Ibn Battuta — "The people of this city are very fond of music and dancing. They have festivals …"
The people of this city are very fond of music and dancing. They have festivals every night, and the streets are always full of revelry.
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More from Ibn Battuta
"The women here are not veiled, and they are not shy. They speak openly with men."
"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 was once invited to a feast where they served a dish made of camel hump. It was surprisingly delicious, though I had my reservations at first."
"The people of this city are very skilled in craftsmanship. They make beautiful pottery and intricate textiles."
"The people of this country are very hospitable, but they have a strange custom: they shave their heads and beards."
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.