Ibn Battuta — "The people of this city are all black, and their teeth are white, and their wome…"
The people of this city are all black, and their teeth are white, and their women are very beautiful.
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More from Ibn Battuta
"The women of this land are very beautiful, but they paint their faces with a white paste that makes them look like ghosts."
"The people of this country are very clean, but they are not religious."
"I saw a magician in this city who could make a tree grow out of a basket. It was a truly astonishing trick, though I suspect some deception was involved."
"The women of this country do not veil themselves, and they are not shy. They are very beautiful."
"The women of this country are very beautiful, and they are treated with more respect than the men. They are not veiled, and they have no shame."
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.