Medieval Islamic world · 1325-1354

Ibn Battuta: 29 years on the road

A young scholar from Tangier set out for Mecca in 1325 and spent most of the next 29 years on the road, from China to West Africa. Students follow Ibn Battuta's journey on the map and test his story like historians.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
50 minutes
Ages
11–14
On the map
3 steps, AD 1325 to AD 1348
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

A young scholar from Tangier set out for Mecca in 1325 and spent most of the next 29 years on the road, from China to West Africa. Students follow Ibn Battuta's journey on the map and test his story like historians.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Follow Ibn Battuta's route on the map and name at least six places he visited.
  • Explain how a shared faith, law and language helped him travel and find work.
  • Evaluate how reliable a travel account like the Rihla is.
2

Explore the map

15 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

AD 1325

Setting out

Open Stories and choose Ibn Battuta under Travel with. Watch the first steps from Tangier to Mecca. Why did one pilgrimage turn into a journey of almost thirty years?

Open this view on the map
b

AD 1343

Across the Indian Ocean

Keep playing the journey to Delhi and the Maldives. Turn on the Trade Routes layer. Which route did Ibn Battuta's ships follow?

Open this view on the map
c

AD 1348

Home through the plague

Stop the journey in 1348 at Damascus. Turn on Spreads and choose the Black Death. Where else was the plague at the same time?

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

15 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. Ibn Battuta found work as a judge in Delhi and the Maldives. Why could a scholar from Morocco work so far from home?
  2. He traveled about 117,000 km by camel, horse, ship and on foot. What made such long journeys possible in the 1300s?
  3. He told his story to a writer years after he came home. What problems might that cause for historians?
  4. Some historians doubt that he really went to every place he describes, such as China. How could we check a traveler's story?
  5. What does his journey tell us about how connected the Islamic world was in the 1300s?
4

Game round

10 min

Play one round of Rule History as Mansa Musa, the ruler of Mali whose famous pilgrimage passed through Cairo in 1324, a year before Ibn Battuta set out. Discuss: what did travelers like them need to cross the Islamic world (money, letters, faith, knowledge of Arabic)?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

€19 per month unlocks every worksheet, every live lesson and the class workspace. The free lesson prints without a subscription.