Ibn Battuta Mall

I went out to lunch today with DH and one of his coworkers. We decided to meet him at a local mall and select a restaurant from the food court options. Since the Ibn Battuta Mall is near the office, that was selected as our noon time destination.

This mall is most interesting because it has a STORY. That's right. It has some history. It has historic markers in it and signage to read. The mall is named for a famous Morroccan Berber Islamic scholar and traveler, Hajji Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn Battuta . He traveled around the globe in the 1300's and documented his wanderings.

This mall devotes a court to each of the major areas where Ibn Battuta spent time. Since I only went there for lunch, I didn't get to explore the whole place, just the parts of the mall we walked through on our way to the restaurant of choice. We hit the Indian Court and the Persian Court. The elephant is a dead giveaway for the Indian court. So is the architecture of the arches, ceilings and moldings.

It's amazing, really. Like having shops in the middle of a museum. The attention to detail in the carvings, paint and decor is truly transcendent. You begin to feel like you are walking along in an Indian pavilion. It was all I could do to keep moving and not stop and gawk like a tourist. I started imagining all the malls in the US trying to find one that is unique, and they all tended to run together in my brain.

Sure, MN has the Mall of America and it is big. But it's not a documented travel through exotic lands like Ibn Battuta is.

The next area we wandered through was the Persian Court. Stylistically, Persia and its influences spawned some of the greatest carpets and ironwork of the past century--and the court in the mall didn't disappoint.
Pervasive use of the color of the sky is symbolic of holiness and holy places. The Persian Court had delicate mosaics that covered every wall and column. The pointed archways were covered with intricate designs. The chandeliers were lantern style punched ironwork scaled to fit the soaring spaces. The ceiling spaces were complicated and sophisticated wooden latticework.

The rich colors and ornate details made walking through the Persian quarter feel like a walk through a harem or a sheikh's palace. The whole feel of the area was completely different from the Indian Court. The stores are the same as stores in any mall. There are kiosks in the center of the aisles hocking all kinds of junk you don't need. It is a modern shopping mall. But Ibn Battuta has a lot of appeal going for it. It's just not an average mall. When I get the other five courts explored, I'll post some more pictures.

--Sandee Wagner