Ibn Battuta — "I saw a man in this city who had a pet monkey that was trained to steal things f…"
I saw a man in this city who had a pet monkey that was trained to steal things from people's pockets. It was quite amusing to watch.
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More from Ibn Battuta
"The Sultan of this country has a thousand wives, and he treats them all equally."
"The women of this country are very beautiful, and they wear silk clothes, but they are not veiled."
"The women here are beautiful, and they do not veil themselves. This is a strange thing in a Muslim country."
"I was invited to a feast, and they served me a dish of roasted dog."
"The people of this city are very hospitable. They invited me into their homes and fed me delicious meals, even though I was a stranger."
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.