The Semiotics of Travel: A Comparative Study of Ibn Battuta and Ibn Fattouma

Abstract

This study explores travel discourse through the dual lenses of realism and symbolism by comparing Ibn Battuta’s Rihla and Naguib Mahfouz’s The Journey of Ibn Fattouma. It examines how journeys are represented as narratives that integrate lived experience, moral reflection, and symbolic imagination within Arabic literature. The research addresses the overarching question: How do these two journeys articulate human experience through realism and symbolism? Specific questions include: 1. What realistic and symbolic elements characterize each narrative? 2. How are titles, characters, temporal-spatial settings, events, and language employed as semiotic systems? 3. In what ways do the two journeys converge and diverge in their narrative and symbolic functions? Using a comparative semiotic approach, the study analyzes the texts as interconnected systems of signs, highlighting the interplay of reality and imagination in constructing meaning. Findings reveal that Ibn Battuta’s travels document lived reality through historical and geographical observation, while Mahfouz’s narrative employs symbolic representation to explore ethical, existential, and spiritual dimensions. The analysis underscores the dual function of travel discourse: documenting experience and engaging with moral and imaginative insights. The study concludes that travel literature, whether historical or fictional, reflects humanity’s pursuit of knowledge and transcendence, and recommends integrating travel narratives into educational contexts to foster intercultural awareness, ethical reflection, and empathy.