- 21/06/2025
Documentary, Ibn Battuta the Man Who Walked Across the World - peta 1
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00:00Travel, set out and head for pastures new, life tastes richer when you've road-worn feet.
00:17No water that stagnates is fit to drink, for only that which flows is truly sweet.
00:23This is the story of one of the greatest journeys of all time.
00:31In 1325, shortly after the end of the Crusades, a young Moroccan Muslim called Ibn Battuta set out on a pilgrimage to Mecca.
00:41It was to become an odyssey from one end of the known world to the other.
00:46In all, he travelled 75,000 miles, more than three times the distance Marco Polo covered.
00:51Along the way, he was to meet magicians, dervishes, holy men, fire-eaters and other travellers from across three continents.
01:01He was by turn scholar, businessman, mystic, warrior.
01:05He was imprisoned by mad sultans, was married ten times and had countless concubines.
01:12And when he got home, after 29 years on the road, he wrote it all down.
01:16Nearly 700 years later, I discovered his travelogue and was blown away by it.
01:24Here was a description of a kaleidoscopic Muslim world that I could still see around me,
01:29but one that for most non-Muslims was hidden behind a veil of misunderstanding, ignorance and even fear.
01:35From that moment, I was determined to take to the road, to follow in Ibn Battuta's footsteps
01:41and discover if the exotic and welcoming Muslim world he described remains to this day.
01:46That was it.
02:16in the world of Allah.
02:32Sana'a, the capital of Yemen.
02:35You might know this country as the realm of the Queen of Sheba.
02:39You might even know it as the ancestral land of the bin Laden family.
02:43For me, it's home.
02:45I was here to study Arabic 25 years ago and never left.
02:49Now I'm more than half a Yemeni myself.
02:52Part of me misses good English ale, hard to get in a Muslim country.
02:56But my Yemeni side makes up for it.
02:59Like almost all the men here, I indulge in a drug,
03:02perfectly legal, by the way, called Gat.
03:05Meet my dealer, Sabri.
03:08What I do when I buy it, I tend not to buy it by the look of it.
03:21I sort of go, I'm a sort of nose.
03:24You know, like a wine nose.
03:26Because I open it up a bit like that and I stick my nose in it and I take a deep breath.
03:33And everyone, you know, foreign visitors who come, they always say,
03:38how can you chew that stuff that looks like a privet hedge?
03:42It's a bit like, um...
03:45When you first drink it, it doesn't actually taste intrinsically very nice.
03:50But you soon get really into it.
03:52And then it's even more like...
03:54If you like...
04:05You see, it's when he looks at me like that, that I can't refuse him.
04:15All this may seem a long way from my very English roots as an Oxford classicist,
04:19conductor of the college choir and captain of croquet.
04:22But so what? I like it here.
04:25Where else can you live in an architectural masterpiece next to a donkey market,
04:29have scrambled brains for breakfast
04:31and while away your evenings with virtuoso lutenists?
04:39I'd be perfectly happy to do nothing but sit in my house,
04:42chewing Gat, writing and reading.
04:45But there's something that's given me itchy feet.
04:48It's a book, The Travels of Ibn Battuta.
04:51He was an Arab traveller who made one of the great journeys of exploration
04:55and opened the world for generations to come.
04:58But you've probably never heard of him
05:00because the world he explored was the Islamic world.
05:04I've devoted years of my life to writing about him
05:06and researching his epic journey.
05:08And he deserves to be known as history's greatest traveller.
05:15Ibn Battuta's journey took him criss-crossing 75,000 miles across the globe.
05:20His route appears random and wildly eccentric.
05:23When he was travelling, Christendom was still dragging itself out of the Dark Ages
05:27and towards the Renaissance.
05:29But Islam was at its glittering height.
05:31About half the known world was under Islamic rule
05:34and the trade routes lay wide open.
05:36This was a golden age of Islamic travel
05:38and Ibn Battuta seized the unique opportunity to see the world.
05:43For a Westerner today, retracing his route remains a journey into the unknown.
05:49On this first stretch, I'll tread the ancient pilgrim roads
05:54and explore that central tenet of Islam, travel in pursuit of knowledge.
06:02Then, on the road all the way from Turkey to India,
06:05I'll encounter a world where the clear lines between the great religions
06:08have blurred into mysticism.
06:13And on the last leg of the Odyssey, I'll meet the living relics
06:16of a glorious but forgotten age of Islamic trade
06:19along the maritime Silk Route to China.
06:23The story begins 3,000 miles from my adopted homeland,
06:27on the far edge of Africa.
06:38The memory of my homeland, Morocco, moved me,
06:41together with affection for my people and friends
06:44and love for my country, which for me is better than all others.
06:49A land where charms were hung upon me,
06:52whose earth my skin first touched.
06:58We've just crossed the Straits of Gibraltar,
07:00arriving here in Tangier, Ibn Battuta's birthplace.
07:04This is the end of Africa.
07:06It's the end of the Mediterranean world.
07:08And in Ibn Battuta's time, it was the end of the known world.
07:11In the 14th century, Tangier was a frontier city,
07:15perched on the border between continents and civilisations.
07:19I'd always thought of it in its 20th century incarnation
07:22as a hotbed of sex, drugs and rock and roll,
07:25a hangout for William Burroughs and the Rolling Stones.
