Hajji Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn Battuta was the only medieval traveller who is known to have visited the lands of every Muslim ruler of his time. He also travelled in Ceylon (Sri Lanka), China, Byzantium and Russia. The mere extent of his travels is estimated at over 75,000 miles, a figure which is not likely to have been surpassed before the age of steam.
His journeys spanned nearly thirty years and covered almost the entire known Islamic world and beyond, extending from North Africa, West Africa, Southern Europe and Eastern Europe in the West, to the Middle East, Indian subcontinent, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and China in the East, a distance far surpassing that of his predecessors and his near-contemporary Marco Polo. On account of the Rihla, Ibn Battuta is considered one of the greatest travellers of all time.He travelled more than 75,000 miles (121,000 km), a figure unlikely to have been surpassed by any traveller until the coming of the Steam Age some 450 years later.
