400 headwords 4247726 Ibn Battuta fp indd 1

bandit
a robber 
who attacks 
travellers
rock
a very big 
stone
I was very afraid. I stopped eating and drank only water. 
In the end I left Delhi and stayed with a different holy man 
for five months. I gave away all my expensive things and 
beautiful clothes, and I prayed from morning to night.
Then one day the Sultan’s soldiers came to visit me with 
horses and new clothes. ‘The Sultan wants to see you,’ 
they said. I put on my new clothes, went back to Delhi, and 
sat before the Sultan.
‘Ibn Battuta, you’re going to be my man in China!’ he 
smiled. ‘I have fifteen Chinese visitors here. Go back to 
China with them, and take gifts from me for their ruler.’
I couldn’t say ‘No’ to the Sultan, and of course I wanted 
to see China. But, very importantly, I could now leave the 
Sultan and stay alive! So I said ‘Yes’ at once. 
I left Delhi in a big caravan with gifts for the ruler of
China – lots of horses and big bags of gold. My wife and 
young daughter came with me, too. We had a thousand of
the Sultan’s best soldiers with us. That was good because 
four days later we met four thousand of the Sultan’s 
enemies! We fought and killed them all, but I soon had 
more trouble. 
One afternoon, I went for a walk in the mountains far 
from the caravan. Suddenly, forty 
bandits 
came out from 
behind some 
rocks
. They wanted to take all my expensive 
clothes from me, and to kill me, too! Of course, I didn’t 
want to die, so I told them lots of good stories, and I gave 
them all my clothes. In the morning, I was a free man, but 
I had nothing to wear – only my trousers!
For days I walked in the mountains with nobody to help 
me. From time to time, I saw more bandits. But I went 
quickly behind rocks and trees, and they didn’t see me.
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In the end, I was tired, cold, and hungry. One day, a 
good traveller found me, and he carried me to the next 
village. I had the best dinner in the world there, and it was 
wonderful to put on warm clothes, too! Two days later, I 
found the caravan again. My wife and young daughter 
were very happy to see me.
We journeyed to the town of Cambay, and carried all 
our beautiful gifts onto four ships. Then we 
sailed south to Calicut, and 
put everything on three 
big, Chinese ships there. I 
went to the mosque that 
afternoon and prayed 
for a good journey.
But before I got on 
the ship, something 
very bad happened! 
The weather suddenly 
changed, and the wind 
broke two of our ships 
on rocks by the coast. 
We lost everything – the 
gifts, the people, and the 
animals. The third ship – with 
my wife and daughter on it – sailed 
away, and I never saw it – or them – again.
I needed to go back to the Sultan and tell him about 
all this. But I was afraid. When the Sultan was angry, 
he often killed people.
‘So did you go back to Delhi, Uncle?’ I asked.
‘You can hear about that tomorrow, Ahmed,’ he smiled.
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