Which Arab traveler is famous for journeys throughout the Muslim world?

• A. Marco Polo
• B. Zheng He
• C. Ibn Battuta
• D. Ibn Khaldun

Answer: (C)

This question focuses on recognizing a figure famous for traveling across the Muslim world and recording what he saw. Ibn Battuta, a 14th‑century Moroccan scholar, is renowned precisely for the breadth of his journeys across Dar al‑Islam—from North Africa and the Middle East to the Indian subcontinent and beyond. His travel narrative, the Rihla, captures diverse societies, practices, and legal customs, illustrating how connected the Islamic world was through pilgrimage, trade, and scholarship.

Marco Polo is known for long journeys to China, but those travels are centered on a Christian-European perspective and outside the Muslim world. Zheng He led Chinese imperial voyages to various Indian Ocean ports, yet these were state expeditions, not walks through the Muslim world. Ibn Khaldun is celebrated for his writings on history and sociology, not for traveling extensively across Islamic lands. So Ibn Battuta is the best match for the description of journeys throughout the Muslim world.