Morocco-India Relations from Ibn Battuta to the 21st Century

Morocco and India share an age-old relationship in terms of history, culture, traditions and value systems. The great Moroccan traveler and historian, Ibn Battuta, had visited India in the 14th century A.D. and lived in it for almost a decade. Ibn Battuta exemplified Morocco’s unique role in the historical intermediation between the East and the West. Not only did he introduce India to the Arab world but his chronicles are among the most important and authentic source material today for medieval Indian history.

Ibn Battuta was a traveler and scholar from Morocco who traveled more than any other pre-modern explorer. He mainly traveled within regions with Muslim laws in Afro-Eurasia, with his trips totaling over 117,000 kilometers.

In the early 14th century, Ibn Battuta decided to travel to South Asia and the Indian peninsula, hoping to find employment with Muhammad bin Tughluq, the Sultan of Delhi at the time, who was considered to be the wealthiest man in the Muslim world at the time.

Ibn Battuta was generously welcomed in India, in line with what he was expecting, but the amicable reception did not stop there. Ibn Battuta was made a Qadi, or judge, by Bin Tughluq, owing to his extensive education, including years of studying in Mecca.

It was not very long until the traveler was appointed as an ambassador of the Delhi Sultanate to China. During this trip, he would sail to Calicut about two centuries before Vasco de Gama, the famous Portuguese explorer.

Ibn Battuta’s trips to and from India were filled with danger, however, as he was kidnapped and many of the ships that he was travelling on were sunk and stolen.

Although Ibn Battuta held a good position in India as Qadi, his time there was still characterized by some discomfort, due to the iron fist that the Sultan ruled with at the time. The explorer conveyed feelings of both admiration and terror towards the Sultan in his writings.

Modern History

Modern relations between Morocco and India began on June 20, 1956 when India supported Moroccan independence in the United Nations, with official relations between the two countries being established in 1957. India and Morocco have been linked together by common historical experiences and common aspirations and endeavours in the struggle against colonialism, and for world peace in the movement of the non-aligned nations.

India and Morocco’s ties have been getting more and more close-knit as the years have gone by with an exchange of visits from both sides.

King Hassan II and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru

Conference of Heads of State and Government of Non-aligned Countries, Sep 1961