SOURCE: Netton, Ian Richardson. “Myth, Miracle, and Magic in the Rihla of Ibn Battuta.” Journal of Semitic Studies 29, no. 1 (spring 1984): 131-40.

In the following essay, Netton argues that the Rihla of Ibn Battuta is structured like a frame story for fantastic tales.

The riḥla in mediaeval Arabic literature is, perhaps, best regarded as an art form rather than a formal geography. Indeed, Janssens believes that Ibn Baṭṭūṭa considered the actual travel as an art as well, one that had its own set rules and regulations including a canon not to retrace one's steps wherever possible.¹ But academic, scientific geography did not interest Ibn Baṭṭūṭa: he contributed nothing to its development though he assuredly profited from its knowledge.² Where he is of use to historians of geography, he is “the supreme example of le géographe malgré lui” as H. A. R. Gibb elegantly put it...