He ultimately returned to Fez in 1353, twenty-eight years after he had set out on his travels.

Their chief interest is in showing the wide extent of Islam in his day, and the facilities which a common creed gave for extensive travel.

But the account of his journeys was written in Arabic, and had no influence on European knowledge, which, indeed, had little to learn from him after Marco Polo, except with regard to the Soudan.

With him the history of mediaeval geography may be fairly said to end, for within eighty years of his death began the activity of Prince Henry the Navigator, with whom the modern epoch begins.
Meanwhile India had become somewhat better known, chiefly by the travels of wandering friars, who visited it mainly for the sake of the shrine of St.Thomas, who was supposed to have been martyred in India.

Mention should also be made of the early spread of the Nestorian Church throughout Central Asia.