Ibn Battuta at St. Jude…

Today, while I was volunteering at St. Jude in Beirut, an Arabic children’s book in the middle of the bookcase caught my attention. Written on its cover was “Ibn Battuta”–the name of the 14th century Muslim explorer in whose far-reaching footsteps I’ve been following for ten years through the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. It was a delightful surprise to run into him in Beirut.

In his impressive travels through 44 modern-day countries–a journey which lasted almost 30 years–Ibn Battuta encountered a number of Sufis along the way. In his epic travel memoir (تحفة النظار في غرائب الأمصار وعجائب الأسفار‎), he mentions meeting dervishes on the road in places like Egypt and Turkey. In the excerpt below, he mentions Sufi schools in Cairo:

There are a large number of religious establishments [“convents”] which they call khanqahs, and the nobles vie with one another in building them. Each of these is set apart for a separate school of dervishes, mostly Persians, who are men of good education and adepts in the mystical doctrines. Each has a superior and a doorkeeper and their affairs are admirably organized…

In the video below, Tim Mackintosh-Smith, a renowned expert on Ibn Battuta, follows Ibn Battuta’s path through Turkey–and meets up with dervishes from the Mevlevi Sufi Order–the whirling dervishes who follow the pious path of Rumi…