Ibn Battuta — "I saw in this country many things that are contrary to Islam."
I saw in this country many things that are contrary to Islam.
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More from Ibn Battuta
"The women here are not veiled, and they are not ashamed to show their beauty."
"I saw a man who had two heads, and another who had three legs, and another who had a hand like an elephant's trunk."
"The people of this place are not good, and they are not pious."
"I was given a parrot as a gift, and it could speak Arabic."
"The women of this land wear veils that cover their entire faces, so I could not see their beauty."
About Ibn Battuta (1304-1369)
Moroccan Muslim scholar and explorer whose Rihla (travels) covered ~75,000 miles across the Islamic world from Mali to China — the most-traveled person of the medieval world. Closely associated with Marco Polo (his Venetian counterpart, traveling 50 years earlier in the opposite direction). For an intellectual contrast, see medieval European Christian insularity, the sheltered monastic-feudal worldview of 14th-century Latin Christendom — Ibn Battuta's 30-year journey demonstrates that the 14th-century Dar al-Islam was a single intellectual ecosystem from West Africa to Beijing, while medieval Europe was still tribal and parochial. The cleanest 'connectedness vs insularity' contrast in pre-modern history — Battuta could find a familiar Maliki judge in any city from Mali to Sumatra.