A rare 700-year-old manuscript of Ibn Battuta’s Rihla has sold for nearly Dh1 million at the 35th Abu Dhabi International Book Fair, Khaleej Times reports.
London dealer Peter Harrington brought the Maghribi-script quarto to ADIBF. Only seven complete or incomplete copies of the Rihla are known to survive worldwide.
Ibn Battuta manuscript Abu Dhabi sale: nearly Dh1 million
Khaleej Times says the manuscript preserves Ibn Battuta’s account of the Hejaz and the Gulf, part of the 14th-century travelogue often treated as the medieval world’s most ambitious single-life road record.
Among its sharper sections is one of only three major medieval firsthand Hajj accounts, after Nasir Khusraw and Ibn Jubayr. The same text is billed as the first description of the southern Gulf after the rise of New Hormuz in 1300, with stops at Qalhat and Niswa in Oman, Kalba and Khor Fakkan in present-day Sharjah, and pearl fishing off Bahrain and Qatif.
The copy is a 250 × 190mm quarto on laid paper, bound in black-brown calf with a blind-tooled panel and gilt-stamped fleurons. The earliest known incomplete autograph, by Ibn Battuta’s scribe Ibn Juzayy and dated 757H (1356–7CE), sits at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France; Cambridge holds another copy. Those are separate survivors, not this lot.
Seven copies, one fair floor
Peter Harrington has exhibited at the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair since 2016 and also shows at Sharjah. Previous UAE fair offerings from the dealer include a Shakespeare First Folio valued at Dh20.8 million, the Rothschild Richard Burton collection at Dh9.2 million, and an Ibn Sina Canon of Medicine manuscript priced at Dh464,550.
That pedigree helps explain why a Rihla copy clearing nearly a million dirhams still reads as routine for this stand rather than a one-off spectacle. The fair itself runs 13–18 September 2026 at ADNEC Centre Abu Dhabi under the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre’s 35th edition.
For the live sessions grid, see tbreak’s Abu Dhabi Book Fair 2026 sessions guide. The sale sits in the same Abu Dhabi culture week as the capital’s wider Arabic and creative programming, including the Congress of Arabic Creative Industries.
What we know next
Khaleej Times has not named the buyer or published an exact hammer figure beyond “nearly” / “close to” Dh1 million. Confirmed facts remain the dealer, the Rihla’s seven-copy scarcity, the southern-Gulf place names, and the 35th ADIBF setting. Anyone stacking a capital weekend can also lean on tbreak’s things to do in Abu Dhabi guide alongside the fair halls.
How much did the Ibn Battuta manuscript sell for?
Khaleej Times reports the Rihla manuscript sold for nearly Dh1 million (close to Dh1 million) at the 35th Abu Dhabi International Book Fair. An exact hammer figure was not published.
How many Ibn Battuta Rihla manuscripts survive?
Only seven complete or incomplete copies of the Rihla are known to survive worldwide, according to Khaleej Times.
Who sold the manuscript at ADIBF?
London-based rare book dealer Peter Harrington brought the manuscript to the fair. The dealer has exhibited at ADIBF since 2016.
Why does the Gulf section matter?
Khaleej Times says the text is considered the first description of the southern Gulf after the rise of New Hormuz in 1300, recording Qalhat and Niswa in Oman, Kalba and Khor Fakkan in present-day Sharjah, and pearl fishing off Bahrain and Qatif.
When is the 35th Abu Dhabi International Book Fair?
ADIBF 2026 runs 13–18 September at ADNEC Centre Abu Dhabi. tbreak’s sessions guide is at https://tbreak.com/abu-dhabi-book-fair-2026-sessions/.
