When was ibn battuta mall built

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Share on Facebook. Ibn Battuta described the fruit of the baobab tree: "like a cucumber, when it ripens it bursts uncovering something like flour; they cook and eat it and it is sold in the markets. He also told of a ground crop like beans that was fried which tastes like peas, or made into a flour and fried in 'shea butter'.

On his way back home from Mali, he tells of some Berbers who live off of dates and locusts an insect like a grasshopper.

For a modern American take on West African cuisines, check out this article from the Washington Post. Some of Ibn Battuta's food-related commentary is more overt cultural commentary. Consider this disturbing anecdote, which he said was told to him:. Sultan Mansa Sulayman was visited by a party of They have a custom of wearing in their ears large pendants, each pendant having an opening of half a span. They wrap themselves in silk mantles, and in their country there is a gold mine.

The sultan received them with honour, and gave them as his hospitality-gift a servant, a [black woman]. They killed and ate her, and having smeared their faces and hands with her blood came to the sultan to thank him. I was informed that this is their regular custom whenever they visit his court.

Someone told me about them that they say that the choicest parts of women's flesh are the palm of the hand and the breast. Ibn Battuta did not claim to witness the shocking events he described here, and his story begs the question: Would he have been willing to believe and repeat this account if the sultan's visitors had been Muslims?

Ibn Battuta must have wanted to see the ruler quickly, but ten days after his arrival, he reported that became seriously ill after eating some undercooked yams. One of his traveling companions died from the same food! Ibn Battuta remained ill for two months. After he finally recovered, he went to observe a public ceremony - an audience with the sultan Mansa Sulayman.

The troops, governors, young men, slaves, Anyone who wishes to address the sultan addresses the interpreter and the interpreter addresses a man standing [near the sultan] and that man standing addresses the sultan. Their instruments of music are made of reeds and calabashes, and they beat them with sticks and produce a wonderful sound.

Each commander has a quiver which he places between his shoulders. He holds his bow in his hand and is mounted on a mare. Some of his men are on foot and some on mounts. Four of the amirs stand behind him to drive off flies, with ornaments of silver in their hands The Interpreter brings in his four wives and his concubines, who are about a hundred in number.

On them are fine clothes and on their heads they have bands of silver and gold with silver and gold apples as pendants. A chair is there for the Interpreter and he beats on an instrument which is made of reeds with tiny calabashes below it [a "balophon"] praising the sultan, recalling in his song his expeditions and deeds.

The wives and the concubines sing with him Ibn Battuta ended his eight-month stay in Mali with mixed feelings. On the one hand he respected the parents' strict teaching of the Qur'an to their children: "They place fetters [ropes or chains] on their children if there appears I have been four months in your country without your giving me a reception gift or anything else.

What shall I say of you in the presence of other sultans? That evidently made a difference, though it is hard to know what the locals thought of their demanding guest. He was gracious to me at my departure, to the extent of giving me one hundred mithqals of gold.

On his return trip, Ibn Battuta continued to explore parts of Mali. He went to Timbuktu, a town that was just beginning to flower as a center of Islamic scholarship and trade. Mansa Musa himself had a mosque built there. But Ibn Battuta was evidently not very impressed with Timbuktu - a city that would become great in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

His return journey was even more difficult. He had bought a riding camel and another to carry his supplies. But in the desert heat one camel died.

Other travelers offered to help carry his supplies, but further on Ibn Battuta fell sick again. He recovered in a small town called Takadda.