Books for Keiki
Arabic man's epic journey adapted as children's book

By Jolie Jean Cotton

Author James Rumford based this picture on his memories of traveling in Afghanistan some years ago.

"Sadly serendipitous," is how Manoa author and illustrator James Rumford describes the timing of the publication of his latest children's book, "Traveling Man," about an Arabic scholar who roamed the world.

Rumford has been working on the project for years, hoping that, in part, the book might help to open up a long-needed dialog between people here who write in the Arabic form and their fellow Americans. The picture book just arrived in bookstores here and around the country.

"Traveling Man" chronicles the 75,000-mile journey of Ibn Battuta, in the 14th century, from his birthplace in Tangier, Morocco, to China, Russia and Tanzania.

In the opening pages Rumford writes:

"On maps, he would trace his finger along scarlet roads to reach the vermilion stars that marked the great cities of the world. On hot afternoons, in an imaginary boat, he would cross cool, peacock-colored seas to the eastern edge of the earth and sail fearlessly into the Ocean of Ignorance.

"When he grew up, he wore the turban of a scholar and could recite the Koran. At twenty-one, he decided to go to Mecca as a pilgrim. Here begins his story."

Ibn Battuta's extraordinary journey takes him first by camel to Egypt, then to Jerusalem. By boat he travels to Africa. Crossing Asia, he is struck by a rebel's arrow, but is able to continue on to Delhi. Ibn Battuta travels for nearly 30 years, captivated with each new land, meeting wise men and bandits, narrowly escaping death by the wrath of an angry sultan, fatal storms and plague. Any child who loves adventure can't help but be enthralled.

And throughout Rumford's perfectly paced, lyrical text are brilliant descriptions of the joys of traveling, like this one: "Traveling — it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller."

"Traveling Man," chronicles the 75,000-mile journey of Ibn Battuta in the 14th century, from his birthplace in Tangier, Morocco, to China, Russia and Tanzania.

"Here was a story of a man much like myself," said Rumford. "He had wanted to travel and see the world. Although his mission was often religious and mine was more secular, we still seemed to hold the same fascination."

Rumford is himself a world traveler who knows more than a dozen languages. His fascination with Arabic calligraphy and Arabic cartography began in a California high school when he became friends with a student from Iran. In college, Rumford's interest in Arab maps resurfaced. It was then that he made an album of places he'd like to visit some day: Andalusia (southern Spain), Egypt, Transoxiana (Kazakstan), India and the East Indies. In graduate school at Berkeley, he studied Persian.

Rumford's travels began when he and his wife Carol joined the Peace Corps. They saw Africa and Asia, and in 1974 moved to Afghanistan.

"I bought the reed pens used for Arabic calligraphy and several bottles of Chinese colored ink. I filled notebook after notebook with flowing shapes. In the winter, the Peace Corps paid for a master calligrapher to come to my house. With the snow falling outside, this calligrapher corrected my awkward strokes as I wrote stanzas from Saadi and Hafiz. Then over tea, we would discuss the poems and what they meant."

The Rumfords lived in Afghanistan for a year. After the birth of their son, they went to Saudi Arabia. It was there Rumford discovered an English abridged translation of Ibn Battuta's book. But it wasn't until two years ago, at his home in Manoa, Rumford began to think seriously about retelling Ibn Battuta's story.

"I thought how this book might make a good children's book because it could introduce children to a different world, a world that had fascinated me," Rumford said.

When Rumford showed a photocopy of the book to a fourth grade class at a Hawai'i school last year, one student asked, "Can you read this?" gesturing to the flowing letters in the book. "Yes," he said. "Can you?" And she said she could, as she was Yemeni. Rumford asked the girl to come to the blackboard and write her name so the other students could see how beautiful the writing is. She did.

Later, "I got letters from the kids," Rumford said. "She had gone back to that classroom, and all those kids wanted to have her teach them how to write in Arabic. Her name is Mona. I just hope that those kids that asked her to teach them to write their names in Arabic are still her friends. I hope that cemented something, an understanding, that was essential, that is essential now."

"With this book, I hope that kids will be interested in traveling or learning more about the world, then maybe go backwards in time and learn more about the world a long time ago." Rumford said. "Especially at this time."