August 1, 1326 Christianity

There is a building on the far side of the Jahannam valley (Document I). It is to the east of the town, located on a high hill (Document I). This building is one the the grace-bestowing sanctuaries. It is said to mark the place that Jesus had ascended to heaven from (Document I). Although as a Muslim, I do not believe that Jesus is the son of God, when I walked up to the top of that building one day, I felt a great presence. I could not stand there for more than a minute because it intimidated, shocked, and enlightened me all in one. This feeling was so strange I could not bear it. It was not real though. I have to be sure of that. Anyway, the valley’s bottom contains a church venerated by Christian people (Document I). They believe that it contains Mary’s grave (Document I). Right in the same spot there is another church that the Christians venerate and which they come on pilgrimages (Document I). I smirk when I hear one of them saying that that church holds the grave of Jesus because it is so obviously not true [Church of the Holy Sepulcher]. Whenever someone comes on a pilgrimage to see it, they pay a stipulated tax to us and very unwillingly have to suffer various humiliations (Document I). In order to obtain blessing, people also visit here to see the cradle of Jesus (Document I).

July 29, 1326 Over the border and into Syria

Sorry I haven’t been posting on my blog for almost a year now! I’ve been so busy with traveling but don’t worry I’m back. Here, the customs-dues are collected at the station of Qatya (Document G). Also, the merchants baggage and goods are thoroughly inspected by the officers (Document G). The many offices here have officials doing their many jobs overseeing the thousand gold dinars that are collected here every day (Document G). I noticed that passing through to Syria and Egypt require a passport if you go to either country as a precaution against spies from Iraq (Document G). Guarding the road has great responsibility (Document G). The one left with the honor of having that is Badawin (Document G). Smoothing the sand out when the sun goes down is a necessity so that nobody can track us. When the governor comes to look at the sand, if there are any footprints left then he makes that Arabs bring the person who made it (Document G). They go on to find that person and they have not failed yet (Document G). I am very glad that Badawin has that job and I do not because I would not want to be the one being caught. When the people catch the one who did not erase the marks in the sand, he  is brought to the governor who gives them a punishment which he thinks does the crime right (Document G). At that time, the governor let the people whom I was with along with myself pass easily(Document G). He was a very kind man. We then went to Gaza, the first city of Syria which is next to the Egyptian frontier (Document G).

October 19th, 1325 The Festival

Everyone in the entire city came out to welcome us when we arrived in Tunis (Document C). When I realized that I was the only one that nobody knew, I felt incredibly lonely. I realized that nobody even really noticed that I was there. I could feel my tear ducts filling and couldn’t bear to hold back the tears. It was incredibly difficult to finally arrive and know that nobody even cared after the suffering and hardship I had gone through to get there. There was a mere one man who actually realized the tears falling down my face and understood why (Document C). He was a kind pilgrim and came to me to greet me with a friendly smile and hello (Document C). We talked and talked for a while until finally I entered the city (Document C). By that time, Abu' Zakariya IL’s son, Abu Yahya, had taken over as the Sultan of Tunis (Document C). I noticed a lot of well-known scholars there (Document C). While I was in the area, I decided to go to the festival of Breaking of the Fast and went to the Praying grounds (Document C). There were a lot of  people there and every single one of them dressed very fancy. When Abu Yahya rode in on his Stallion, he was of course surrounded by his entourage (Document C). This of course is meaning that his family, protection, and advisers were walking along side him as he was brought into the festival (Document C). After all praying was done and the Allocution was finished we all went home (Document C).

August 25th, 1325 al-Jaza'ir to Tunis

When we arrived at al-Jaza'ir we decided not to go inside the town quite yet and to stay outside for a little while (Document B). We sat there and waited until the rest of our friend group got there as well so we could all travel together for the rest of the way (Document B). I was hoping that the rest of the people with me wouldn’t notice, but I was much more frightened than I should have been of being robbed by Arabs on the road. I was right to be frightened. After a Tunisian merchant who was with us had died, he left three thousand dinars of gold behind for his heirs in Tunic. Ibn Sayyid an-Nas (The commander of the Bijaya) somehow found out about this though, and came and took it (Document B). Don’t ever come here alone, I’m sure worse things happen. As the tradition of us muslims is to travel to Mecca continued, I fell very ill two times! The first time, we were in Bijaya (Document B). One of my friends told me to stay and rest, but I was too tough for that and didn’t want to look like a wimp in front of the other guys. I told him, in short,  that if I was going to die, I’d rather die on my journey to Mecca. He agreed and gave my some advice on how to survive. I took his advice of selling some of my things and to travel light and we moved on (Document B). When we got to Qusantinah we set up some tents and went to a truly earned good nights sleep (Document B). It wasn’t a good night for long though. We were woken up in the middle of it  by massive amounts of rain, and in order to sleep we went in  some generous people’s houses instead (Document B). We met the governor the next day (Document B). I would have loved to look nice in front of him, but thanks to that lovely rain which had ruined my clothing, that was almost impossible. When he saw how disheveled I looked, he told someone to wash my clothing at his house and fetch me a fancy outfit for the meantime (Document B). When we reached Bona I was once again struck by fever. It was so bad this time, that I couldn’t even alight until we reached the next destination, Tunis (Document B).  

June 30, 1325 Tangier

A short while ago, I left the place where I was born in Tangier (Document A). For the first time, I left to set out for the Holy House and the Tomb of the Prophet (Document A). Even though I was lonely since I did not bring any friends along, I still had a very nice trip. It was sad saying goodbye to my friend and parents, but still, I knew I needed to leave home. Tangier was the place I had been living my whole life, and although I knew it would be hard to leave, I knew I had to eventually (Document A). When I finally made it all the way to Tilimsan city, I saw the ambassadors of their sultan Abu Tashifin who was leaving the city that day (Document A). They were very kind people. They were also the first friends I made along the trip. I was happy to have met them before they left. As they left, they asked me if I wanted to travel with them (Document A). Because I didn't know them well, I prayed on the matter (Document A). It was after three whole days that I finally decided to go with them (Document A). I felt like it was the right thing to do, I rode off to meet with them. I finally found them after three days of traveling but also found them sick from the heat (Document A). One of the ambassadors got really sick, and although we tried to tend to his needs with water by the stream, he finally died from heat exhaustion (Document A). After his death I left to pursue my own journey with some merchants from tunis (Document A).