2005 Reviews

Review of Ross E. Dunn, The Adventures of Ibn Battuta: A Muslim Traveler of the 14th Century

Riedel, Dagmar A.

The appeal of travel remains that travelers see with their own eyes and have first-hand experiences, even though it has become virtually impossible to be the first to view an unknown landscape and its indigenous population or to break a travel record. But our postmodem perception of travel as an educational experience does not necessarily facilitate our understanding of travel writing in another civilization, because similarities and differences are not always obvious. Guidebooks, despite their focus on data, are never self-explanatory since attitudes toward travel change from society to society and over time.