In Ibn Battuta's famous account of his travels, he begins with a lengthy justification for his unusual journey. In the 14th century, it was not so easy to grab a flight across the world, andtherefore distant travel was much less common. Ibn Battuta felt a need to provide a more lengthy explanation than our usual #travelholic #yolo #funinthesun that we use today. In his context, the most common reason to travel such distances was for the Hajj, the major pilgrimage in Islam. So he begins by setting out to visit the holy shrine in Mecca, but eventually his travel bug pushes him farther and farther until he's managed to travel half the globe. Below, he describes his departure from his beloved Tangier, as he leaves behind all the people and places he has come to know in order to describe new people and new places in foreign lands.
"I set out alone, having neither fellow-traveller in whose companionship I might find cheer, nor caravan whose party I might join, but swayed by an overmastering impulse within me and a desire long-cherished in my bosom to visit these illustrious sanctuaries. So I braced my resolution to quit all my dear ones, female and male, and forsook my home as birds forsake their nests."
-p. 3 The Travels of Ibn Battutah edited by Tim Mackintosh-Smith
Similarly, I hope to begin a new journey with this blog. Perhaps not quite as dramatic as Ibn Battuta's journey, I will engage in some arm-chair travel through my own research and explorations. And though I sincerely hope I do not have to "quit my dear ones," I hope that I will leave aside my own preconceived notions, so I can jump into the richness of the texts and ideas that I will explore.
