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 people of this country are very fond of wrestling, and they hold contests every day."
"They are a people who do not know how to fight, and they are a cowardly people."
"I saw a fish in this land that had legs and could walk on land. It was a most extraordinary creature."
"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."
"I once rode an elephant in this land. It was a bumpy ride, and I was afraid I would fall off."
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.