Ibn Battuta — "I saw a fish that had a human face, and it was able to speak."
I saw a fish that had a human face, and it was able to speak.
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More from Ibn Battuta
"The women of this country are more beautiful than the men, and they are not veiled."
"The women of this land wear so many ornaments that they jingle when they walk. It is quite a noisy affair!"
"The fruits in this land are very sweet and juicy. I ate so many that my stomach ached."
"The Chinese are infidels, but they are a good people."
"The women of this country are very beautiful, and they wear silk clothes, but they are not veiled."
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.