Ibn Battuta

Ibn Baṭūṭah (/ˌɪbənbætˈtuːtɑː/ Arabic: أبو عبد الله محمد بن عبد الله اللواتي الطنجي بن بطوطة‎, ʾAbū ʿAbd al-Lāh Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Lāh l-Lawātī ṭ-Ṭanǧī ibn Baṭūṭah), or simply Muhammad Ibn Battuta (ابن بطوطة) (February 25, 1304 – 1368 or 1369), was a Medieval Muslim traveler and scholar, who is widely recognised as one of the greatest travelers of all time. He is known for his extensive travels, accounts of which were published in the Rihla (lit. "Journey"). Over a period of thirty years, Ibn Battuta visited most of the known Islamic world as well as many non-Muslim lands. His journeys included trips to North Africa, the Horn of Africa, West Africa and Eastern Europe, and to the Middle East, South Asia, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and China.

Early life and first hajj

All that is known about Ibn Battuta's life comes from the autobiographical information included in the account of his travels, which records that he was of Berber descent, born into a family of Islamic legal scholars in Tangier, Morocco, on February 25, 1304, during the reign of the Marinid dynasty. He claimed descent from a Berber tribe known as the Lawata. As a young man he would have studied at a Sunni Maliki madh'hab (Islamic jurisprudence school), the dominant form of education in North Africa at that time. In June 1325, at the age of twenty-one, Ibn Battuta set off from his hometown on a hajj, or pilgrimage, to Mecca, a journey that would take sixteen months. He would not see Morocco again for twenty-four years.

Ibn Battuta (crater)

Ibn Battuta is a small lunar crater on the Mare Fecunditatis, a lunar mare in the eastern part of the Moon's near side. It lies to the southwest of the crater Lindbergh, and northeast of the prominent Goclenius.

The mare to the south and west of Ibn Battuta contains a number of ghost crater formations, consisting of crater rims that have been submerged by lava flows and now form ring-shaped projections in the surface. These are best observed under conditions of oblique lighting, when the terminator still lies on or near the Mare Fecunditatis.

The crater is circular and symmetrical, with a wide interior floor. The sloping inner walls have a slightly higher albedo than the surrounding mare, but the interior floor is the same dark shade as the exterior of the crater. There is a tiny craterlet on the floor near the western rim, but otherwise no significant markings.

This crater was formerly designated Goclenius A before being given its current name by the IAU. It is named after the traveller and writer Ibn Battuta.