Ibn Battuta ابن بطوطة
traveler · Tangier, Morocco · 1304–1368?
A traveller who left for the pilgrimage to Mecca at twenty-two and went on for twenty-nine years and 120,000 kilometres, through Africa, India and China.
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June 1325 (dictated 1355)
I was alone, with no companion whose company might cheer me and no caravan to join, moved by a firm resolve in my soul and a longing for those noble sanctuaries hidden deep in my breast. So I made up my mind to leave my dear ones, women and men, and I left my homeland as birds leave their nests. My parents were still living, and it weighed on me sorely to part from them; I, like them, was afflicted by the separation. I was then twenty-two years old.
منفردا عن رفيق آنس بصحبته، وراكب أكون في جملته، لباعث على النفس شديد العزائم، وشوق إلى تلك المعاهد الشريفة كامن في الحيازم. فحزمت أمرى على هجر الأحباب من الإناث والذكور، وفارقت وطني مفارقة الطيور للوكور. وكان والداي بقيد الحياة فتحملت لبعدهما وصبا، ولقيت كما لقيا من الفراق نصبا وسني يومئذ اثنتان وعشرون سنةThe Travels (Rihla) of Ibn Battuta, the opening
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