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Battuta's Dream

Dreamed 1325 by Ibn Battuta

I left Alexandria... with the intention of visiting this Sheikh (may God bless him), and got to the village of Tarūja, then to the city of Damanhūr the metropolis of the Delta; then to Fawwah, not far from which is the cell of the Sheikh Abu Abd Allah El Murshidī. I went to it and entered, when the Sheikh arose and embraced me. He then brought out victuals and ate with me.

After this I slept upon the roof of his cell, and saw in a dream the same night, myself placed on the wings of a great bird, which fled away with me towards the temple at Mecca. He then verged towards Yemen; then towards the east; he then took his course to the south. After this he went far away into the east, and alighted with me safely in the regions of darkness (or arctic regions), where he left me.
I was astonished at this vision, and said to myself, no doubt the Sheikh will interpret it for me, for he is said to do things of this sort. When the morning had arrived, and I was about to perform my devotions, the Sheikh made me officiate; after this his usual visitors, consisting of emirs, viziers, and others, made their calls upon him, and too their leave, after each had received a small cake from him. When the prayer at noon was over he called me, I then told him my dream, and he interpreted it for me.

He said, “you will perform the pilgrimage, and visit the tomb of the Prophet; you will then traverse the countries of Yemen, Iraq, Turkey, and India, and will remain in these some time. In India you will meet with my brother Dilshad, who will save you from a calamity, into which you will happen to fall.”

EDITOR'S NOTE

Battuta was on his way to Mecca and new to travel--indistinguishable from thousands of other pilgrims. But by the end of his life, he was famed for his travels round the known world, more extensive than Marco Polo's--Morocco to Indonesia, Ukraine to Timbuktu. So both the dream and the Sheikh's interpretation of it seem accurate and predictive--or just inspiring! A prompt, not a prediction? Maybe a predilection. He was a born traveler--he just didn't know it yet.

Ibn Battuta's travels; map by James Rumford.
But nothing in Battuta's dream explains the Sheikh sticking in a calamity in India, or his brother Dilshad as a rescuer. Still, years later, Battuta did get stranded in India after a battle, alone, lost and starving. He was carried to safety by a stranger who, when asked his name, only replied “El Kalb El Karīh”, the Wounded Heart.

Intriguing, but Battuta says no more.

--Chris Wayan

SOURCE: The Travels of Ibn Battuta, 1829 translation by Rev. Samuel Lee, chapter 2 (& 17 for follow-up); p.15 and 68? in ebook format.


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