ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on some of the travelers came from societies that had developed relatively sophisticated approaches to locating themselves in the physical world. Both Muslim and Christian geographers and cartographers were guided by scientific observation and holy books. Medieval travel is generally portrayed as religious, burdensome, and restricted to the aristocracy. Modern travel is about observation, often with the goal of colonization. These generalizations refer to non-commercial travel, though trade was probably the single most compelling reason for travel in the Middle Ages. Merchants and rich individual Muslims and Jews had far greater opportunities and ability than most Christians to travel, and they took advantage of the fact. The Cairo geniza has yielded documents showing that the Jews of Egypt and North Africa were energetic travelers. Mecca was the center of the Islamic world. The beginning of the religion, Muslims have faced the Ka'ba to pray. That is a confluence of spiritual and geographical place.
