1001 Inventions of Ibn Battuta’s Meccan Journey

Travels of Ibn Battuta

When people learn Muslim culture and the various scientific, technological, mathematical, medical and other advancements which were made by the Muslims one would be astonished by the tremendous efforts which Muslims have given towards education and inventions alike. A famous film which was made under the title of the journey to Makkah under the footsteps of Ibn Bathuta, gives a very clear description about those who want to learn Muslim culture and understand and appreciate their efforts towards society.

In the movie, Ibn Battuta took a span of one and a half years to go all the way to perform Hajj from Morocco, and after completing the hajj he traveled the world for a period of 29 years by stopping at places such as West Africa, Spain, India, China etc in a journey of more than 75,000 miles!

There were more than 1600 people who watched this movie when it was released in the year 2011 which includes people of different faiths and cultures in Southern California alone. While the film was being played there were some people in the audience who cried when they saw the Kaaba so closely for the first time.

The movie mentioned that Ibn Bathuta was only 21 years of age when he had a dream, after which he told his friend called Hamza that he flew on top of a huge Cairo bird to the river Nile and crossed Mecca and the Red sea.  As a result, Ibn Bathuta started his 3000 mile journey from Tangiers to Morocco and Mecca, where he performed his Hajj pilgrimage.

The main reason that this man undertook such a journey was to seek knowledge, not for leisure or other reasons. It is this knowledge that allowed him to write books on various inventions and discoveries that he made as a result of his campaign. However the reason these are not highlighted much by the West is because they took place during the dark ages, which was the time Western world was blind and the Islamic empire was expanding in all directions.

Some of the prominent inventions that were introduced from the Islamic world are wings which enabled them to fly in the air. It was during this time that the Wright Brothers made their invention of the airplane, the concept of which was already laid out by the Muslims themselves (some time later, Leonardo da Vinci had similar ideas – most likely influenced by Islamic science)! Similarly there were other masterpieces and inventions which would take several pages to note down, and it is why the book was called 1001 inventions! The technique which is used nowadays for fabricating the swords blade was also developed during those times where the metal was heated, hammered to thickness and quenched in water and oil to ensure great quality at all times.