00:00 Ibn Battuta, a 14th-century traveler, may have traveled more than any other person up to that point in history, and his extensive journeys are explored in this episode.

01:40 Ibn Battuta, a well-educated young man from a well-off family, embarked on a journey to conduct the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca at the age of 21, which marked the beginning of his lifelong travels.

03:07 Ibn Battuta embarked on a religious journey to Mecca, but instead of returning home, he continued his travels to Baghdad, Iran, Yemen, and Somalia, encountering local rulers and witnessing thriving industries along the way.

04:32 After completing his third Hajj in Mecca, Ibn Battuta embarked on his longest journey yet, traveling from Mecca to Cairo, Palestine, Anatolia, Constantinople, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and finally Delhi, where he became stuck in the court of the Sultan.

05:57 Ibn Battuta served as an Islamic judge in Delhi for six years before leaving on a diplomatic mission to China, during which he faced various challenges including being robbed by bandits and surviving a shipwreck, and he eventually arrived in the Maldives where he served as a judge for nine months and got married before continuing his journey to Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Aceh, and finally China.

07:22 After traveling extensively in China and bypassing India to avoid the Sultan, Ibn Battuta arrived in Damascus in the midst of a bubonic plague outbreak, returned to Mecca for his fourth hajj, and then made his way back to Tangiers, only to discover that both his father and mother had died; he then traveled to Al Andalus in Spain, defended the region from an attack, and visited Valencia and Granada before returning to Morocco, embarking on a journey south into the West African Sahara, and finally settling down and recounting his adventures in a travelogue called a Rila.

08:59 Ibn Battuta's travelogue, "A Masterpiece to Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Traveling," is the only recorded account of his adventures, which spanned over 73,000 miles and surpassed the travels of other contemporary explorers like Jean He and Marco Polo combined.