Four Pilgrims

The early voyages were mostly journeys of pilgrims. Setting all doubts aside, the travelers braved all odds and obstacles to reach their destination to further their devotion and faith. This book is a compendium of the travels of 4 such pilgrims: Hiuen Tsiang, Saewulf, Ibn Battuta and Ludovico Varthema. Two of these are well known and the other two the author rescues from oblivion. The first journey is that of the famous Chinese Hiuen Tsiang, who journeyed from China over the Himalayas to reach India in the 7th Century A.D. The second travel, of an English pilgrim to Palestine, was undertaken in the earliest years of the 12th Century A.D. The third was the indefatible Ibn Battuta whose travels that began in first half of the 13th Century lasted for 24 years. It took him from Algeria to Peking and Turkistan to Timbuktu. The final notice is of an Italian from Bologna who in the early 16th Century was the first European to reach Mecca and then went further on to India and Malaysia.