The Muslim traveller Ibn Battuta, who visited Constantinople towards the end of 1332, mentions in his memoirs having met Andronikos III.

* 1304 – Ibn Battuta, Arabian explorer ( d. c. 1368 )

Muslim traveller Ibn Battuta left vivid descriptions of the empire.

(, ), or simply Ibn Battuta (), also known as Shams ad-Din ( February 25, 1304 – 1368 or 1369 ), was a Berber Muslim Moroccan explorer, known for his extensive travels, accounts of which were published in the Rihla ( lit.

Ibn Battuta is considered one of the greatest travellers of all time.

Ibn Battuta was born into a Berber family of Islamic legal scholars in Tangier, Morocco, on 25 February 1304, during the reign of the Marinid dynasty.

In June 1325, at the age of twenty-one, Ibn Battuta set off from his hometown on a hajj, or pilgrimage, to Mecca, a journey that would take sixteen months.

For safety, Ibn Battuta usually joined a caravan to reduce the risk of an attack by wandering Arab Bedouin.

In the early spring of 1326, after a journey of over, Ibn Battuta arrived at the port of Alexandria, then part of the Bahri Mamluk empire.

Of the three usual routes to Mecca, Ibn Battuta chose the least-travelled, which involved a journey up the Nile valley, then east to the Red Sea port of Aydhab, Upon approaching the town however, a local rebellion forced him to turn back.

Ibn Battuta returned to Cairo and took a second side trip, this time to Mamluk-controlled Damascus.

Rather than return home, Ibn Battuta instead decided to continue on, choosing as his next destination the Ilkhanate, a Mongol Khanate, to the northeast.

An interactive display about Ibn Battuta in Ibn Battuta Mall in Dubai, United Arab Emirates

On 17 November 1326, following a month spent in Mecca, Ibn Battuta joined a large caravan of pilgrims returning to Iraq across the Arabian Peninsula.

Then, instead of continuing on to Baghdad with the caravan, Ibn Battuta started a six-month detour that took him into Persia.

Ibn Battuta joined the royal caravan for a while, then turned north on the Silk Road to Tabriz, the first major city in the region to open its gates to the Mongols and by then an important trading centre as most of its nearby rivals had been razed by the Mongol invaders.

Ibn Battuta left again for Baghdad, probably in July, but first took an excursion northwards along the river Tigris, visiting Mosul, Cizre and Mardin, in modern day Iraq and Turkey.

Ibn Battuta also mentions visiting Sana ' a, but whether he actually did so is doubtful.

From Aden, Ibn Battuta embarked on a ship heading for Zeila on the coast of Somalia.

Ibn Battuta described it as " an exceedingly large city " with many rich merchants, noted for its high quality fabric that was exported to other countries including Egypt.

After a journey along the coast, Ibn Battuta next arrived in the island town of Kilwa in present day Tanzania, which had become an important transit centre of the gold trade.

At several of the above-named places, Ibn Ezra remained for some time and developed a rich literary activity.

The Treaty of Darin remained in effect until superseded by the Jeddah conference of 1927 and the Dammam conference of 1952 during both of which Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud extended his boundaries past the Anglo-Ottoman Blue Line.

Over the next 20 years Ibn ‘ Arabī and Kirmānī remained close friends and companions ( Hirtenstein 179 ).

Although not much is known of Dhul-Kifl from other historical sources, all the writings from classical commentators, such as Ibn Ishaq and Ibn Kathir, speak of Dhul-Kifl as a prophetic, saintly man who remained faithful in daily prayer and worship.

Ibn Khurdadhbih, apparently an official in the postal service wrote one of the first travel books and the form remained a popular one in Arabic literature with books by ibn Hawqal, ibn Fadlan, al-Istakhri, al-Muqaddasi, al-Idrisi and most famously the travels of ibn Battutah.

According to the investigation and the court ruling that followed, the bombings were organized by Achemez Gochiyaev, who remained at large as of 2010, and ordered by Ibn Al-Khattab and Abu Omar al-Saif, who were later killed.

Raymond, who had fallen ill, remained inside to guard the citadel with 200 men, now held by Ahmed Ibn Merwan an agent of Kerbogha.

Ibn al-Qalanisi is generally neutral on the character of Ilghazi, and describes only one " disgraceful habit " of the emir: " Now when Ilghazi drank wine and it got the better of him, he habitually remained for several days in a state of intoxication, without recovering his senses sufficiently to take control or to be consulted on any matter or decision.

