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    "title": "IBN BATUTA",
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    "verified_text": "ibn batuta, i.e. abu abdullah mahommed, surnamed ibn batuta (1304-1378), the greatest of moslem travellers, was born at tangier in 1304. he entered on his travels at twenty-one (1325) and closed them in 1355. he began by traversing the coast of the mediterranean from tangier to alexandria, finding time to marry two wives on the road. after some stay at cairo, then probably the greatest city in the world (excluding china), and an unsuccessful attempt to reach mecca from aidhab on the west coast of the red sea, he visited palestine, aleppo and damascus. he then made the pilgrimage to mecca and medina, and visited the shrine of ali at mashhad-ali, travelling thence to basra, and across the mountains of khuzistan to isfahan, thence to shiraz and back to kufa and bagdad. after an excursion to mosul and diarbekr, he made the _haj_ a second time, staying at mecca three years. he next sailed down the red sea to aden (then a place of great trade), the singular position of which he describes, noticing its dependence for water-supply upon the great cisterns restored in modern times. he continued his voyage down the african coast, visiting, among other places, mombasa and quiloa (kilwa). returning north he passed by the chief cities of oman to new ormuz (hurmuz), which had about 15 years before, c. 1315, been transferred to its famous island-site from the mainland (old ormuz). after visiting other parts of the gulf he crossed the breadth of arabia to mecca, making the _haj_ for the third time. crossing the red sea, he made a journey of great hardship to syene, and thence along the nile to cairo. after this, travelling through syria, he made a circuit among the petty turkish states into which asia minor was divided after the fall of the kingdom of rum (iconium). he now crossed the black sea to kaffa, then mainly occupied by the genoese, and apparently the first christian city he had seen, for he was much perturbed by the bell-ringing. he next travelled into kipchak (the mongol khanate of russia), and joined the camp of the reigning khan mahommed uzbeg, from whom the great and heterogeneous _uzbeg_ race is perhaps named. among other places in this empire he travelled to bolghar (54° 54 n.) in order to witness the shortness of the summer night, and desired to continue his travels north into the \"land of darkness\" (in the extreme north of russia), of which wonderful things were told, but was obliged to forego this. returning to the khan's camp he joined the cortege of one of the khatuns, who was a greek princess by birth (probably illegitimate) and in her train travelled to constantinople, where he had an interview with the emperor andronikos iii. the younger (1328-1341). he tells how, as he passed the city gates, he heard the guards muttering _sarakinu_. returning to the court of uzbeg, at sarai on the volga, he crossed the steppes to khwarizm and bokhara; thence through khorasan and kabul, and over the hindu kush (to which he gives that name, its first occurrence). he reached the indus, on his own statement, in september, 1333. this closes the first part of his narrative. from sind, which he traversed to the sea and back again, he proceeded to multan, and eventually, on the invitation of mahommed tughlak, the reigning sovereign, to delhi. mahommed was a singular character, full of pretence at least to many accomplishments and virtues, the founder of public charities, and a profuse patron of scholars, but a parricide, a fratricide, and as madly capricious, bloodthirsty and unjust as caligula. \"no day did his palace gate fail to witness the elevation of some abject to affluence and the torture and murder of some living soul.\" he appointed the traveller to be kazi of delhi, with a present of 12,000 silver dinars (rupees), and an annual salary of the same amount, besides an assignment of village lands. in the sultan's service ibn batuta remained eight years; but his good fortune stimulated his natural extravagance, and his debts soon amounted to four or five times his salary. at last he fell into disfavour and retired from court, only to be summoned again on a congenial duty. the emperor of china, last of the mongol dynasty, had sent a mission to delhi, and the moor was to accompany the return embassy (1342). the party travelled through central india to cambay and thence sailed to calicut, classed by the traveller with the neighbouring kaulam (quilon), alexandria, sudak in the crimea, and zayton (amoy harbour) in china, as one of the greatest trading havens in the world--an interesting enumeration from one who had seen them all. the mission party was to embark in chinese junks (the word used) and smaller vessels, but that carrying the other envoys and the presents, which started before ibn batuta was ready, was wrecked totally; the vessel that he had engaged went off with his property, and he was left on the beach of calicut. not daring to return to delhi, he remained about honore and other cities of the western coast, taking part in various adventures, among others the capture of sindabur (goa), and visiting the maldive islands, where he became kazi, and married four wives, and of which he has left the best medieval account, hardly surpassed by any modern. in august 1344 he left the maldives for ceylon; here he made the pilgrimage to the \"footmark of our father adam.