The Travels of Ibn Battuta
The remarkable journey of Ibn Battuta — 30 years, 120,000 kilometres, and dozens of lands across the medieval Islamic world. A masterpiece of travel literature.
The Riḥla of Ibn Baṭṭūṭa — his account of thirty years of travel across the medieval Islamic world — is available as a complete English audiobook series on Joyful Muslims, in two volumes of about thirteen and ten and a half hours, translated from the Arabic with a word-synced bilingual transcript. Volume One runs from Tangier to the lands of the East; Volume Two from India back to the lands of the West.
What is the Riḥla?
The Riḥla is the travel account of Ibn Baṭṭūṭa (1304–1369 CE / 703–770 AH), a young scholar of Tangier who set out at twenty-one to perform the Hajj and did not come home for nearly three decades. Its full title is Tuḥfat al-Nuẓẓār fī Gharāʾib al-Amṣār wa ʿAjāʾib al-Asfār — "A Gift to Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Travelling". It is the single richest first-hand source on the Muslim world of the 1300s.
Volume One follows him east from Tangier — through North Africa and Egypt, the Hijaz and the Hajj, Iraq and Persia, and on toward India. Volume Two opens with his arrival at the valley of Sindh and carries him through the courts of India and beyond, then all the way back to the lands of the West. Courts, caravanserais and shrines; judges, sultans and saints; what people ate, wore and believed — recorded by a man who was there.
The audiobook opens as the book does: with the introduction of the scribe who set Ibn Baṭṭūṭa's dictation down, and the traveller's own name and lineage, before the road begins.
A note on editions: the English audiobooks of "The Travels of Ibn Batuta" found on the major stores read Samuel Lee's 1829 translation, which was made from a short Arabic epitome of the Riḥla, not the full text. The Joyful Muslims edition is translated from the full Arabic Riḥla — the two volumes together run about twenty-three hours.
Is there an English audiobook of Ibn Baṭṭūṭa's Riḥla?
Yes. Joyful Muslims publishes the Riḥla as a two-volume English audiobook series (about 23 hours in all), translated from the Arabic, each volume with a word-synced bilingual transcript.
Where does the journey go?
Volume One: from Tangier to the lands of the East — North Africa, Egypt, the Hijaz, Iraq, Persia and onward. Volume Two: from India, beginning at the valley of Sindh, to the lands of the West.
Is it free to listen?
The whole library is open to everyone. Every member gets five hours of listening free each month; Joyful+ removes the time limit.
Last updated 2026-09-11
Volume One: From Tangier to the Lands of the East
The first half of Ibn Battuta's extraordinary 30-year journey across the Islamic world — one of the greatest travel accounts ever written.
Open volume 1 →The full The Travels of Ibn Battuta series
2 volumes in the library today.