07:28But nowadays, the Tangerines, the people of Tangier,
07:32seem almost genteel.
07:36Fashions come and go, but one name remains in vogue.
07:39Ibn Battuta is the ultimate local boy made good.
07:45I've come here because I can imagine it's just the sort of place
07:48where Ibn Battuta would have come and sat as a small boy,
07:52looking across the Straits of Gibraltar and looking at Spain,
07:56thinking about far travel and distant lands.
08:00He visited something like over 40 countries on the modern map.
08:05But the important thing with Ibn Battuta
08:07is that he came home and he wrote it all down.
08:12You read about him getting the runs, getting ripped off by guides.
08:18He's very much a ladies' man.
08:20He gets married ten times.
08:22He talks about all his concubines that he had on top of his wives
08:26and you can feel this character jumping off the page.
08:32But very little is known of the early life of the city's favourite son
08:36and looking for clues in modern Tangier was not going to be straightforward.
08:41Salaamu Alaikum. Hello.
08:43How are you? I'm very well. You speak English.
08:46Let's wait. Not enough. Let's wait.
08:49You need any help?
08:51Yeah, I'd like a room, please.
08:52But I want a really nice room if you've got any relics of Ibn Battuta.
08:57Yeah, yeah. We have the best one, room, suite, family room.
09:01A family suite. Okay.
09:05Oh, can you just tell me who's this?
09:09This is the picture of Ibn Battuta.
09:13Ah. Yeah.
09:14I mean, I've always wondered what he looked like
09:15and I never thought that he would look like that.
09:17I don't think that it's real, but it's...
09:20Oh.
09:21...it's just...
09:22give...
09:23the picture.
09:25And there was more.
09:27This is Ibn Battuta?
09:28Sure, yeah.
09:29But it's a photograph.
09:30Photograph, yeah.
09:31Mmm.
09:32No, pants.
09:33But it's a photograph.
09:34And he's smoking a water pipe, a shisha.
09:38Yeah.
09:39Shisha.
09:40I thought Ibn Battuta lived before tobacco came from America.
09:44Yeah, yeah.
09:45Sure, sure, yes.
09:46Before it came from America.
09:48So do you think it really is Ibn Battuta?
09:50Really, really.
09:51Really, really.
09:52Really, really.
09:53Really, really.
09:54I don't know.
09:55I'm not sure.
10:05My search for Ibn Battuta begins in the Kasbah,
10:08the oldest part of Tangier, where the traveller lived as a small boy.
10:12Even then, it was a restless place to grow up,
10:15a meeting place of cultural current from around the world.
10:18Several of these currents cross in gnawa music,
10:22a mystical blend of Islamic religious songs and African and Berber rhythms,
10:27which dates back over half a millennium.
10:35I wanted to know if the travel bug had infected all tangerines across the centuries.
10:41Tangerine people, they like to travel, to live.
10:45The real tangerine is multicultural.
10:48You must have heard of Ibn Battuta.
10:50Sure, yeah, this is very famous, yeah.
10:52That was the...
10:54Behind me is the door where he used to live, Ibn Battuta.
10:57And he started travelling from...
10:59What, he really... He lived here?
11:01He lived here.
11:02Seriously?
11:03Seriously, I'm talking seriously.
11:05You didn't know this?
11:06No.
11:07I really didn't.
11:08Just behind me, if you look, there is a small door here.
11:11You're really serious?
11:12Sure.
11:13You're not kidding.
11:14It was here, yeah.
11:15He started his trip.
11:16Yeah.
11:17He was prepared, his horse and his animal donkey here, with his father.
11:24You know?
11:25Well...
11:26Abdul Majid has just told me that we're actually sitting right next to Ibn Battuta's house.
11:32Sure, this one.
11:33And I am absolutely...
11:36I mean, you could knock me down with a feather, as they say.
11:40We know Ibn Battuta lived in the Kasbah.
11:43But did he live in this very square?
11:45There's not a wisp of evidence for or against.
11:51All these imponderables were making me hungry for facts.
11:54And for a solid 14th century lunch.
11:59Any lentil munchers and chicken nugget nibblers might care to avert their gaze.
12:10We've got some sheep's heads.
12:12They're looking quite perky, freshly killed.
12:15And so artistically arranged.
12:17And we've got some little sheep's brains.
12:19Delicious ones, I'm sure.
12:21Some hearts.
12:26Sin al-halib.
12:29He's just showing me the milk teeth to prove that the lambs are quite young.
12:35Very Ibn Battuta thing to eat, I'm sure.
12:37The Quran says that you should eat from all the good things that God has given you.
12:41And so it's regarded as a sort of a bit off to refuse these blessings in whatever form they come.
12:55Excellent.
12:57This is absolutely magnificent.
13:00We've each got a head here, a sheep's head.
13:01And they're cut, Damien Hur style, beautifully served on a lettuce leaf.
13:08Tongue.
13:11It's hot.
13:12It's very hot.
13:13Ah.
13:15But it's hot when you get into the middle.
13:19Very tasty indeed.
13:20Morocco.
13:21I was joined for lunch by my guide, Saeed, a modern tangerine who sounded as if he'd learnt his English in Brooklyn.
13:29Tourist who sees this thing being sold outside in the open and they go...
13:34He told me that the Islamic tradition of slaughtering a sheep once a year reaches back across millennia, all the way to Abraham.
