880 years ago today, Ibn Jubayir was born in Moorish Spain. This pilgrim and talented writer went on the Hajj to Mecca in 1183, and penned a valuable, beautiful, first-hand account of the places and people he saw, which included the Crusader states of Acre and the island of Sicily as controlled by the Norman dynasty. He included epic descriptions of the monuments of ancient Egypt, the cities of Iraq, and the goings on at Mecca during the holy month, while also mundane relatable things like the customs que in Alexandria, and the most comfortable kind of saddle to use when riding a camel. READ more about this traveler… (1145)

His writing is a foundation of the genre of work called Rihla, or the creative travelogue. It is a mix of personal narrative, description of the areas traveled and p

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