Question

Read the following statements regarding Ibn Battuta's travel experiences and choose the correct option:
I. His travel was unsafe as he was looted many times.
II. He travelled in caravans along with companions.
III. His journey took months due to vast distances.
IV. He has written his travelling experiences in Persian.

• A. I, II and IV are correct.
• B. I, II and III are correct.
• C. I, III and IV are correct.
• D. II, III and IV are correct.

Hint:

Remember the languages of major historical travelogues: - Ibn Battuta's Rihla $\rightarrow$ Written in Arabic. - Al-Biruni's Kitab-ul-Hind $\rightarrow$ Written in Arabic. - Francois Bernier's writings $\rightarrow$ Written in French.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is B

Concept: Ibn Battuta was a famous fourteenth-century Moroccan traveler who arrived in India during the reign of Muhammad bin Tughlaq. His travelogue provides deep socio-cultural accounts of contemporary Indian life, urban setups, and logistical networks.

Step 1: Evaluating statements I, II, and III regarding travel conditions.
In his travel records, Ibn Battuta explicitly noted that traveling across long distances in the fourteenth century was hazardous and exhausting:
• Statement I is correct: Highway robbery was rampant. Ibn Battuta himself was attacked, wounded, and plundered by bandits multiple times during his journeys across North India.
• Statement II is correct: To safeguard themselves from bandits, individual travelers rarely ventured out alone; they preferred moving collectively in large organized caravans (qafilas).
• Statement III is correct: Given the technological constraints of the medieval era, long distances took months to cross (e.g., traveling from Multan to Delhi took about forty days).

Step 2: Evaluating statement IV regarding language.

• Statement IV is incorrect: Ibn Battuta compiled his global traveling experiences in his famous book titled Rihla, which was written in the Arabic language, not Persian. Arabic was his tive language and the domint scholarly tongue across North Africa and the Islamic world of that period.

Step 3: Selecting the correct combition.
Since Statements I, II, and III are correct while Statement IV is false, Option (B) is the accurate answer.