13:42We learnt from our fathers and forefathers how to kill a sheep.
13:46Killing a sheep is not a problem.
13:48Anybody can kill a sheep.
13:50You have to kill it properly.
13:51Then you have to skin it.
13:53I hired a person who would skin the sheep for me.
13:57But I'll kill it in front of my kids.
13:59So that I learnt.
14:00And since it has been descended from Abraham to kill a sheep, Ibn Battuta must have done it that way.
14:06So we've just, in fact, had something that Ibn Battuta might himself have eaten.
14:11And other generation long before him.
14:13In the story of his adventures, Ibn Battuta tells us nothing of his early life and next to nothing of his life once he'd finished his 30 years of travelling.
14:23We know that he was born in 1304 and that he was educated in Islamic law.
14:29We know that he had a beard and that he was from a respectable family.
14:34But that's about it.
14:35I needed to search for his spirit, for his reincarnation, for glimpses of his face among the crowds of today's tangerines.
14:44But where to start?
14:53At the beginning, of course, with those first lessons on the Koran, the book that guides all Muslims through life.
14:58As a young boy in the 14th century, Ibn Battuta would have been taught in just the same way as these children, learning to recite the Koran by heart.
15:08Madrasas like this one are often seen in the West as breeding grounds for future Islamic extremists.
15:15But holy war was not on the curriculum here. Today's lesson was about how travel is an integral part of Islam.
15:26What is Islam?
15:29Five.
15:31What is Islam?
15:33Five.
15:35What is Islam?
15:37The teacher has just asked them about the five pillars of Islam. And the last of these pillars is pilgrimage.
15:54Pilgrimage, of course, was the reason that Ibn Battuta left Tangier to go to Mecca.
15:59For these children, as for Ibn Battuta, the Hajj pilgrimage will be more than just a trip to Mecca.
16:04It's an opportunity to see the world.
16:08In Ibn Battuta's case, it was a gap year that would turn into three decades of travel.
16:13Ibn Battuta,
16:14Ibn Battuta,
16:15I was away from Tanja in the third of my head from Tanja in the fifth of the day of the day of the month of the fourth of the month of the month of the year, the king of the year 25.
16:26And he was the highest of the Hajj in the Haram.
16:30If you don't have a great place, they would be able to go to Mecca.
16:35Yes.
16:36Yes, all Muslims would like to come to Gemaq.
16:45And he is the house of God.
16:48Yes, he is the house of God.
16:50And who would like to come to the house of Gemaq?
16:54And who would like to come to the house of Gemaq?
16:56Yes.
16:57Yes, that's right.
16:59Let's go to the house of Gemaq.
17:01May Allah visit Mecca.
17:03May Allah visit Mecca.
17:04May Allah visit Mecca like Ibn Battuta.
17:07Saying of the Prophet,
17:09seek knowledge even if the journey takes you all the way to China.
17:19Islam itself began with a journey.
17:21Muhammad's migration from Mecca to Medina marks the year zero in the Islamic calendar.
17:27Travel is in the very fabric of Islam.
17:30And although the physical relics of Ibn Battuta had proved elusive in Tangier,
17:34his wanderlust remains as strong as ever.
17:38It was now time for me to move on, chasing the traveller's shadow across North Africa.
17:43I set out alone, having neither fellow traveller in whose companionship I might find cheer, nor caravan whose party I might join.
17:56But swayed by an over-mastering impulse within me and a desire long cherished in my bosom to visit these illustrious sanctuaries.
18:06So I braced my resolution to quit all my dear ones, female and male, and forsook my home as birds forsake their nests.
18:19My age at that time was 22 lunar years.
18:27Ibn Battuta left Tangier for Mecca in 1325 and headed east through modern Algeria, Tunisia and Libya.
18:34His account of the journey is sparse until he arrives in the city he calls a unique pearl, Alexandria.
18:41Together?
18:48Ibn Battuta...
18:52One hand
18:55two hand
18:55two han
18:59those
19:03they
19:04and
19:07they
19:12head
19:15head
19:15head
19:17head
19:17head
19:18head
19:19head
19:19head
19:20Head
19:21head
19:22Exactly 680 years, two months and 28 days ago,
19:28Ibn Battuta came into Alexandria along this very same street.
19:32In those days, it would have been remarkably similar to what it's like now,
19:36a sort of busy market street full of clothes,
19:39kind of deconstructed Marx and Spencers.
19:52What are you doing?
20:00What are you doing?
20:02Two dollars.
20:04Two?
20:05No, no, no.
20:07Twenty dollars.
20:09How are you doing?
20:11I'm doing my job.
20:13I'm doing my job.
20:1510 dollars.
20:17I'm doing my job.
20:20I'm doing my job.
20:23I'm doing my job.
20:25I'm doing my job.
20:27I'm doing my job.
20:36In the 14th century, Alexandria was buzzing with the trade of all the Mediterranean.
20:41For Ibn Battuta, a young man from the western fringe of the Muslim world,
20:45it must have made Tangier look provincial.
20:48May God protect Alexandria.
20:52She's a well-guarded frontier citadel and a friendly and hospitable region.
20:59Remarkable in appearance and solid in her structure.
21:04Glorious in her surpassing beauty,
21:08uniting in herself the excellences that are shared by other cities
21:13through her mediating situation between the east and the west.
21:19Every fresh marvel has there its unveiling.
