Ibn Battuta

About Ibn Battuta

Ibn Battuta (1304–1368) was a monumental figure in the medieval world, widely regarded as one of history's most significant explorers. Born in Tangier, he embarked on the Rihla, or journey, that took him across nearly all of the Islamic world and beyond, ultimately covering over 75,000 miles. His extensive travels through North Africa, the Middle East, India, and China documented societies, cultures, and political landscapes in unprecedented detail, earning him the #420 rank in historical importance by MIT's Pantheon project.

Despite his vast historical influence, Ibn Battuta's modern internet attention is relatively modest. In 2025, his English Wikipedia page received 610K annualized views. This figure is narrowly comparable to his historical importance, reflected in his near-perfect Attention Gap score of ~1x. However, this stability is contrasted by the massive disparity when compared to contemporaries like Baldwin IV of Jerusalem (#575 importance), who garnered 2.1M views, or even William the Conqueror (#934 importance), who drew 3.0M views, suggesting a significant underrepresentation of this explorer’s global impact relative to other medieval figures.

His online profile is showing slight growth, with Wikipedia views increasing by +5.9% year-over-year, indicating a modest, sustained relevance. However, his recent momentum from Q1 to Q3 in 2025 showed a -13% decline, suggesting that while his long-term trajectory is positive, short-term engagement has recently softened.