Ibn Battuta

Ibn Battuta (1304–1369/1377) was a Moroccan explorer and scholar who traveled widely across Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, and China over nearly three decades. His travelogue Rihla records journeys of approximately 75,000 miles and provides detailed observations of the places and peoples he visited.

Quotes by Ibn Battuta

Quotes: 1

Traveling — it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller. — Ibn Battuta

From Speechless Awe to the Traveler's Tale

Ultimately, travel remakes the teller as much as the tale. The speechless traveler returns with a recalibrated sense of the possible and a duty to communicate it. As T. S. Eliot suggests in Four Quartets (1942), we “arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” Stories complete that circle, carrying the shock of elsewhere back home—so that those who cannot go may still, in some measure, arrive. [...]

Created on: 10/30/2025