African traveler Ibn Battuta reached in Calicut-Kerala

Last Updated on: August 18, 2022

African traveler Ibn Battuta reached in Calicut, Kerala, between 1342-1347,  The Moroccan traveler Ibn Battuta is known as the greatest traveler of premodern times. . Leaving his homeland at the age of 21 to make the holy pilgrimage to Mecca, he performed a series of extraordinary journeys that spanned nearly three decades and took him as far away as India and China, but also to the Volga River valley and south to Tanzania. The narrative of his travels is a unique account on Islamic and medieval history that was placed by the historians within the rich, trans-hemispheric cultural setting of the history of the medieval world.

Ibn Battuta arrived in India in 1333. In Delhi, he met the sultan Muhammad ibn Tughluq in the Hall of a Thousand Pillars in one of his palaces in Jahanpanah. The sultan was surrounded by dozens of chamberlains, officials and slaves, including the “keeper of the fly whisk.” In attendance were 200 armored soldiers, 60 horses in royal harnesses and 50 elephants dressed in silk and gold.

From the Deccan, he travelled down south to Malabar, which he described in detail: ‘The whole of the way by land lies under the shade of trees and at a distance of every half mile is, a house made of wood,

Active trade existed between Arabia and Malabar at an earlier date and in this process the Muslims dominated the trade. The Malabar Coast from time immemorial famous for its Spices, Pepper, Cinnamon and Black Gold and other products. This creates a regular trade with many countries especially by sea route. Foreigners were welcomed and treated with hospitality in Malabar. Many travellers and Scholars came here for the purpose of trade. Dealing with the early history of Malabar, i.e., Kerala, there were only traditional accounts. So, the Accounts of Travellers form an important source for the history of Malabar. We cannot forget the role of Arab travellers, Greeks, Italian, Moroccan and Portuguese. Their accounts gave Kerala history more known and made a fill up too many facts relating to our past history. From the Muslim travellers one of the outstanding Globe-trotters and explorers of the Middle Ages was Ibn-Battuta. He had come from Tangier now in the country of Morocco. He travelled 77,640 miles within a period of 29 years between June 1324 and January 1354 covering 74 countries of the World.

This is pepper country, the Moroccan traveler Ibn Battuta declared of Malabar, India’s southwest coast along the Arabian Sea. Admiring the tropical forests and hills made bountiful by monsoon rains, there was “not a span of ground or more but is cultivated,” he observed. “Every man has his own separate orchard,” and these extend down the coast for the distance of “a two-month march” (about 400 kilometers).

Among the many ports in Malabar he visited in the 14th century, thee “flourishing and much-frequented” Kozhikode, known then as Qaliqut (and later Calicut), today in the state of Kerala. stood out. In its harbor, he wrote, “gather merchants from all quarters,” such as China, Java and Sri Lanka to the east and the Maldives, Yemen and Persia to the west. Many of them traded in spices—especially cloves, nutmeg and cinnamon from further east and cardamom, ginger and cassia from Malabar itself. But one spice was king, anchor of the city’s success: Piper nigrum—black pepper.

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