\" thence he betook himself to maabar (the coromandel coast), where he joined a mussulman adventurer, residing at madura, who had made himself master of much of that region. after once more visiting malabar, canara and the maldives, he departed for bengal, a voyage of forty-three days, landing at sadkawan (chittagong). in bengal he visited the famous moslem saint shaykh jalaluddin, whose shrine (_shah jalal_ at silhet) is still maintained. returning to the delta, he took ship at sunarganw (near dacca) on a junk bound for java (i.e. _java minor_ of marco polo, or sumatra). touching the coast of arakan or burma, he reached sumatra in forty days, and was provided with a junk for china by malik al dhahir, a zealous disciple of islam, which had recently spread among the states on the northern coast of that island. calling (apparently) at cambodia on his way, ibn batuta reached china at zayton (amoy harbour), famous from marco polo; he also visited sin kalan or canton, and professes to have been in khansa (_kinsay_ of marco polo, i.e. hangchau), and khanbalik (_cambaluc_ or peking). the truth of his visit to these two cities, and especially to the last, has been questioned. the traveller's history, not least in china, singularly illustrates the free masonry of islam, and its power of carrying a moslem doctor over the known world of asia and africa. on his way home he saw the great bird _rukh_ (evidently, from his description, an island lifted by refraction); revisited sumatra, malabar, oman, persia, bagdad, and crossed the great desert to palmyra and damascus, where he got his first news of home, and heard of his father's death fifteen years before. diverging to hamath and aleppo, on his return to damascus, he found the black death raging, so that two thousand four hundred died in one day. revisiting jerusalem and cairo he made the _haj_ a fourth time, and finally reappeared at fez (visiting sardinia _en route_) on the 8th of november 1349, after twenty-four years' absence. morocco, he felt, was, after all, the best of countries. \"the _dirhems_ of the west are but little; but then you get more for them.\" after going home to tangier, ibn batuta crossed into spain and made the round of andalusia, including gibraltar, which had just then stood a siege from the \"roman tyrant adfunus\" (alphonso xi. of castile, 1312-1350). in 1352 the restless man started for central africa, passing by the oases of the sahara (where the houses were built of rock-salt, as herodotus tells, and roofed with camel skins) to timbuktu and gogo on the niger, a river which he calls the nile, believing it to flow down into egypt, an opinion maintained by some up to the date of lander's discovery. being then recalled by his own king, he returned to fez (early in 1354) via takadda, haggar and tuat. thus ended his twenty-eight years' wanderings which in their main lines alone exceeded 75,000 m. by royal order he dictated his narrative to mahommed ibn juzai, who concludes the work, 13th of december 1355 (a.d.) with the declaration: \"this shaykh is the traveller of our age; and he who should call him the traveller of the whole body of islam would not exceed the truth.\" ibn batuta died in 1378, aged seventy-three. ibn batuta's travels have only been known in europe during the 19th century; at first merely by arabic abridgments in the gotha and cambridge libraries. notices or extracts had been published by seetzen (c. 1808), kosegarten (1818), apetz (1819), and burckhardt (1819), when in 1829 dr s. lee published for the oriental translation fund a version from the abridged mss. at cambridge, which attracted much interest. the french capture of constantina afforded mss. of the complete work, one of them the autograph of ibn juzai. and from these, after versions of fragments by various french scholars, was derived at last (1858-1859) the standard edition and translation of the whole by m. defremery and dr sanguinetti, in 4 vols. see also sir henry yule, cathay, ii. 397-526; c. raymond beazley, _dawn of modern geography_, iii. 535-538. though there are some singular chronological