Ibn Baṭúṭah's Journey.

Ibn Baṭúṭah returned to his native city in 1350, after an absence of five and twenty years, during which time he had visited nearly all the countries of the east, from Constantinople to China, from Bulghar and Kipchak Tatary to Zingebar and the Indian islands. He employed the next year in visiting Spain and Barbary; and then, to complete his acquaintance with the habitable earth, he undertook the perilous journey over the desert to the country of the Blacks. ¹²⁰ In Sijilmésah he was hospitably entertained by the brother of a merchant whom he had met at Kan-chan-fu in China, and, purchasing camels and provisions for four months, he joined a Káfilah which set forward on its march to Negroland on the 1st of February 1352, under the guidance of Abú Mohammed Bandakán, of the tribe of Masúfah.