Read the following paragraph and answer the questions: Ibn Battuta, the Moroccan explorer, is known for his extensive travels, accounts of which were published in the Rihla (journey). Over a period of thirty years, Battuta visited many countries and regions like /North Africa, the Horn of Africa, West Africa, Southern Europe, Middle East, South Asia, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and China. However, after travelling for a long time, When Battuta decided to write the details of his journey, he had relied only on his memory and manuscripts he collected from the places he had visited.
1)How useful are the accounts, written by foreign travellers, for studying history?
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Answer:
The title of “history’s most famous traveler” usually goes to Marco Polo, the great Venetian wayfarer who visited China in the 13th century. For sheer distance covered, however, Polo trails far behind the Muslim scholar Ibn Battuta. Though little known outside the Islamic world, Battuta spent half his life tramping across vast swaths of the Eastern Hemisphere. Moving by sea, by camel caravan and on foot, he ventured into over 40 modern day nations, often putting himself in extreme danger just to satisfy his wanderlust. When he finally returned home after 29 years, he recorded his escapades in a hulking travelogue known as the Rihla. Though modern scholars often question the veracity of Battuta's writings—he may never have visited China, for example, and many of his accounts of foreign lands appear to have been plagiarized from other authors' works—the Rihla is a fascinating look into the world of a 14th-century vagabond.