* Shaykh Saalih Ibn ' Abdul -' Azeez Aal ash-Shaykh, with whom he remained close to ; he studied the principles of the religion and its various branches, hadeeth and tafseer ;

* Shaykh Muhammad Ibn ' Abdul-Lateef Aal ash-Shaykh, with whom he studied and remained close to ;

* Shaykh Muhammad Ibn Ibraaheem Aal ash-Shaykh, with whom he studied and remained close to for a long time and used to seek his counsel in judiciary matters ;

Abdullah Ibn Masood remained closely attached to the Prophet upon him.

His successors reached the lands of modern Tatarstan and established a state during 7-9 centuries and recognised Islam as the official religion in 922 AD during the visit of Baghdad khalifat ambassador Ibn Fazlan and remained independent up until the 13th century, when it was conquered by the Batu-khan hordes of Mongolic and Turkic people widely known as Mongol-Tatars.

With a change in the monsoon winds, Ibn Battuta sailed back to Arabia, first to Oman and the Strait of Hormuz then on to Mecca for the hajj of 1330 ( or 1332 ).

After spending another year in Mecca, Ibn Battuta decided to seek employment with the Muslim Sultan of Delhi, Muhammad bin Tughluq.

On the strength of his years of study in Mecca, Ibn Battuta was appointed a qadi, or judge, by the sultan.

When describing Damascus, Mecca, Medina and some other places in the Middle East, Ibn Juzayy clearly copied passages from the 12th-century account by Ibn Jubayr.

Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab spent some time studying with Muslim scholars in Basra ( in southern Iraq ) and it is reported that he traveled to the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina to perform Hajj and study with the scholars there.

In Mecca, the Hanbali mufti, Ibn Humaydi, perceived Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab to be a poor student, and arrogant and defiant with his teachers, which upset his father.

* October – Ibn Battuta reaches Mecca.

According to Ibn Ishaq, the local pagan Arab tribes, the Muslim Muhajirun from Mecca, the local Muslims ( Ansar ), and the Jews of the area signed an agreement, the so-called Constitution of Medina, which committed all parties to mutual cooperation under the leadership of " Muhammad the Prophet ".

In addition, the term is commonly used to refer to certain other holy sites, such as the Haram ash-Sharif in Jerusalem — though over the protests of some, such as Ibn Taymiya, who declared that the only places which could be legitimately called "" were Mecca, Medina, and probably also the valley of Wajj in Ta ' if ( but definitely not either Jerusalem or Hebron ).

In 1925 the forces of Ibn Saud captured the holy city of Mecca from Sharif Hussein bin Ali, ending 700 years of Hashemite rule.

On 8 January 1926, the leading figures in Mecca, Madina and Jeddah proclaimed Ibn Saud the King of Hejaz.

The Meccan period of Ibn ‘ Arabī ’ s life can be viewed as the fulcrum of his earthly existence ; he spent 36 years of his life in the West and the upcoming 36 years in the East, with about 3 years in Mecca in between.

The next vision is also related to Kaaba, in the year 599 AH in Mecca Ibn ‘ Arabī saw a dream which confirms once again his accession to the office of the Seal of the Muhammadian Sainthood.

The message was clear and it was from God ; in a passage of Kitab al-Mubashshirāt Ibn ‘ Arabī admits that one evening in Mecca he experienced a brief spell of despondency on the face of his disciples, he thought of leaving all counselling, abandon men to their fate and to devote his future efforts to himself alone as those who truly enter the Path are rare.

After Ḥajj Ibn ‘ Arabī left Mecca, travelling north towards the Roman lands, probably Konya or Malatya and in the year 610 / 611 he returned to Aleppo.

Senussi went to Mecca, where he joined Ahmad Ibn Idris al-Fasi, the head of the Khadirites, a religious fraternity of Moroccan origin.

Abdullah was especially anxious to take Jerusalem as compensation for the loss of the guardianship of Mecca, which had traditionally held by the Hashemites until Ibn Saud had seized the Hejaz in 1925.

Ibn Taymiyyah opposed giving any undue religious honors to shrines ( even that of Jerusalem, the Al-Aqsa Mosque ), to approach or rival in any way the Islamic sanctity of the two most holy mosques within Islam, Mecca ( Masjid al-Haram ) and Medina ( Al-Masjid al-Nabawi ).

Jeddah first achieved prominence in 647 AD, when the third Muslim Caliph, Uthman Ibn Affan ( عثمان بن عفان ), turned it into a port for Muslim pilgrims making the required Hajj to Mecca.