400 headwords 4247726 Ibn Battuta fp indd 1

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news when 
someone tells you 
something new
plague a very 
bad illness; it can 
kill lots of people
Chapter 5 - To Tangier and Granada
‘So what was the trouble with those cities when you visited 
them again?’ I asked my uncle when I arrived the next day. 
‘Let’s talk about my journey from China first,’ he 
answered quietly. 
On my way back from China, I stopped in Sumatra again. 
Then I got on a big ship and sailed for forty days to India. 
When I arrived there, I thought about visiting the Sultan, 
but I was afraid. Perhaps he remembered his gifts for the 
ruler of China, and the time when I lost them all!
From India, I sailed to the south coast of Arabia. I then 
travelled through Persia to Baghdad. I journeyed across 
the desert and – in the end – I arrived once more in the city 
of Damascus. It was twenty years from the time of my last 
visit, but I remembered it well!
In Damascus, I heard something interesting. A teacher 
from Tangier now lived and worked in the city! I was 
excited to meet this man, and I asked him at once for news 
from home. My father was dead, but my mother was alive, 
he told me. I felt bad about my father, and suddenly, after 
twenty-four long years away, I began to think of going 
back home, and of seeing my mother.
I journeyed to Aleppo, but there I heard some bad news. 
The plague wasn’t far away, and many people were ill 
with it. At first, I travelled quickly from city to city in Syria. 
I wanted to stay in front of the plague, you see. But – after 
a time – when I arrived in new places, the plague was there 
before me.
So I went back to Damascus. Here I learnt the worst – at 
that time, lots of men, women and children died of plague 
there every day. Everybody came out into the streets with 
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