Editing Ibn Battuta (section)

====Anatolia====
[[File:Андроник III Палеолог.jpg|upright=0.75|thumb|right|Ibn Battuta may have met [[Andronikos III Palaiologos]] in late 1332.]]

After his third pilgrimage to Mecca, Ibn Battuta decided to seek employment with the [[Delhi Sultanate|Sultan of Delhi]], [[Muhammad bin Tughluq]]. In the autumn of 1330 (or 1332), he set off for the [[Seljuk Empire|Seljuk]] controlled territory of [[Anatolia]] to take an overland route to India.{{sfn|Dunn|2005|pp=137–139}} He crossed the [[Red Sea]] and the [[Eastern Desert]] to reach the [[Nile valley]] and then headed north to [[Cairo]]. From there he crossed the [[Sinai Peninsula]] to [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]] and then travelled north again through some of the towns that he had visited in 1326. From the Syrian port of [[Latakia]], a [[Republic of Genoa|Genoese]] ship took him (and his companions) to [[Alanya]] on the southern coast of modern-day Turkey.{{sfn|Gibb|1962|pp=413–416 Vol. 2}}

He then journeyed westwards along the coast to the port of [[Antalya]].{{sfn|Gibb|1962|p=417 Vol. 2}} In the town he met members of one of the semi-religious ''fityan'' associations.{{sfn|Gibb|1962|pp=418–16 Vol. 2}}{{verification needed|reason=This page range is nonsensical|date=March 2022}} These were a feature of most Anatolian towns in the 13th and 14th centuries. The members were young artisans and had at their head a leader with the title of ''Akhil''.{{sfn|Taeschner|1986}} The associations specialised in welcoming travellers. Ibn Battuta was very impressed with the hospitality that he received and would later stay in their hospices in more than 25 towns in Anatolia.{{sfn|Dunn|2005|p=146}} From Antalya Ibn Battuta headed inland to [[Eğirdir]] which was the capital of the [[Hamidids]]. He spent [[Ramadan]] (June 1331 or May 1333) in the city.{{sfn|Gibb|1962|pp=422–423 Vol. 2}}

From this point his itinerary across Anatolia in the ''Rihla'' becomes confused. Ibn Battuta describes travelling westwards from Eğirdir to [[Milas]] and then skipping {{cvt|420|km}} eastward past Eğirdir to [[Konya]]. He then continues travelling in an easterly direction, reaching [[Erzurum]] from where he skips {{cvt|1160|km}} back to [[Birgi]] which lies north of Milas.{{sfn|Gibb|1962|pp=424–428 Vol. 2}} Historians believe that Ibn Battuta visited a number of towns in central Anatolia, but not in the order in which he describes.<ref name="divag">{{harvnb|Dunn|2005|pp=149–150, 157 Note 13}}; {{harvnb|Gibb|1962|pp=533–535, Vol. 2}}; {{harvnb|Hrbek|1962|pp=455–462}}.</ref>{{efn|This is one of several occasions where Ibn Battuta interrupts a journey to branch out on a side trip only to later skip back and resume the original journey. Gibb describes these side trips as "divagations".{{sfn|Gibb|1962|pp=533–535, Vol. 2}} The divagation through Anatolia is considered credible as Ibn Battuta describes numerous personal experiences and there is sufficient time between leaving Mecca in mid-November 1330 and reaching Eğirdir on the way back from Erzurum at the start of Ramadan (8 June) in 1331.<ref name=divag/> Gibb still admits that he found it difficult to believe that Ibn Battuta actually travelled as far east as Erzurum.{{sfn|Gibb|1962|p=535, Vol. 2}}}}

When Ibn Battuta arrived in [[İznik]], it had just been conquered by [[Orhan]], sultan of the [[Ottoman Beylik]]. Orhan was away and his wife was in command of the nearby stationed soldiers, Ibn Battuta gave this account of Orhan's wife: "A pious and excellent woman. She treated me honourably, gave me hospitality and sent gifts."<ref name="books.google.co.uk">Leslie P. Peirce (1993). [https://books.google.com/books?id=L6-VRgVzRcUC&q=ibn+battuta&pg=PA35 ''The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire'']. 
Oxford University Press.</ref>

Ibn Battuta's account of Orhan:<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Boyar |first1=Ebru |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hHd2OizxNCcC&q=%E2%80%9Cthe+greatest+of+the+kings+of+the+Turkmens+and+the+richest+in+wealth%2C+lands+and+military+forces&pg=PA21 |title=A Social History of Ottoman Istanbul |last2=Fleet |first2=Kate |date=2010 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-139-48444-2 |language=en |access-date=19 June 2023}}</ref>

{{blockquote
| quote = The greatest of the kings of the Turkmens and the richest in wealth, lands and military forces. Of fortresses, he possesses nearly a hundred, and for most of his time, he is continually engaged in making a round of them, staying in each fortress for some days to put it in good order and examine its condition. It is said that he has never stayed for a whole month in any one town. He also fights with the infidels continually and keeps them under siege.
| author = Ibn Battuta}}

Ibn Battuta had also visited [[Bursa]] which at the time was the capital of the Ottoman Beylik, he described Bursa as "a great and important city with fine [[bazaar]]s and wide streets, surrounded on all sides with gardens and running springs".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kia |first=Mehrdad |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8JFxDwAAQBAJ&q=%E2%80%9Cthe+greatest+of+the+kings+of+the+Turkmens+and+the+richest+in+wealth%2C+lands+and+military+forces&pg=PA22 |title=The Ottoman Empire |year=2008 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-0-313-34441-1}}</ref>

He also visited the [[Beylik of Aydin]]. Ibn Battuta stated that the ruler of the Beylik of Aydin had twenty Greek slaves at the entrance of his palace and Ibn Battuta was given a Greek slave as a gift.<ref name="books.google.co.uk" /> His visit to Anatolia was the first time in his travels he acquired a servant; the ruler of Aydin gifted him his first slave. Later, he purchased a young Greek girl for 40 [[dinars]] in [[Ephesus]], was gifted another slave in [[İzmir]] by the Sultan, and purchased a second girl in [[Balikesir]]. The conspicuous evidence of his wealth and prestige continued to grow.<ref>Ross E. Dunn, Muḥammad Ibn-ʿAbdallāh Ibn-Baṭṭūṭa, [https://books.google.com/books?id=h7IwDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA154 ''The Adventures of Ibn Battuta: A Muslim Traveler of the Fourteenth Century''], University of California Press.</ref>