Ibn Battutas 1331 Journey to West Africa Essay -- Gender Roles, Mecca

Ibn Battutas 1331 tour to West Africa provides a contrast of two arenas Battutas pre-modern Moslem acculturation conflicting with African societies interpretation of Muslim beliefs and tribal traditions. He is particularly critical of the various roles of women he observesthus, allowing us insight into his own judgments make by his culture and society. A brief summary of his life is prevailing in the understanding of Battutas impressions and reactions to West African society. Abu Abdallah ibn Battuta was born in Morocco in 1304. By 1325, Battuta embarked on his first hajj, or pilgrimage to the holiest Islamic city of Mecca at age twenty-one (Hamdun, King, p. 1). Although expected to complete this sacred duty at least once in his or her lifetime, Battuta double-dyed(a) the hajj, six or seven times, each time presumably accruing nobleman merit (Dunn, p. xvii). Battuta was a part of the ulama, an elite class of Muslim phantasmal and legal scholars who, traveled to make the ha jj or to further their gentility in the religious sciences (Dunn, p. xii). Battuta traveled extensively for nearly thirty years, see around fifty countries, often multiple times (Dunn, p. ix). He chronicled his prolonged expeditions in the Rihla (Book of Travels), allowing some of the first and only written accounts of Sub-Saharan Africa in the 14th century. Battutas beliefs regarding status of women in Islamic society is perhaps first alluded to in his account of the Massfa of wltan. He chides, The condition of these people is strange and their manners outlandishNone of them derives his family tree from his father, but on the contrary, from his maternal uncle (Battuta, p. 37). Battuta disagrees with the Massfas tradition of matrilinear derive... ...and counted among his associates eminent scholars, royal officials, rich merchants, and Mongol Kings (Dunn, p. ix). It is these experiences that also allow us to also extrapolate some of the realities and experiences of the pre-mod ern Muslim woman. It is these like experiences during this formative flow rate of Islamic society that established and shaped the contemporary Islamic world. Today, unspoiled as Ibn Battuta was able to observe other cultures through caravans on camelback, Muslim men and women are now exposed to various cultures in our globalized world through technology without having to travel far. And also just as Battuta, these same men and women are also experiencing the both strengthening and testing of his or her cultural and religious identity. The social constructs of Battutas era are macrocosm challenged through revolutions and uprisings throughout Islam.