Re:Ibn Battuta and his adventure
by DougBTX on Tuesday March 27, 2018 @10:22AM
(#16688647)
Is there a book you'd recommend for casual adult reading?
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As ibn_ibid suggested, getting a translation of The Travels is really the best thing to do. It's a lovely read, with none of the archaic oddities of, say, more-or-less literal translations of Homer or older texts. I think that high quality is due to three things: an excellent translation by Mackintosh-Smith; the fact that the original material was written as reportage/prose, not poetry or correspondence; and that Ibn Battuta was just a damn good writer--Rusticello wrote like a paperback novelist forced to write nonfiction, and it showed.
Dunn's "The Adventures of Ibn Battuta" is also trenchant. But really start with The Travels.
Tim Mackintosh-Smith's translation is eminently readable with comprehensive notes - https://www.amazon.com/Travels-Battutah-Macmillan-Collectors...