Tawfiq Alhamedi

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On June 14th, 1325, Abu 'Abdullah Ibn Battuta left his hometown of Tangier, Morocco with the intention to make Hajj, a sacred pilgrimage for Muslims to the holy city of Mecca. Interestingly, during his journey not only did he eventually reach the city of Mecca but he also ended up traveling to East Africa, South Arabia, India, Southeast Asia, and various other regions. The time period and regions in which Ibn Battuta’s travels took place represent an Indian Ocean world that was highly interconnected economically through various trade networks as well as culturally through the spread of Islamic trade and religious networks. Throughout his travels he was welcomed into various communities as a Muslim scholar, and during this time period migrants of the Islamic faith were well known for their cosmopolitanism (Dunn, 1986, p. 116-117). When Ibn Battuta reached Calicut, an extremely important Indian port city, he described it as a large hub for merchants from all across the Indian Ocean, making note of the prevalence of Arab traders. Most notable of the Arab Muslims in the Malabar Coast were those who migrated from Hadhramaut in Yemen and were part of a maritime community that produced notable religious scholars, specifically the Hadhrami Sayyids who were well known for being descendants of the Prophet Muhammad. As simultaneously a “trade” and “religious” diaspora, the versatility of the Hadhrami population allowed for these migrants--ranging from the prestigious Sayyids to the Sufi mystics and petty merchants--to create long-lasting social, religious, and political relationships with Indian Ocean coastal communities.