Ibn Battuta

What Dominique Pagani says

Dominique Pagani mentions Ibn Battuta mainly as a traveller who crossed the Sahara, one of the first Arab travellers to do so1. He cites him as an example of a hidden history: this fourteenth-century crossing remains little known2. He presents him as the first to write a historical account of the Sahel regions3. In the 2020 session named after him, he sees him as the one through whom Black Africa enters history. He points out the traveller's mixed attitude: admiration for well-ordered towns and for the piety of their inhabitants, but shock at the relationship to the body4. In connection with him, he specifies that the term "Arab" refers to a social status, not an ethnic group5. In 2025, he links him to Ibn Khaldun, about whom he makes the same remark6. For Dominique Pagani, Ibn Battuta thus serves as a witness to an ancient African history, one that comes to be written through this outside perspective.

1. 1#4.8 Angélique (de Nerval)16 May 2018 · 44:20
2. 2Préface au mémoire de Simon Verdun, « La critique du néokantisme chez Michel Clouscard », soutenue à l’ENS DE Paris, sanctionnée par une mention très bien.5 Jul 2018 · 33:01
3. 3Schumann2 May 2019 · 57:06
4. 4Ibn Battûta19 Feb 2020 · 18:39
5. 5Musicosophie 14. Mozart derechef7 Feb 2021 · 37:40
6. 6Flagrandélices27 May 2025 · 1:38:42

Summary produced automatically from 6 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.