CHAPTER XVI IBN BATUTA IN MELLE It was at the court of Abou el Haen, the conqueror of TelerrKjan, that Ibn Batuta, as we have seen, resolved in the year 1349 to rest from further exploration, and though, like Marco Polo, he wrote nothing himself, to dictate to his scribes a record of the voyages he had made. Intercourse between the sovereigns of Melle and Morocco had within the ten years preceding his arrival received a great development. The fame of Mansa Musa's journey to Mecca, his admirable and upright character, and the opening of his country to the commerce of North Africa, formed at the time subjects of fresh interest at the court of Fez. That a king so enlightened and intelligent as Abou el Haen should wish to know more of the countries lately opened to Moorish influence was natural, and having at his court a traveller so experienced as Ibn Batuta, it is not surprising that the idea of still further voyages should have been suggested to the explorer.

Notwithstanding his intention of travelling no more, Ibn Batuta was, as we have already seen, infected by the general enthusiasm, and in 1352 he started on the journey which gives us, from the lips of an eye-witness, a picture of the court and kingdom of Melle as they existed within ten or fifteen years of the death of Mansa Musa. Mansa Musa's son had had only a short reign of four years, and the succession had passed to his uncle, Mansa Suleiman, a brother of Musa. This Suleiman reigned twenty-four years, and was the sovereign of Melle at the time of Ibn Batuta's visit.

Ibn Batuta travelled south by the road already de-129 T