Ibn Battuta’s travels began in 1325 when, at age 21, he left his home in Morocco to make the journey to Mecca. Over the next three decades of his life, this Muslim scholar traveled by foot, ship, horse, and camel through Africa, the Middle East, and Asia at a time when the earth was thought to be flat and Jerusalem was considered the center of the world. James Rumford’s longtime interest in Islamic mapmaking and Arabic calligraphy led him to retell and illustrate the fascinating story of the 14th-century sojourner who recorded his own story in Arabic in 1355. Dazzling watercolor paintings and a conversational first-person narrative bring him to life for 21st-century children. Honor Book, CCBC Sibert Award Discussion (Ages 8–11)

Ibn Battuta was the traveler of his age—the fourteenth century, a time before Columbus when many believed the world to be flat. Like Marco Polo, Ibn Battuta left behind an account of his own incredible journey from Morocco to China, from the steppes of Russia to the shores of Tanzania, some seventy-five thousand miles in all.
James Rumford has retold Ibn Battuta’s story in words and pictures, adding the element of ancient Arab maps—maps as colorful and as evocative as a Persian miniature, as intricate and mysterious as a tiled Moroccan wall.
Into this arabesque of pictures and maps, James Rumford has woven the story not just of a traveler in a world long gone but of a man on his journey through life.