Did Ibn Battuta Sleep there in Granada, Spain?

Somewhere in this “bride of Andalusian cities,” one of the greatest travel-story meeting of minds took place. A rendezvous that seven years and a different continent later would give fruit to one of the best travel books ever written, Rihla (also know as A Gift to Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Travelling), perhaps the most accurate portrait of medieval life across the then-known world we have. On his round-the-world trip back from China, Ibn Battutah met his ghostwriter and local boy, Ibn Juzayy, in an unknown garden. Granada’s not as old as most think, the Alhambra itself was then just a red castle and a dream in a young king’s mind when Battutah gave it its nuptial title in 1350. The oldest Muslim building in the city isn’t the superlative palace atop the hill, but the Corral del Carbon, which in its time served as a hotel for travelers and traders. Just maybe where the world’s greatest traveler laid his head?

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Originally published on Trazzler