Traveling Has Always Been an Integral Component of Islamic Intellectual Life

Traveling has always been an integral component of Islamic intellectual life. Muslim scholars in search of knowledge travelled all across the Islamic world. The craving for the acquisition of knowledge led Muslim intellectuals to constantly undertake long arduous journeys. In the classic Islamic period, Muslim scholars would travel only to Muslim polities. Their voyages were restricted to those territories that were governed by Muslim rulers. Bernard Lewis argued in his work The Muslim Discovery of Europe that in the formative and classic Islamic period Muslims strongly believed that beyond the Islamic world, there was nothing other than vulgarity, barbarity, and backwardness. This entrenched belief held Muslim scholars back from exploring far-flung parts of the world. Barring a few exceptions–Ibn-e-Batuta being one–Muslims restricted themselves to Muslim politics. https://newageislam.com/islamic-society/rehan-khan/traveling-has-always-been-an-integral-component-of-islamic-intellectual-life/d/121158