difficulties in the narrative, and a good many cursory inaccuracies and exaggerations, there is no part of it except, perhaps, certain portions of the journeys in north china, which is open to doubt. the accounts of the maldive islands, and of the negro countries on the niger, are replete with interesting and accurate particulars. the former agrees surprisingly with that given by the only other foreign resident we know of, pyrard de la val, two hundred and fifty years later. ibn batuta's statements and anecdotes regarding the showy virtues and solid vices of sultan muhammad tughlak are in entire agreement with indian historians, and add many fresh details. (h. y.; c. r. b.) ibn duraid [abu bakr mahommed ibn ul-hasan ibn duraid ul-azdi] (837-934), arabian poet and philologist, was born at basra of south arabian stock. at his native place he was trained under various teachers, but fled in 871 to oman at the time basra was attacked by the negroes, known as the zanj, under muhallabi. after living twelve years in oman he went to persia, and, under the protection of the governor, 'abdallah ibn mahommed ibn mikal, and his son, isma'il, wrote his chief works. in 920 he went to bagdad, where he received a pension from the caliph moqtadir. the _maqsura_, a poem in praise of ibn mikal and his son, has been edited by a. haitsma (1773) e. scheidius (1786) and n. boyesen (1828). various commentaries on the poem exist in ms. (cf. c. brockelmann, _gesch. der ar. lit._, i. 211 ff., weimar, 1898), the _jamhara fi-l-lugha_ is a large dictionary written in persian but not printed. another work is the _kitab ul-ishtiqaq_ (\"book of etymology\"), edited by f. wustenfeld (gottingen, 1854); it was written in opposition to the anti-arabian party to show the etymological connexion of the arabian tribal names. (g. w. t.) ibn faradi [abu-l-walid 'abdallah ibn ul-faradi] (962-1012), arabian historian, was born at cordova and studied law and tradition. in 992 he made the pilgrimage and proceeded to egypt and kairawan, studying in these places. after his return in 1009 he became cadi in valencia, and was killed at cordova when the berbers took the city. his chief work is the _history of the learned men of andalusia_, edited by f. codera (madrid, 1891-1892). he wrote also a history of the poets of andalusia. (g. w. t.) ibn farid [abu-l-qasim 'umar ibn ul-farid] (1181-1235), arabian poet, was born in cairo, lived for some time in mecca and died in cairo. his poetry is entirely sufic, and he was esteemed the greatest mystic poet of the arabs. some of his poems are said to have been written in ecstasies. his diwan has been published with commentary at beirut, 1887, &c.; with the commentaries of burini (d. 1615) and 'abdul-ghani (d. 1730) at marseilles, 1853, and at cairo; and with the commentary of rushayyid ghalib (19th century) at cairo, 1893. one of the separate poems was edited by j. von hammer purgstall as _das arabische hohe lied der liebe_ (vienna, 1854). see r. a. nicholson, _a literary history of the arabs_ (london, 1907), pp. 394-398. (g. w. t.) ibn gabirol [solomon ben judah], jewish poet and philosopher, was born at malaga, probably about 1021. the early part of his troublous life was spent at saragossa, but few personal details of it are recorded. his parents died while he was a child and he was under the protection first of a certain jekuthiel, who died in 1039, and afterwards of samuel ha-nagid, the well-known patron of learning. his passionate disposition, however, embittered no doubt by his misfortunes, involved him in frequent difficulties and led to his quarrelling with samuel. it is generally agreed that he died young, although the date is uncertain. al harizi[1] says at the age of twenty-nine, and moses b. ezra[2] about thirty, but abraham zaccuto[3] states that he died (at valencia) in 1070. m. steinschneider[4] accepts the date 1058. his literary activity began early. he is said to have composed poems at the age of sixteen, and elegies by him are extant on hai gaon (died in 1038) and jekuthiel (died in 1039), each of which was written probably soon after the death of the person commemorated. about the same time he also wrote his _'anaq_, a poem on grammar, of which only 97 lines out of 400 are preserved. moses ben ezra says of him that he imitated moslem models, and was the first to open to jewish poets the door of versification,[5] meaning that he first popularized the use of arabic metres in hebrew. it is as a poet that he has been known to the jews to the present day, and admired for the youthful freshness and beauty of his work, in which he may be compared to the romantic school in france and england in the early 19th century. besides his lyrical and satirical poems, he contributed many of the finest compositions to the