The best-known Muslim traveler of the medieval era was Ibn Battuta, who traveled to India during the first half of the fourteenth century. In the following passage he described the transportation methods of the Turks living in southeastern Crimea:

The place was in the Qipchaq desert [steppe] which is green and verdant, but flat and treeless. . . . The only method of traveling in this desert is in waggons; it extends for six months'journey, of which three are in the territories of Sultan Muhammad Uzbeg. The day after our arrival one of the merchants in our company hired some waggons from the Qipchaqs who inhabit this desert, and who are Christians and we came to Kafa, a large town extending along the sea-coast, inhabited by Christians, mostly Genoese, whose governor is called Damdir [Demetrio]. . . .

We hired a waggon and traveled to...