand years before meeting Eve, the first woman.
When Ibn Battuta arrived on Ceylon, he met with the king. The king was interested in his travel stories, and he entertained Ibn Battuta's party for three days. The king gave them permission to climb Adam's Peak - and he gave Ibn Battuta a small purse with pearls and rubies, two slave girls, and supplies as a parting gift.
The small party of pilgrims climbed to the summit up the nearly vertical cliffs by means of little handholds held in the stone by iron pegs. Making it to the top, they camped there for three days which they spent in prayer and admiration of the spectacular view.
The party returned to the coast and boarded another ship which was provided by the king. After setting sail, again a storm threatened their lives.
"...the wind became violent and the water rose so high that it was about to enter the ship... We then got near a rock, where the ship was on the point of being wrecked; afterwards we came into shallow water wherein the ship began to sink. Death stared us in the face and the passengers jettisoned [tossed overboard] all that they possessed and [said their farewells] to one another."
The crew managed to cut down the mast and make a crude raft which they lowered into the sea. Ibn Battuta's two companions and his slave girls got down onto it, but there was no room left for him. And besides, he was not a strong swimmer. He had to stay with the ship and hope for the best. Darkness fell and Ibn Battuta huddled in the front of the sinking ship throughout the night. In the morning a rescue party suddenly appeared and the remaining passengers were all taken to shore. There he joined his companions.
He had been able to save some of his belongings from the ship, including some pearls and rubies given to him. But Ibn Battuta's luck continued to be bad. Once more on a small ship, twelve pirate ships attacked. They quickly overpowered the crew and stripped the passengers of everything they owned. "They seized the jewels and rubies which the king of Ceylon had given me and robbed me of my clothes and provisions with which pious [holy] men and saints had favored me. They left nothing on my body except my trousers." Then the pirates dropped them all off on the nearby shore unharmed.
The humiliated group made their way back to Calicut with clothes given to them.
Then Ibn Battuta boarded another ship to Male, his former home in the Maldive Islands where he stayed for five days. Here he saw his son for the first time, and agreed to leave him with his mother in the islands. From here he got on a Chinese junk and continued on his trip to China.
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What did Ibn Battuta eat in the Maldive Islands?
Ibn Battuta told of eating many products of the coconut (coconut milk, juice, "meat", and sweet honey from the sap of the tree), and rice, fish, salted meat, fowl, quail, and some fruits.