21:24Every novelty finds its way thither.
21:29Ibn Battuta absolutely raved about Alexandria in some of his most high-flown prose.
21:48He said Alexandria has all you could wish for in the way of embellishment and embattlement.
21:53He compared it to a secluded maiden arrayed in her bridal finery.
21:57And he said Alexandria is like a pearl glowing in opalescence.
22:02Of course, the city has changed a bit since 1326.
22:11If Alexandria in the 14th century was a secluded maiden,
22:14I'm not sure what you'd call her today.
22:16Perhaps a woman of a certain age.
22:19Ibn Battuta had a way with the ladies.
22:24He'd already picked up his first wife on the road to Alexandria,
22:28divorced her after an argument with his father-in-law,
22:31and then married another woman.
22:33But I had no-one to keep me company.
22:35And Alexandria is a rather sad place to be alone in.
22:38Ibn Battuta had a way with the ladies.
22:41He'd already picked up his first wife on the road to Alexandria,
22:43divorced her after an argument with his father-in-law,
22:45and then married another woman.
22:47But I had no-one to keep me company.
22:49And Alexandria is a rather sad place to be alone in.
22:53There's a certain mix of the surreal and the melancholy.
23:04Wonderful key change in that last one.
23:08Ibn Battuta didn't rest for long.
23:10He soon took to the road again
23:12and headed for an obscure village in the Nile Delta,
23:1530 miles from Alexandria,
23:17where he was to have an experience that would change his life forever.
23:23He wanted to meet Egypt's greatest living holy man.
23:26I headed off to the countryside to see if any memories of the sage had survived.
23:41Do you know Egypt for me?
23:43I know Egypt from our village.
23:46I know Egypt from our village.
23:47Yes.
23:48Karya from our village.
23:49Yes, Karya.
23:50The village from our village.
23:52The village from our village.
23:54I'm taken by the aide.
23:57Do you know Egypt for me?
23:59I think some of the people are right.
24:02I don't think they're here.
24:12He seems worried about his delicate tuk-tuk,
24:21about taking it over the bumpy road,
24:23so I think I'll have to walk the rest of the way.
24:32I was rescued by a man with a donkey.
24:36Ibn Battuta came here to Muniyat Ben-i Murshid to see al-Murshidi.
24:41Greatest living saint in Egypt.
24:43Hey, slow off a bit.
24:46Greatest living saint in Egypt at the time.
24:49And he was supposed to have powers
24:51of being able to foretell the future given him by God.
24:56We're just about to collide with a gaggle of geese here.
24:59Assalamu alaykum.
25:00Assalamu alaykum.
25:01Assalamu alaykum.
25:02Assalamu alaykum.
25:03Assalamu alaykum.
25:06It's a wonderful Louis Farouk sofa here,
25:08sitting by the canal.
25:11The retreat of this holy man, whom I had come to visit,
25:14lies close by a town and separated from it by a canal.
25:19I arrived before the hour of the afternoon prayer.
25:23There it is, afternoon prayer being called.
25:25I'm not sure Muniyat Ben-i Murshid had seen many foreigners
25:29since the 14th century.
25:32Actually, I can imagine very much
25:34this is how Ibn Battuta arrived in this village.
25:37I mean, he would have had similar transport.
25:40He was a foreigner, you know,
25:42this weird Moroccan from the other end of North Africa.
25:45I imagine that he too was surrounded by a crowd of children like this,
25:49all saying, ooh, look at the funny foreigner on the horse.
25:55In fact, I mean, he was probably surrounded by a crowd of their
25:57great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-
25:59whatever grandfathers.
26:00Our cameraman kept the children entertained,
26:03while I tried to track down the imam of the mosque.
26:07When I found him, he didn't seem very pleased
26:09with the manner of our arrival.
26:11Still, he took me under his wing,
26:12and told me that the mystical saint had a tomb
26:13which was attached to his mosque.
26:14When Ibn Battuta met the man buried here,
26:16he had one of the saints,
26:17who was the man buried here,
26:18and told me that the mystical saint had a tomb
26:19which was attached to his mosque.
26:21When I found him,
26:22he didn't seem very pleased with the manner of our arrival.
26:29Still, he took me under his wing,
26:31and told me that the mystical saint had a tomb
26:34which was attached to his mosque.
26:36When Ibn Battuta met the man buried here,
26:38he had one of the saints,
26:40that he was buried in the tomb.
26:41When Ibn Battuta met the man buried here,
26:43he had one of the strangest experiences of all his travels.
26:48As the children closed in on us again,
26:50the Imam commandeered my copy of Ibn Battuta's book
26:53and soldiered on with the story.
26:55When I wanted to sleep, he said,
27:11go to the roof and sleep there,
27:14for this was during the summer heat.
27:17That night, as I was sleeping on the roof of the cell,
27:21I dreamt that I was on the wing of a huge bird
27:23which flew me in the direction of Mecca,
27:26then made towards Yemen
27:28and finally made the long flight towards the east,
27:32alighted at some dark and greenish country
27:35and left me there.
27:37I was astonished at my dream and said to myself,
27:42if the holy man shows me that he knows of my dream,
27:47he's all that they say he is.
27:49Next day, he gets up and the saint interprets the dream
27:54and says it means he'll go on the pilgrimage,
27:57he'll go to Yemen, he'll go to Iraq,
27:59to the land of the Turks, to Central Asia,
28:01and he'll end up in India, where he'll fall into a great danger.