liturgy (some of them with the acrostic \"shelomoh ha-qato\"), which are widely different from the artificial manner of the earlier payyetanim. the best known of his longer liturgical compositions are the philosophical _kether malkuth_ (for the day of atonement) and the _azharoth_, on the 613 precepts (for _shebhu'oth_). owing to his pure biblical style he had an abiding influence on subsequent liturgical writers. outside the jewish community he was known as the philosopher avicebron (avencebrol, avicebrol, &c.) the credit of identifying this name as a medieval corruption of ibn gabirol is due to s. munk, who showed that selections made by shem tobh palqera (or falqera) from the meqor hayyim (the hebrew translation of an arabic original) by ibn gabirol, corresponded to the latin _fons vitae_ of avicebron. the latin version, made by johannes hispalensis and gundisalvi about one hundred years after the author's death, had at once become known among the schoolmen of the 12th century and exerted a powerful influence upon them, although so little was known of the author that it was doubted whether he was a christian or a moslem. the teaching of the _fons vitae_ was entirely new to the country of its origin, and being drawn largely from neoplatonic sources could not be expected to find favour with jewish thinkers. its distinctive doctrines are: (1) that all created beings, spiritual or corporeal, are composed of matter and form, the various species of matter being but varieties of the universal matter, and similarly all forms being contained in one universal form; (2) that between the primal one and the intellect (the [greek: nous] of plotinus) there is interposed the divine will, which is itself divine and above the distinction of form and matter, but is the cause of their union in the being next to itself, the intellect, in which avicebron holds that the distinction does exist. the doctrine that there is a material, as well as a formal, element in all created beings was explicitly adopted from avicebron by duns scotus (as against the view of albertus magnus and thomas aquinas), and perhaps his exaltation of the will above the intellect is due to the same influence. avicebron develops his philosophical system throughout quite independently of his religious views--a practice wholly foreign to jewish teachers, and one which could not be acceptable to them. indeed, this charge is expressly brought against him by abraham ben david of toledo (died in 1180). it is doubtless this non-religious attitude which accounts for the small attention paid to the _fons vitae_ by the jews, as compared with the wide influence of the philosophy of maimonides. the other important work of ibn gabirol is _islah al-akhlaq_ (the improvement of character), a popular work in arabic, translated into hebrew (_tiqqun middoth ha-nephesh_) by judah ibn tibbon. it is widely different in treatment from the _fons_, being intended as a practical not a speculative work. the collection of moral maxims, compiled in arabic but best known (in the hebrew translation of judah ibn tibbon) as _mibhar ha-peninim_, is generally ascribed to ibn gabirol, though on less certain grounds. bibliography.--texts of the liturgical poems are to be found in the prayer-books: others in dukes and edelmann, _treasures of oxford_ (oxford, 1850); dukes, _shire shelomoh_ (hanover, 1858); s. sachs, _shir ha-shirim asher li-shelomoh_ (paris, 1868, incomplete); brody, _die weltlichen gedichte des ... gabirol_ (berlin, 1897, &c.). \"avencebrolis fons vitae\" (latin text) in clemens baumker's _beitrage zur gesch. d. philosophie_, bd. i. hefte 2-4 (munster, 1892); _the improvement of the moral qualities_ [arabic and english] ed. by s. s. wise (new york, 1901); _a choice of pearls_ [hebrew and english] ed. by ascher (london, 1859). on the philosophy in general: s. munk, _melanges_ (quoted above); guttmann, _die philosophie des sal.-ibn gabirol_ (gottingen, 1889); d. kaufmann, _studien uber sal.-ibn gabirol_ (budapest, 1899); s. horovitz, \"die psychologie ibn gabirols,\" in the _jahresbericht des jud. theol. seminars franckel'scher stiftung_ (breslau, 1900); wittmann, \"zur stellung avencebrols ...\" (in baumker's _beitrage_, bd. v. heft 1, munster, 1905). (a. cy.) footnotes: [1] _jud. har. macamæ_, ed. lagarde (gottingen, 1883), p. 89, l. 61. [2] see the passage quoted by munk, _melanges de philosophie arabe et juive_ (paris, 1859), pp. 264 and 517. [3] _liber juchassin_, ed. filipowski (london, 1857), p. 217. [4] _hebr. ubersetzungen_ (berlin, 1893), § 219, note 70; cf. kaufmann, _studien uber sal.-ibn gabirol_ (budapest, 1899), p. 79, note 2. [5] see munk, _op. cit._ pp. 515-516, transl. on pp. 263-264. metre had been already used by dunash.",
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