In the Middle Ages, Muslim travelers embarked on a "rihla," or world tour, as surveyors, emissaries, and educators. On these journeys, voyagers not only interacted with foreign cultures touring Greek civilization, exploring the Middle East and North Africa, and seeing parts of Europe they also established both philosophical and geographic boundaries between the faithful and the heathen. These voyages thus gave the Islamic world, which at the time extended from the Maghreb to the Indus Valley, a coherent identity.
"Islam and Travel in the Middle Ages" assesses both the religious and...
In the Middle Ages, Muslim travelers embarked on a "rihla," or world tour, as surveyors, emissaries, and educators. On these journeys, voyagers not...
