Ibn Batúta was a native of Tangiers, who travelled over the greater part of Asia, and visited India in the reign of Muhammad Tughlik. Elphinstone's summary of the character and value of this traveller's writings is so brief and so much to the point that it can hardly be improved. He says Ibn Batúta “could have had no interest in misrepresentation, as he wrote after his return to Africa. He confirms, to the full extent, the native accounts, both of the king's talents and of his crimes, and gives exactly such a picture of mixed magnificence and desolation as one would expect under such a sovereign. He found an admirably regulated horse and foot post from the frontiers to the capital, while the country was so disturbed as to make travelling unsafe. He describes Dehli as a most magnificent city, its mosque and walls without an equal on earth; but although the king was then repeopling it, it was almost a desert. ‘The greatest city in the world, he said, had the fewest inhabitants.’”
The extracts which follow have been selected as containing the most important and interesting events and facts which he has recorded about India. His details do not always precisely agree with those of the regular historians. He recounted, and no doubt honestly, the information he received from the respectable and well-informed individuals with whom he was brought in contact; and there is an air of veracity about his statements which favourably impresses the reader. In his African home he carefully wrote down that which he had gathered in the free course of conversation. But, while on the one hand he doubtless heard many facts and opinions which the speakers would not have dared to commit to writing and publish, some deduction must be made on the other side for the loose statements and bold assertions which pass current when there is no probability of bringing them to the test of public judgment. Thus he distinctly relates that Muhammad Tughlik compassed the death of his father by an apparent accident, and he is probably right in his statement, but Barní records the catastrophe as a simple accident, and Firishta only notices the charge of foul play to reject and condemn it.
Ibn Batúta was received with much respect at the court of Muhammad Tughlik, and experienced in his own person much of the boundless liberality and some little of the severity of that lavish and savage sovereign. When the traveller arrived in Dehli the king was absent, but the queen-mother received him. He was presented with splendid robes, 2,000 dínárs in money, and a house to live in. On the return of the Sultán, he was treated yet more splendidly. He received a grant of villages worth 5,000 dínárs per annum, a present of ten female captives, a fully caparisoned horse from the royal stables, and a further sum of 5,000 dínárs. Besides this, he was made a judge of Delhi at a salary of 12,000 dínárs a year, and was allowed to draw the first year in advance. After this he received another present of 12,000 dínárs, but he records the fact that a deduction of ten per cent. was always made from these presents. He afterwards got into debt to the amount of 45,000 dínárs, but he presented an Arabic poem to the Sultán in which he recounted his difficulties, and the Sultán undertook to satisfy his creditors. When the sovereign left Dehli he received further marks of his favour and liberality, but subsequently he fell into disgrace for having visited an obnoxious shaikh. His account of his terrors is rather amusing. “The Sultán ordered four of his slaves never to lose sight of me in the audience chamber, and when such an order is given, it is very rarely that the person escapes. The first day the slaves kept watch over me was a Friday, and the Almighty inspired me to repeat these words of the Kurán: ‘God is sufficient for us, and what an excellent Protector!’ On that day I repeated this sentence 33,000 times, and I passed the night in the audience chamber. I fasted five days in succession. Every day I read the whole of the Kurán, and I broke my fast only by drinking a little water. The sixth day I took some food, then I fasted four days more in sucession, and I was released after the death of the shaikh. Thanks be to the Almighty!” His danger had such an effect upon him, that he gave up his offices and went into religious retirement, but the Sultán sent to recall him, and appointed him his ambassador to the King of China. His account of his journey through India to Malabar where he embarked, is full of interesting matter. Dr. Lee made a translation of Ibn Batúta for the Oriental Translation Fund in 1829, but the complete Arabic text with a French translation has since been published by M. M. Defremery and Sanguinetti. It is from this version that the following Extracts have been taken by the Editor.