From Tlemcen to Cairo on Ibn Battuta's road from the Maghreb

The route of Ibn Battuta from the Maghrib to Cairo, as he describes it at the start of his journey. He says he was born in Tangier, then the route begins at Tlemcen ¹.

He reached Tlemcen and caught up with two envoys of the king of Ifriqiya, and followed them as far as Miliana ². Then he passed Algiers and Bejaia ², then Constantine and Bona ³, then Tunis, where he stayed, observed the feast of al-Fitr, and left at the end of Dhu al-Qa'da ⁴.

Along the coast came Sousse and Sfax ⁵, then Gabes, where he stayed ten days because of continuous rain ⁶, then Tripoli ⁶. He left it at the end of Muharram of the year 726, passing Musalata, Misrata and the castles of Sirte, then the Qasr of Barsisa and the Qubbat Salam ⁶, and reached Alexandria in early Jumada al-Ula ⁶.

From Alexandria he went to Terrouge, then Damanhur, and from there to Fuwwa ⁷, then Damietta ⁸. From Damietta he passed Farskur, Ashmun al-Rumman and Samannud, and from Samannud he went up the Nile by boat to the city of Misr ⁹.

The page numbers are the printed numbers of the 1958 edition. The scanned copy used in preparing this page adds one to the printed page number in the file.

The text does not describe the road from Tangier to Tlemcen, and mentions only his birth in Tangier ². That is why the saved route begins at Tlemcen.

No Gregorian dates have been set. The only date given by day and month is the arrival at Alexandria in early Jumada al-Ula. The year is taken from his departure from Tripoli at the end of Muharram of the year 726.

The towns between Tlemcen and Tripoli (Miliana, Algiers, Bejaia, Constantine, Bona, Tunis, Sousse, Sfax and Gabes) have no place files yet, so they are not included as separate stations.

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