28:05But don't worry, because a brother,
28:08a spiritual brother of the saint from here,
28:10will save Ibn Battuta from it.
28:12And so it came to pass.
28:17The prophecy reads like a contents page to Ibn Battuta's travels.
28:21Fifteen years later,
28:23he was even to have the foreseen near-death experience in India.
28:26I was amazed at his prediction.
28:32Now the idea of going to these countries
28:35had been cast into my mind.
28:38My wanderings never ceased until I visited them.
28:45Standing on the very roof
28:46where Ibn Battuta had his prophetic dream,
28:49I too felt time and space slipping away.
28:51I bade him farewell and departed.
29:07Never since leaving him have I met on my journeys
29:10aught but good fortune,
29:12and his blessed powers have stood me in good stead.
29:16I travelled next through the delta.
29:19Ibn Battuta seemed to be in no hurry to get to Mecca.
29:23The backpacker in him was beginning to enjoy getting sidetracked.
29:29Instead of taking the most direct pilgrim route
29:32through the Sinai desert,
29:33he turned south.
29:35He was heading up the Nile
29:36to the most popular city in the Muslim world
29:38and the centre of Islamic civilisation and culture,
29:41to Cairo.
29:49I arrived at length in the city of Cairo.
30:05Mother of cities and seat of Pharaoh the tyrant,
30:09mistress of broad provinces and fruitful lands,
30:12boundless in multitude of buildings,
30:14peerless in beauty and splendour,
30:16the meeting place of comor and goer,
30:19the stopping place of feeble and strong.
30:24Therein is what you will of learned and simple,
30:28grave and gay,
30:29prudent and foolish,
30:30base and noble,
30:31of high estate and low estate,
30:34unknown and famous.
30:35She surges as the waves of the sea
30:40with her throngs of folk
30:41and can scarce contain them
30:43for all the capacity of her situation
30:45and sustaining power.
30:48The population of Cairo
30:50in the first half of the 14th century
30:51was around half a million,
30:5315 times larger than that of London
30:55at the same period.
30:57If Alexandria had seen metropolitan,
31:00Cairo was megalopolitan.
31:01It was the seat of Arab arts,
31:04letters and sciences
31:05and even had an eye hospital
31:07which offered cataract operations.
31:12Al-Azhar claims to be
31:13the oldest functioning university in the world.
31:16It was founded some three centuries
31:18before the first Oxford college.
31:22In the 14th century,
31:24it was home to the greatest concentration
31:25of scholars and jurists
31:27in the Arabic-speaking world.
31:31Ibn Battuta took every opportunity
31:33to study at the feet
31:34of eminent Islamic professors,
31:36brushing up his Quranic recitation.
31:37Al-Fatihah
32:07like me International
32:34the university
32:37The university retains its magnetic preeminence to this day.
32:41Students come from all over the world to study here,
32:43not least from Tangier, Ibn Battuta's birthplace.
33:07They don't have to study Bangladesh, China, Turkey, and other things.
33:12But if you stay in the country, there are problems that are going to be done with the culture.
33:17If you travel, you will be able to study the culture.
33:23So, from the time of the trip,
33:26you will be able to understand the culture of the people.
33:32The culture of the people do not know the culture of the people.
33:35We can't even know the world's life.
33:38We don't know where the people are.
33:41This is what I love about travel,
33:43the incongruous encounters you have along the way.
33:46Here I was, a travel writer and a Christian,
33:49talking theology with a group of Muslim students
33:52in what's effectively the Vatican of Islam.
33:55I may have been an outsider, but I felt completely at home.
33:59I didn't think they'd be...
34:03I'm sure, I'm sure.
34:05But my message is to us.
34:07We're going to be quiet until we get to our friends.
34:12We're going to be quiet.
34:15But we're going to be quiet in the night.
34:18I don't know anyone like Ibn Battuta,
34:22who was a man who was living for 29 years.
34:27I don't know if I have a car.
34:30The car is coming back.
34:41The Egypt Ibn Battuta travelled through
34:43had a unique and strange political system.
34:46Young Turkish slaves were bought wholesale
34:49from the Central Asian steppe and taken to Egypt.
34:52They were converted to Islam, taught the arts of warfare
34:56and finally freed from their bondage.
34:59The top government commanders and the sultan himself
35:02were then chosen from among their ranks.
35:05This warrior caste were known as the Mamluks, which means slaves,
35:09and they ruled with an iron fist.
35:12When Ibn Battuta stayed in Cairo,
35:14the Mamluk sultan was Muhammad al-Nasr ibn Qaluun.
35:19There's this rather nice story.
35:21Well, actually, it's quite a nasty story
35:23that tells you exactly what Muhammad al-Nasr, the sultan, was like.
35:28And it's that he was born with his fists sort of clenched like that.
35:32And when they opened them up, blood poured out.
35:36And the midwife said, he's going to be a bad one.
35:38He's going to have a bloody reign.
35:40And she was right.
35:42One of the things that he did actually right here at Bab Zawela,
35:47there was some convicted criminal.
35:49I forget what he'd stolen.
35:51And he had the guy crucified on this gate in drag.
35:59Although, as far as I know,
36:01the current Egyptian president doesn't string people up in skirts,
36:04he still runs a tight ship.
