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Ibn Battuta briefly considers returning to the Sultan of Delhi, but decides against it. This is probably just as well, Dunn, explains, for that Sultan's kingdom, already crumbling when Ibn Battuta was there previously, is nearing collapse. He hurries across Persia and makes his way to Damascus, where he learns that a son of his born to a former wife has died, and also learns of his father's death about 15 years before. He also learns of the terrible bubonic plague that is sweeping through the region from Central Europe, wiping out great numbers of people. Ibn Battuta is fortunate not to contract the disease as he travels on to Cairo and again to Mecca.

Ibn Battuta sails along the coast of North Africa to Tunis, where he meets with the Moroccan Sultan Abu l'Hasan, and then to Tenes, then overland to...