Every time period and every culture has explorers, but who we think are the “Great Explorers” often depends on where we live – many cultures like to include their own historic figures among the list of the greatest explorers.
Abu ’Abdallah Ibn Battuta (1304-c. 1369) was a Muslim scholar from Morocco. In 1325, he set off on the Hajj, the Muslim pilgrimage to the Arabian city of Mecca. He made his way by land and sea through most of the Islamic lands of the time, including Spain, Anatolia, Persia, India, and China. As an authority in Islamic religious law, he was not on an official mission of trade, power, or conquest but rather personal travels. He returned to Morocco after almost 30 years and his Journey or Rihla was recorded by a scholar he met in Spain.
Muslim merchants from Arabia and East Africa continued to travel east via the Monsoon winds across the Indian Ocean. The Portuguese, learning about the Muslim trade networks from the Moors of nearby northern Africa, began to consider how they might reach the riches of the east by sailing around the African continent. In 1419, Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal established a navigational school in Sagres. It was located on the southwestern tip of Europe, looking out from the Algarve coast to the limitless but promising Atlantic Ocean. There, cartographers, astronomers, shipwrights, and others could gather to develop a plan for setting off on extended voyages into the unknown. Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama (1469-1524) eventually sailed around Africa on a direct path to India.
As ships improved and information about the globe grew, explorers sailed further and further from home. Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) managed a successful return journey across the Atlantic in 1492. Sailing on behalf of Spain, he reached North America, although he believed that he had found a western route to Asia.
Portuguese sailor Ferdinand Magellan (1480-1521) also sailed on behalf of Spain, leading an attempt to circumnavigate the globe. Magellan died in 1521 in the Philippines, and it was Juan Sebastian de Elcano (1480-1526) who returned to Spain with the few surviving crewmembers in 1522, completing the expedition.
