Ibn Battuta

Although we have no idea what Ibn Battuta's early experience with Sufism may have been, his behavior during his travels is itself evidence that he grew up in a social climate rich in mystical beliefs and that these ideas were tightly interwoven with his formal, scriptural education.



By the time he left Tangier, he was so deeply influenced by Sufi ideas, especially belief in personal baraka and the value of ascetic devotionalism, that his traveling career turned out to be, in a sense, a grand world tour of the lodges and tombs of famous Sufi mystics and saints.



He was never, to be sure, a committed Sufi disciple. He remained throughout his life a "lay" Sufi, attending mystical gatherings, seeking the blessing and wisdom of spiritual luminaries, and retreating on occasion into brief periods of ascetic contemplation.



But he never gave up the worldly life. He was, rather, a living example of that moral reconciliation between popular Sufism and public orthodoxy that was working itself out in the Islamic world of his time.



Consequently, he embarked on his travels prepared to show as much equanimity in the company of holy hermits in mountain caves as in the presence of the august professors of urban colleges.

~ Ross E. Dunn, The Adventures of Ibn Battuta, 24.