36:06Democracy is theoretically encouraged,
36:09but in practice, all political opposition is stifled.
36:12The week I arrived in Cairo,
36:14the long-running conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians
36:17had exploded again.
36:19The Egyptian security services feared demonstrations
36:22after Friday prayers, and they were taking no chances.
36:26I think there are probably as many policemen as worshippers here.
36:34And there's something rather medieval about their appearance
36:39with their carbon fibre kevlar, whatever they are, shields,
36:44and their helmets with their visors.
36:46And up here, too, we're sharing our little Erie
36:49with some secret policemen
36:53who are partly looking down at the worshippers
36:55and partly keeping an eye on us
36:57to make sure that we don't film in the wrong direction.
36:59It all sort of reminds me of rather of Mamluk rule.
37:05We're talking about two lots of oligarchies
37:09relying on military force, relying on pressure.
37:12It's rather faceless, rather battleship-gray,
37:16monumental, oppressive.
37:20670 years ago, and now we can make quite a strong parallel
37:27to Sachange.
37:37As long as you didn't fall foul of the Mamluk despots,
37:4014th century Cairo was brimming with raucous and bawdy entertainments.
37:44The souks were packed with street storytellers, shadow plays,
37:48dancing camels, and even professional performing farters.
37:52For Ibn Battuta, Egypt was one of the culinary high points of his travels.
37:57In this city, there are to be had various preparations of buffalo milk cheese,
38:03which are unequalled for sweetness and delicious taste.
38:10I needed a good food guide to the city.
38:12Habiba is an old friend of mine and a talented cook.
38:16She took me off to the market to introduce me to the tastes
38:19Ibn Battuta enjoyed when he was here.
38:23Would you like some old cheese?
38:24Old cheese?
38:25Yes.
38:26I don't know if I like the sound of this.
38:34It smells, um, pecan, I think is the word.
38:37It's got something sort of restorative in it.
38:52It's kind of got a...
38:54Do you know, when I was at school, we had these changing rooms
38:57that had, um, they always smelled of socks.
39:00This gentleman is saying that Beckham and Rooney eat old cheese.
39:12Seafowl are sold in the city in large quantities
39:15and are exceedingly fat.
39:18And the fish called alburi, grey mullet.
39:22This is an old Egyptian delicacy called fiseikh.
39:25Essentially, it's raw, rotten fish.
39:28OK, can I have a feel?
39:31Oh, God, it stays in.
39:34Each year, around a dozen people die of fiseikh poisoning.
39:38Being a gambling man,
39:39I was up for this culinary Russian roulette.
39:44Oh, God, oh, the smell.
39:45You know when you drive past a roadkill.
39:55This must be...
39:56You say it's better?
39:57You say it's better?
40:00Do you know, I could be converted to that.
40:11At Old Cairo II is the cemetery called Al-Karafa,
40:16a place of vast repute for blessed power.
40:18For it is part of the Mount of Al-Mukattam,
40:21of which God has promised that it shall be one of the gardens of paradise.
40:29The so-called city of the dead is supposed to be off limits to foreigners.
40:34This was once simply a cemetery,
40:35but over the years the urban poor have moved into the tombs.
40:38The government now regards it as an embarrassment.
40:43Habiba was born here and managed to sneak us in.
40:46This is what Ibn Battuta wrote about this very place, the place that you're from.
40:50These people build in the Karafa beautiful domed chapels and surround them by walls,
40:55and they construct chambers in them and hire the services of Koran readers
40:59who recite night and day in the most beautiful voices.
41:03They go out every Thursday evening to spend the night there with their children and their women folk,
41:07and they make a circuit of the famous sanctuaries.
41:11Actually, we used to do that until very recently, but people stopped actually.
41:16We used to go in the feast or in any religious occasion.
41:20We'll go to the cemetery and spend the night there and take the food and all this sort of stuff.
41:25Habiba's mother had died recently.
41:28She told me that although the traditions Ibn Battuta described are disappearing,
41:32Egyptians still have a special relationship with their dead.
41:35I never found anywhere in the world how we look after the dead more than the live people.
41:43Yeah, it's an important part of our life, the dead and the cemetery and stuff.
41:49It's very, very important.
41:50Everybody wants to be sure he has his tomb, like the Pharaoh, you know,
41:54and it's where it is and should be closer to his family.
41:57And we mourn for a long time, and you never stop. You never stop.
42:01For me, if I pass any time, I say a prayer for the dead.
42:05But...
42:09You are the ones who go before us, and we are the ones who come after you.
42:12Hospitality to travellers is a religious duty in Islam.
42:26Ibn Battuta was a past master at taking advantage of the kindness of strangers.
42:31Knowing I'm a fair trencherman myself,
42:34Habiba rounded off my culinary adventures in Cairo with one of her signature dishes.
42:39This is a surprise for Tim.
42:41I'm cooking him a testicle.
42:43It's a lamb testicle.
42:44There we go.
42:45I'm going to marinate in onion and black pepper and salt, and then I'll do it in the...
42:51It's very painful actually to cut it, I don't know.
42:59It hurts.
43:01Yeah.
43:03Maybe I should use better knives than this, but anyway, this is going to be delicious.
43:08Okay?
43:10Anyway, this will be like that.
43:13Okay?
43:14This is the thing.
43:16That's some testicles you prepared earlier.
