Ibn Battuta began the travels for which he became known when he left Tangier in 1325 to undertake the pilgrimage to Mecca. The journey developed into extended movement through North Africa, Egypt, the eastern Mediterranean, and Arabia. He returned to the pilgrimage centers more than once and used networks of religious scholars, merchants, hosts, and rulers to obtain support.

His account describes journeys through Iraq, Persia, East Africa, Anatolia, and territories around the Black Sea before reaching Central and South Asia. At Delhi he served as a judge under Sultan Muhammad bin Tughluq, a position that brought both patronage and exposure to the court's dangers. Sent toward China on a diplomatic mission, he encountered disasters and interruptions along the Indian coast. He subsequently worked as a judge in the Maldives and traveled through Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. The extent and route of his claimed travels in China remain especially debated.

After returning to Morocco in 1349, Ibn Battuta continued traveling, including visits to Muslim Spain and the Mali Empire. The Mali account provides important observations of court, commerce, and religious life from a visitor whose expectations sometimes conflicted with local practices. At the request of the Marinid ruler, he related his experiences to Ibn Juzayy, who shaped them into the Rihla in the 1350s. The resulting work mixes personal recollection with literary conventions and passages drawn from other travelers' writings.

The Rihla is therefore not simply a modern diary in which every itinerary and conversation can be independently verified. Scholars compare its claims with geographical, textual, and documentary evidence, identifying both valuable firsthand detail and uncertain episodes. Much less is securely known about Ibn Battuta's later life than about the journeys he narrated, and his death date is approximate. His career joined pilgrimage, legal employment, court service, and the production of a travel account with extraordinary geographical scope. The book shows how interconnected the medieval Islamic world could be while also recording encounters beyond it. His observations of gender, slavery, religion, and political authority reveal a particular social perspective rather than a neutral description of all communities. Its enduring value lies in this combination of extensive reported experience, cultural interpretation, and evidence that must be assessed critically.