Rihla

Ar-Rihla or iḥlah (Arabic: الرحلة‎‎, "Journey" or "Travels") is a Classical Arabic term of a quest, with connotations of a voyage undertaken for the sake of divine knowledge of Islam. It is also a form of travel literature based upon the experiences of the travelers. The term "Rihla" was especially attributed to the written account of the adventures of the Islamic traveler and scholar, Ibn Battuta. Ibn Battuta traveled throughout most of the Islamic world during 1304-1369 C.E., later dictating his account as the Rihla.

The Rihla travel practice originated in Middle Ages Morocco and served to connect Muslims of Morocco to the collective consciousness of the ummah across the Islamic world, thereby generating a larger sense of community. Rihla consists of three types:

The performance of Rihla was considered in Moorish al-Andalus as a qualifier for teachers and political leaders. These journey also coincided with the end of the Mongol invasions and a new opportunity for Islamic expansion.

The writing of Ibn Jubayr is a foundation of the genre of work called Rihla, or the creative travelogue. Concerning his travel to Mecca in 1183, "...his two-year journey made a considerable impact on literary history. His account of his travels and tribulations in the East served as the foundational work of a new genre of writing, the rihla, or the creative travelogue: a mix of personal narrative, description, opinion and anecdote. In following centuries, countless people emulated and even plagiarized him."

The best known Rihla manuscript is "A Gift to Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Travelling" (تحفة النظار في غرائب الأمصار وعجائب الأسفار, or Tuḥfat an-Nuẓẓār fī Gharāʾib al-Amṣār wa ʿAjāʾib al-Asfār), often referred to as "The Travels of Ibn Battuta" (رحلة ابن بطوطة, or Riḥlat Ibn Baṭūṭah). The Travels is a medieval book which recounts the journey of the 14th-century Moroccan scholar and traveler Ibn Battuta. The book was dictated to Ibn Juzayy on orders from the Marinid Sultan Abu Inan Faris who was impressed by the story and travels of Ibn Battuta. Although Ibn Battuta was an accomplished and well-documented explorer, his travels had been unknown outside the Islamic world for many years.

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