Answer:
During the life of Ibn Battuta (sometimes spelled Battutah), Islamic civilization ... By the time he left Tunis he was serving as a paid judge, a qadi, of a caravan of ... travels had only modest impact on the Muslim world before the 19th century.
Ibn Battuta was born in Tangier, part of modern-day Morocco, on February 25, 1304. This port city on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean lies 45 miles west of the Mediterranean Sea, close to the western side of the Strait of Gibraltar — where Africa and Europe nearly collide.
The men in Ibn Battuta’s family were legal scholars and he was raised with a focus on education; however, there was no “madrasa,” or college of higher learning, in Tangier. Thus, Ibn Battuta’s urge to travel was spurred by interest in finding the best teachers and the best libraries, which were then in Alexandria, Cairo, and Damascus. He also wanted to make the pilgrimage to Mecca, called the “hajj,” as soon as possible, out of eagerness and devotion to his faith.