43:18Yes, yes.
43:19And then, it will be even more painful.
43:25Yeah.
43:27We'll do it outside.
43:30Then everybody can enjoy.
43:33Okay, that's enough.
43:34Also, we are going to cook this delicious stew with okra.
43:41It's called Bamiyan, Arabic.
43:43And prepare some meat and tomato sauce and garlic and cook it in it.
43:48This is the whole idea of this meal is something people ate forever.
43:53Do you think Ibn Battuta might have eaten some of these?
43:56I'm sure.
43:58And I'm sure he ate some testicles too.
44:03Mmm.
44:04This is my surprise for you tonight.
44:06Some barbecue...
44:08Testicles.
44:10Testicles.
44:12Enjoy.
44:13Oh, they're beautiful.
44:15And look, they're even in pairs.
44:18Habiba, look, you've...
44:20It looks like you've emasculated five...
44:22What are they? Rams.
44:24Just for my delectation.
44:26Ibn Battuta was fascinated by aphrodisiacs.
44:29And in Egypt, testicles are generally held to ginger up your sex life.
44:34Neil, you'll go for some bollocks, won't you?
44:42Next came my journey from Cairo by the route of Upper Egypt, with the object of crossing to the noble city of Mecca.
44:50From Cairo, Ibn Battuta headed south.
44:54Rather than wait for the season of the Hajj pilgrim caravan, he wanted to explore the towns and villages along the Nile.
45:00Once again, his wanderlust had got the better of him.
45:04He planned eventually to get to the Red Sea and sail to Arabia.
45:06The Egyptian authorities had forbidden us from filming in Middle Egypt because of security concerns.
45:15So I made straight for the city of Luxor and picked up the trail there.
45:20In Ibn Battuta's time, the word tourism meant spiritual, transcendental travel.
45:26But for the millions of visitors who come here each year, it's something a bit more down-to-earth.
45:30The wife wanted to come to Egypt. We were supposed to bring her last year, but we couldn't.
45:37So we came this year and this is his first trip abroad.
45:40Great.
45:41An American friend of ours, her husband's Egyptian, he said that we needed to go to Luxor first.
45:45He said that all the artefacts are here, so we flew in the Luxor and we've been going to the Luxor Temple, the Karnak, Valley of the Kings.
45:54And tomorrow we have the hot balloon ride.
45:57Hot balloon ride?
45:58Yes.
45:59Wow.
46:01Pyramids, sphinxes and mummies barely get a mention in Ibn Battuta's travels.
46:06He showed a remarkable lack of interest in what's now the staple Egyptian tourist fair.
46:12But perched on top of one of the pharaonic temples in Luxor, all but ignored by the tour groups below, is a tomb hunter's treasure.
46:24This is the resting place of a Muslim saint, praised by Ibn Battuta for his piety, and famed for never letting a year go by without performing the Hajj.
46:35Even today devotees travel thousands of miles to pay their respects.
46:40One of the pilgrims assumed I was a Muslim and invited me into the mosque.
46:43I'm always being mistaken for a Muslim. It comes from speaking Arabic. But the Imam and the pilgrim didn't want to convert me on the spot.
47:03Instead, they gave me a history of the site, which for them was an illustration of Islam's superiority.
47:09I think I understood what he was saying.
47:12The gentleman says that this is a Muslim's superiority.
47:16I think I understood what he was saying.
47:18The gentleman says that this is a Muslim's superiority.
47:23The way that the religions have followed one another, and the last one and the seal of the religions is Islam.
47:37For many Muslims, tomb visiting is something to be done regularly, like changing the oil in a car.
47:54It ensures the smooth running of history.
47:57This old pilgrim was a veteran traveller and collector of Muslim saints.
48:01I have an idea that perhaps because God is impossible to understand, and we can only begin to understand him by saying that God is impossible to understand.
48:26And we can only begin to understand him by travelling.
48:36That's a beautiful analogy.
48:37I had found my transcendental tourist. It was time to get moving again.
49:01From Luxor, Ibn Battuta continued south up the Nile.
49:14The Egyptian authorities judged this area to be safe for foreigners, so I hired a boat and set off in his wake.
49:20The Nile is one of the five great rivers of the world.
49:40There is no other river on earth that people call a sea.
49:44It is related in an unimpeachable tradition of the prophet of God, peace be upon him, that the Nile, the Euphrates, the Sahan and Jahan are each rivers of paradise.
50:09Our boat hand, Mustafa, had lived on the Nile all his life.
50:24They are not in the Nile.
50:25They are not part of the river, and they do not know the water being oriented on the river.
50:35And this is true that God says, what is it?
50:37So, it is true.
50:38Did you hear any other river?
50:39Yes.
50:40Yes, it was a great day.
50:43It was a great day.
50:45It was a great day.
50:47It was a great day.
50:49Thank you very much.
50:52Of course, it was written before 670 years ago.
50:56Yes.
50:57So, did you see the changes changed?
51:00Yes, the changes changed.
51:02There were houses.
51:04I didn't have anything.
51:06I didn't have two houses.
51:09Yes, but I saw something in my name.
51:12The Saba.
51:13Yes, the Saba.
51:15It's a real thing.
51:16But I didn't have anything to do with you.
51:18The city and the city were in a place.
51:21They were in a place.
51:22I didn't have anything to do with you.
