In his account of his 1183-1185 pilgrimage to Makkah, Ibn Jubayr explained the motivation of scholars to travel:

The conveniences in this city [Damascus] are beyond computation, more especially for those who commit to memory the Book of Great and Glorious God [the Qur'an] and those devoted to study, to whom the attitude of this town is most extraordinary. All these eastern cities are of this fashion, but this city is more populous and wealthy. Whoever of the young men of the Maghrib [western Muslim lands] seeks prosperity, let him move to these lands and leave his country in the pursuit of knowledge and he will find many forms of help. The first of these is the release of the mind from consideration of livelihood, and this is the greatest and most important. For when zeal is present the student will...