Farhad ibn Musafir
Farhad ibn Musafir (1306 -1371) was a muslim Erani scholar and explorer who widely travelled Siduri and Eracura over a period of 30 years. In distance, he travelled more than any other explorer on record, totaling around 100,000 km.
Early life
Most of that is known about Ibn Musafir’s live comes from the autobiographical information included in the account of his travels. According to his own accounts, he was born into a merchant/noble Erani family in Asfahan, current-day Erad province, Mansuriyyah. As a young man, he studied at the prestigious Salamiyyah Madrasa in Asfahan.
First Travels
In 1327, at the age 21, Ibn Musafir set out from his hometown on a pilgrimage. After that, rather than returning home he decided to continue travelling and joined a caravan of pilgrims returning to Adra. From there he turned south, visiting all major towns and sites until the Shabb River. Upon reaching Dumyat, he ventured further South into modern-day Nalaya. From there, he journeyed to Yalunji Island, and after returning to the mainland he turned north and crossed most of modern day Maghrib province until the Juwaiqi bay. Making a winter stop at Dayr Hafir, Ibn Musafir continued north, crossing the Matra Mountains until the city of Aszod, then under Rawwadid control. Taking the guise of a merchant, he joined a trade expedition to western Eracura, visiting among other places Azurlavai, Ossoria and Shalum. He would return two years later, returning home through modern-day Jazira province after taking part in a second pilgrimage.
1336 to 1348
After two years in his hometown, Ibn Musafir was stricken once again with wanderlust, setting out to an eastward journey in 1336. After crossing the Dasht-e-Namaq desert into Khurasan, he turned south into XXX, then visiting several Tennaite Queendoms on his way to the Schytrax kingdom, where he served as a judged for three years until the start of the Qulyasi Jihad. He joined the Muslim expedition as a volunteer for two years, until he was wounded during a battle and returned to Schytrax to recover. In 1343, fully recovered from his wounds, instead of rejoining the fighting, Ibn Musafir went to Quenmin, and from there he crossed the Sundering Sea and visiting Eracura for a second time, spending a full year in Akashi, before touring eastern Eracura until Megelan, then making an inland turn to Acrea. In 1348 he returned to Mansuriyyah via Allamunika, and settled in the Eastern Rawwadid capital of Tabriz where one of his brothers had moved.
1351 to 1357
In 1351, Sultan Abdulhakim requested his services and sent him as an emissary to Cacerta. He took a route through southern Mansuriyyah through the desert until Dumiyat, taking a maritime route through Yalunji, Nawalupa, West Aotearoa until the Cacertian archipelago. After two years, he returned through Lirinya, Knichus and Gylias, before going West by Schytrax, Tennai and southern Allamunika, before finally returning to Mansuriyyah in 1357.
Last Years
After returning home from this travels and at the suggesting of the Rawwadid Sultan, Ibn Musafir wrote an account of his journeys. Little is known of his life after that.