400 headwords 4247726 Ibn Battuta fp indd 1

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man, but he couldn’t understand me. So he called to a 
younger man. And when I saw him, I knew him! He was 
an old friend from home. What good luck! He helped 
me to find my new friends, and we stayed the night at 
his house. The holy man Burhan Al-Din was right 
about meeting old friends on my travels!
We then journeyed to the Black Sea, sailed 
across it, and travelled to the town of Al-Qiram. 
This was in green, open country. People called 
this place the Steppe. There we heard something 
exciting! The caravan of ruler Khan Ozbeg was 
only three days away! It was a big city with 
shops, mosques and places to eat in it. And 
it moved from place to place.
I was interested to meet Khan Ozbeg. He 
sat on a big chair with his wife, Bayalun, near 
him. She had a different caravan. We travelled 
with his caravan, and I learnt about Bayalun 
– the daughter of the ruler of Constantinople. 
She wanted to visit her home city, so Khan Ozbeg 
asked me, ‘Can you take her there?’ I was very 
happy to travel with Bayalun’s caravan.
After seventy-five days we arrived in 
Constantinople. I stayed for a month and visited all the 
important places there. Then I began the long journey back 
to the Steppe. It was now winter – a dark and dangerous 
time for Steppe travellers, so I journeyed south to the 
country of Chagatay, and stayed with the ruler there.
My uncle stopped, and began to close his eyes.
‘And did you go to India?’ I asked.
‘That’s a story for tomorrow, Ahmed,’ he said.
mosque Muslim 
people go here 
to pray
4247726 Ibn Battuta FP.indd 10
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