500-1590: Leisure, Recreation,and Daily Life: Documentary Sources

Alvise Cà da Mosto (1432-1488), Una opera necessaria a tutti li nauiga[n]ti chi vano in diuerse parte del mondo (A Guide for All Navigators Who Wish to Travel Safely; Venice: Printed by Bernardino Rizus, 1490)—The first published account of the travels of a Venetian trader who explored Madeira and the Canary Islands, sailed along the coast of West Africa as far south as the modern nation of Guinea-Bissau, and traveled partway up the Gambia River, during two voyages, in 1455 and 1456. Ca da Mosto’s book is one of the earliest known European books about West Africa.

Ibn Battuta (1304 - circa 1378), Rihlah (Travels)—A travel account by a wide-ranging North African Muslim traveler, who visited the Empire of Mali in 1353, recording his observations of religious practices, customs, everyday life, politics, economic relations, and topography.

Ibn Hawqal, Kitab Surat al-Ard (A Book on the Shape of the Earth, late tenth century)—An important geography book by an Arab who visited the ancient Empire of Ghana in the late tenth century.

Leo Africanus (circa 1455 - circa 1544), Descrittione delV Africa (Description of Africa, 1550)—A travel account by a Spanish Muslim who visited the Songhai Empire of West Africa in 1507 and the Malian capital of Timbuktu in 1512.

Al-Mas’udi (died 957), Muruj al-Dhahab wa Maadin al-Jawahir (Meadows of Gold and Mines of Precious Stones, 947)—An historical-geographical work by an Iraqi Muslim, who included information about his visits to West Africa.

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