Ibn Battuta — "I set out alone finding no companion to cheer the way with friendly intercourse.…"
I set out alone finding no companion to cheer the way with friendly intercourse. and no party of travelers with whom to associate.
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More from Ibn Battuta
"The women of this land wear so many ornaments that they jingle when they walk. It is quite a noisy affair!"
"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."
"In the Sahara, I saw a man who claimed to be 350 years old. He looked like a dried-up lizard, but the locals believed him."
"The juggler then took the limbs of the boy and applied them one to another: he then stamped upon them, and it stood up complete and erect. I was astonished, and was seized in consequence by a palpitat…"
"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.