Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn Battuta was a Moroccan scholar who is best known as a traveller or explorer who traveled for almost 30 years. His journeys covered almost the whole of the known Islamic world, reaching also to present-day India, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia and China.

Several years after his return, at the request of the Sultan of Morocco, Ibn Battuta told stories of his journeys to a scholar named Ibn Juzayy so that they could be recorded. Almost everything we know about Ibn Battuta's adventures comes from the account recorded by Ibn Juzayy. The title of this initial manuscript may be translated as A Gift to Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Traveling, but is often simply referred to as the Rihla, or Journey. While apparently fictional in places, the Rihla still gives us the most complete account of some parts of the world in the 14th century.