Vreemdelingen in de umma

Ibn Battūta's beeldvorming van sjiieten, christenen en joden in zijn Riḥla

Samenvatting

This article studies Ibn Battūta’s perception of Christians, Jews and Shia Muslims in his travel writings (Riḥla). These perceptions are compared to each other, to analyze how Ibn Battūta envisioned the so-called medieval dar-al Islam through which he traveled, as well
as the areas outside of it. Many historians maintain that Ibn Battūta traveled through a ‘wellknown Islamic world’. However, the author of this article argues that Ibn Battūta’s perceptions of the religious groups varied greatly and that these perceptions were mostly dependent on his desire to preserve a positive reputation as a Sunni scholar. It is subsequently argued that Ibn Battūta believed he could not preserve his reputation by showing affinity with Shia Muslims, and this differs from his mostly positive – or absent, which is equally
meaningful – descriptions of Christians and Jews. This conclusion shows that the dichotomy between the ‘known Islamic world’ and the ‘unknown Christian world’ in the historiography on Ibn Battūta is incorrect and should be revised.