51:27While Ibn Battuta was travelling up the Nile,
51:30he met another holy man blessed with the power of prophecy.
51:34When he asked me what I proposed to do,
51:39I told him that I intended to make the pilgrimage to Mecca by way of Jidda.
51:44He replied,
51:45You will not succeed in doing that on this occasion.
51:49Go back, for you will make your first pilgrimage by the Syrian road and no other.
51:55I wanted a prophecy of my own from Mustafa.
52:00Would I succeed in following Ibn Battuta all the way across the world to China?
52:05Yes, I can.
52:06Yes, I can.
52:07Yes, I can.
52:08I don't see you as a result.
52:09Yes, I can.
52:10It's really easy.
52:11Yes?
52:12Yes, if you want to go to the city,
52:15you will go.
52:16Yes.
52:17If you want to do something like the building,
52:20I will do it.
52:21If I have my own self?
52:22Yes, if I do it.
52:24If I want to do it, I will do it.
52:25It means something related to the law?
52:26Yes, the law.
52:27The law.
52:28Yes.
52:29It's been said that you can never step in the same river twice.
52:42But I felt that Ibn Battuta's Nile and mine were one and the same.
52:46That we were born by the same current, propelled by the same wind,
52:51and that he was only a swish of a robe ahead of me.
52:54But how would I get to his next destination,
52:58an insalubrious port on the Red Sea called Aithab?
53:02Good morning.
53:04Good morning.
53:06Do you know Aithab?
53:08I don't know.
53:10How is it?
53:11How is it?
53:12Yes.
53:13The last world.
53:15The last world.
53:16The last world.
53:17The last world.
53:18The last world, he says.
53:19That's where I'm trying to get to the end of the earth.
53:20Actually, I am trying to get to the end of the earth in many ways.
53:23350 kilos.
53:24All right, OK.
53:25Now we're getting some fat.
53:27And there's nothing for the Baha'im, the beasts to eat.
53:39No water.
53:40It's all sun and tiredness.
53:44And the sun beats down on you until you're dizzy.
53:50Ibn Battuta did it in some comfort on camels.
53:55So, perhaps we should go looking for camels.
54:01For all the years I've lived in Arabia, I've somehow managed to avoid camels.
54:05I'd always thought of them as nasty beasts that spit, bite and kick.
54:10I wasn't looking forward to this bit of Ibn Battuta's trip at all.
54:15When Ibn Battuta got to Edfu on the Nile, he hired some Arab camel drivers to take him across the eastern desert to the port of Aithab.
54:22Now, Aithab was a pretty funny place.
54:24If you didn't pay your taxes, you were in danger of getting strung up by your testicles.
54:29And like most places on the Red Sea, it was bloody hot.
54:34And I even found a little bit of an air as well as theivas.
54:39Peace be upon you.
54:40Peace be upon you.
54:41How's your life?
54:42You're calling me Mary?
54:43I'm Mary.
54:44I'm calling Tyn.
54:45Can you get me on the campfire?
54:48Great.
54:49I can do it.
54:50You can do it.
54:51I'm using the charges?
54:53Yes.
54:54And there's anything in you?
54:55Yes.
54:57Oh, this is looking good.
54:59And, since this time I've never seen a minha luna.
55:02In Ibn Battuta's day, camel trains could be the height of luxury travel.
55:18I think he went across the desert in a camel litter.
55:21So I'm going to be rather more adventurous.
55:25You know, he went in a litter, sort of reading books and playing chess or something with his mate.
55:30He was sitting in the other side.
55:33It's actually quite comfortable so far.
55:39There you are.
55:41There you are.
55:45Ah, now that's better.
55:49Oh, now I can cope with this.
55:51Off on the ship of the desert.
55:54We hired camels and set out through a desert totally devoid of settlements.
56:00This desert is luminous and radiant.
56:03There is no road, no track, only sand blown about by the wind.
56:08You see mountains of sand in one place, then you see they have moved to another.
56:14I've spent so much of my time hunting for Ibn Battuta that I sometimes don't notice when he creeps up on me.
56:25As we rode east towards Mecca, the 670 years between us seem to fall away.
56:31Ibn Battuta was not destined to get to Arabia this way.
56:36Just as the holy man on the Nile predicted, he had to turn back at the Red Sea and eventually made the Hajj pilgrimage over land through Syria.
56:46For most pilgrims, Mecca was the end of the road.
56:53But for Ibn Battuta, his journey had only just begun.
56:59They say travel broadens the mind.
57:02But Ibn Battuta's journey wasn't just mind-broadening, it was mind-blowing.
57:06The next leg of his odyssey took him to the new frontiers of the Islamic world, the hills of Anatolia.
57:13It's breathtaking. I can see why you like this.
57:16The infidel cities of the Ukraine and the empire of the mad sultan of Delhi.
57:21Probably the first time Ibn Battuta saw this, he was thinking, what a nutcase.
57:25On his travels, he encountered all that was weird, wonderful and unexpected in the Muslim world.
57:32To follow in his footsteps will show that Islam comes in a thousand different guises.
57:37The dancing dervishes of Turkey, the mystics and madmen of India,
57:41the magicians of the Maldives, the sages and sorcerers of China.
57:47All this lies just beyond the horizon.
57:55Tim McIntosh-Smith continues the journey next Thursday at nine here on BBC4.
58:13I'm a fan of the Maldives.
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