Journey Along the Silk Road

Project: Writing a Rihla

By Karima Diane Alavi  - June, 2003

How To Write A Rihla

Make up a character who is traveling from a point along the ancient trade routes to a market and university town such as Cairo. Write a Rihla, or Travel Journal describing your travels. You must write your Rihla in the first person, as if you are the individual who is traveling. Use your imagination and have fun! Here are some character ideas to get you thinking:

• A Muslim Chinese silk merchant who travels by boat to the Red Sea and then joins a camel caravan to Cairo.
• A Buddhist scholar from Siam (Thailand) who sees that many Muslim traders are settling in his city of Bangkok. He wants to travel through Cairo and on to Fez so he can learn more about the language, faith and culture of these people who are new to his world.
• A merchant from Syria who sells fine glassware. She plans to travel to the markets of Cairo to sell her wares to European merchants who are buying at the Khan al Khalili Market. Then she'll donate much of her profits to a church charity in Damascus.
• A renowned woman archer from Bukhara who plans to trade some of her famous Ferghana horses for Arabian steeds.
• An African textile merchant who's making the Hajj and attending lectures at Cairo's al-Azhar University along the way.
• A Turkish book-binder in need of leather for repairing manuscripts in one of Istanbul's magnificent libraries. He is heading to the leather markets of Samarkand.
• A scholar from Cordoba who meets with his Muslim friends in Timbuktu every year for an exchange of rare scholarly manuscripts that they all copied since their last gathering. After stopping in Timbuktu he plans to study at Ben Ezra Synagogue in Cairo for a month before returning home.

What To Put in a Rihla

Include the following information in your Rihla. (Keep in mind that you're traveling in the 13th to 15th centuries.)

• Name of your character
• Gender
• Date of birth
• Place of birth
• Information about your hometown. Include:
  • name of your city
  • when your city was founded
  • what makes you the proud of your city
  • any monuments, churches, cathedrals, etc that your city is famous for
  • rivers, mountains or deserts that are near your city
• The religion you follow
• A "brag sheet" (which was quite normal at that time.) Tell us why you're so wonderful. Are you a beautiful woman, a scholar of mathematics, a Sufi sheik, a princess with a singing voice that's envied by all who hear you?
• Why you plan to travel. (to trade? to study? to make a religious pilgrimage? to find a good wife?)
• Physical geography of your journey: identify mountain ranges, lakes, rivers, and deserts that must traverse to get to your destination.
• What cities do you pass through on your way to your destination? Tell what you like and dislike about those cities. How do they compare to your hometown?
• Technology of your travel: ships, horses, camels, donkeys, etc.
• Tell us about the obstacles you faced along the way. Again, use your imagination! For instance:
  • Are you sure you want to be going through Baghdad in the mid-13th century?
  • Does the Bubonic Plague cause you to take a detour? Are any people in your party lost to the plague?
  • What about battles that are raging at the time? What areas do you need to avoid?
  • Are you well protected from bandits?
  • If you're coming from Spain, what problems might you encounter in Seville or Cordoba in the 13th century? Are you sure you want to take that route?
  • If you're a European Christian coming to the markets of Cairo and you want to make a Pilgrimage to Jerusalem on your way, how will your travel plans have to change? How much more time will you have to give yourself?

Ibn Battuta's Rihla

It always helps to look at someone else's Rihla to see what they looked like. Perhaps the most famous Muslim traveler of all times is Ibn Battuta, a 14th century Moroccan who departed for the Hajj at a young age and traversed 75,000 miles before returning home late in his life. His route, as well as quotes from his Rihla can be found on the web. A particularly good site is http://www.sfusd.k12.ca.us/schwww/sch618/Ibn_Battuta/Ibn_Battuta_Rihla.html