Volume One
The first half of Ibn Battuta's extraordinary 30-year journey across the Islamic world — one of the greatest travel accounts ever written.
Ibn Battuta
The Riḥlah — a 30-year, 75,000-mile journey across three continents, and the most important travel account of the pre-modern world.
al-Maktaba al-Shāmila
The Arabic text in our BookKit matches al-Maktaba al-Shāmila verbatim — the most comprehensive digital library of classical Arabic-Islamic scholarship, used by academic researchers and traditional ʿulamāʾ alike.
The author is deceased well before 1924, placing the original work firmly in the public domain worldwide. The translation that follows is an original editorial work of Joyful Muslims.
Joyful Muslims editorial team
Translated in-house from the Arabic manuscript. Each chapter passes through at least two reviewers — one focused on accuracy against the Arabic, one on English readability. Where the two are in tension, accuracy wins.
The full, unabridged English translation is published alongside the Arabic in BookKit. The audiobook adaptation — same translation, adjusted for listening — is what plays in the app.
Professional voice actors
Narrators are briefed specifically on Islamic textual traditions — the pronunciation of Arabic names, the correct honorifics (ṣallā Allāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam, raḍiya Allāhu ʿanh), and the weight each passage should carry. Every word is aligned to the source text so readers in the app can follow along word by word.
Joyful Muslims
Every subscription funds the continued translation, narration, and free release of new canonical works into the library. Audio is the vessel; preservation is the purpose.
Listen to Volume One
The first three minutes are free on the web. The full book opens in the app.