Ibn Battuta — "The water in this land is very pure and refreshing. I drank so much that I felt …"
The water in this land is very pure and refreshing. I drank so much that I felt like a fish.
Get This Quote & Author's Image Illustrated On:
Click any product to generate a realistic preview. Up to 3 at a time.
* Initial load can take up to 90 seconds — revising the preview in another color is nearly instant.
Kitchen
Apparel
Other
More from Ibn Battuta
"I was greatly astonished at these people, and their women, who do not observe any modesty towards men."
"The people here have a strange custom of chewing betel nuts. Their mouths are always red, and they spit everywhere. It is not very appealing."
"The people of this city are not honest, and they are not righteous."
"I was once given a ride on a boat made of reeds. It was very flimsy, and I was afraid it would sink."
"The people of this land are a bad people, and they are not trustworthy."
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.