Perspective

Dunn is a scholarly writer with the perspective of a historian attempting to recreate a period in time from documented original sources and informed speculation.

Dunn's primary source document is the Rihla of Ibn Battuta, the written account of his travels. Dunn approaches this text with the critical perspective of academic skepticism. He acknowledges that the version of the text that has survived may not be complete and may have been added to or abridged in the six centuries since it first appeared. He also does not treat the Rihla as an authoritative original source on the people and events it describes, but recognizes where the author may have been exaggerating or speculating or borrowing from other texts. Dunn spends much of the book providing evidence from other sources that support the events in the book, or that suggest where Ibn Battuta may have been misrepresenting or misremembering...