Towards the end of his childhood, he was ready to make the pilgrimage to Mecca, which he completed only when he was 21 years old, in 1325. The year after arriving in Mecca, after having followed a route that ran through both Syria and Egypt, discovered his passion for travel. After fulfilling his religious obligations, he traveled to the western regions of Persia and Iraq, before returning to Mecca and living and studying there for three years.
His next trip was by sea. Ibn Battuta traveled to Yemen along the Red Sea coast. He then made stops in Aden and Mogadishu, as well as the many trading posts in the Horn of Africa. His return journey brought him back to Mecca in 1332, but not before he had visited Oman and other parts of the Persian Gulf. This time, he did not stay long in Mecca, but instead traveled to Anatolia, visited the Turkish religious orders and met with local rulers.
At this stage, Ibn Battuta he was a thoroughly seasoned traveler, and his next trip would be the longest. He sailed across the Black Sea to see the lands of the Golden Horde in the Crimea, visiting the Caucasus to meet the Khan himself. From there, he made another trip to the Horde capital at Sarai, before heading to the lands east of the Volga River. He spent some time in Afghanistan and in Transoxiana, until he reached the Indus Valley.
Arriving in Delhi, he stayed there for almost a decade, working as a judge. In 1342, he finally left the city and explored the central regions of India before following the Malabar coast to the Maldives. His next trip was even longer, touring the island of Ceylon before moving to Sumatra. From there, he went to China and spent a short time traveling around the region. In the late 1340s and early 1350s, he traveled almost non-stop. His final journey took him through the Sahara desert to Niger.
Coming home in 1354, Ibn Battuta he worked on his work Journey, which was completed the following year. There is only fragmentary evidence from the last years of his life, although it is known that he acted as a Moroccan judge. After his death in 1377 in Morocco at the age of 65, the book of his travels fell into obscurity, and it was not until the 19th century that parts of it were printed. The French rediscovered more details in the 1830s, during their occupation of Algeria. After the publication of a joint Arab-French edition in 1853, the reputation of Ibn Battuta as one of the greatest explorers in history he was revived, and his legacy is now secure.