I left Tangier, my birthplace, on Thursday, the second day…

The account begins with a concrete departure, precisely dated and located. A journey undertaken for pilgrimage becomes the start of a much wider itinerary, with Tangier remaining the narrator’s point of origin.

The sentence opens Ibn Battuta’s departure account in the Rihla, after Ibn Juzayy’s introduction. The year 725 belongs to the Hijri calendar and is retained as such in the translation.

Tangier’s name, the weekday and the date give the reader a precise starting point. The religious intention is explicit too, distinguishing the initial plan from the long itinerary told afterwards. Keeping the text’s calendar preserves this reference without substituting a date conversion absent from the passage.

رحلة ابن بطوطة (تحفة النظار في غرائب الأمصار وعجائب الأسفار), بداية الرحلة، كما أملاها على ابن جزي, 1355

The text appears in the indicated source. A traditional attribution remains distinct from proof of authorship: see the context.

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