Ibn Battuta — "The women of this land dye their teeth black. It is considered beautiful, but I …"
The women of this land dye their teeth black. It is considered beautiful, but I found it quite strange.
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More from Ibn Battuta
"I was once offered a marriage proposal in this land, but I declined, for the women were too stout, and their customs too different from my own."
"The people of this country are very skilled in archery, and they can shoot an arrow with great accuracy."
"The people of this country are very hospitable, but they have a strange custom: they shave their heads and beards."
"The sea is one of the most powerful and wonderful things I have ever seen and I wish to remain by the sea all the time."
"The women of this city are very beautiful, but they are not modest."
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.