I once knew a guy who would pick a place he wanted to visit, then come up with some obscure ministry connection and raise funds so he and his wife could vacation for free. Battuta was the forerunner of this method. He was basically a leach who traveled around living off the hospitality of the people he visited. He overstated his importance, whined when he wasn't treated according to what he felt was his due and meddled in local affairs until things turned against him, at which point he would take off. He left behind him, or so he says, a trail of wives, concubines and slave girls and their children. A lot of authorities doubt he really went to all the places he said he visited or that he was esteemed as much as he claimed he was. For the most part, he just sounds like a jerk.