Ibn Battuta — "The Chinese use paper money, which is the strangest thing I have ever seen. A ma…"
The Chinese use paper money, which is the strangest thing I have ever seen. A man can carry around his entire wealth in his sleeve!
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More from Ibn Battuta
"The women of the Maldives go about naked from the waist up, and they are the most beautiful women I have ever seen."
"In India, I met a yogi who stood on one leg for twelve years. When I asked why, he said it was to get closer to God. I think he was just mad."
"I was once shipwrecked on an island where the people were cannibals. I managed to escape by pretending to be mad."
"The people of this city are very religious. They pray five times a day and fast during the month of Ramadan."
"I saw a woman in this city who had a pet tiger. She walked it on a leash like a dog. I was quite astonished."
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.
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