Ibn Battuta — "The people of this country are very hospitable, but they have a strange custom: …"
The people of this country are very hospitable, but they have a strange custom: they shave their heads and beards.
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More from Ibn Battuta
"The people of this place are not good, and they are not pious."
"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."
"I saw a snake in this land that was as thick as a tree trunk. It was a monstrous creature, and I quickly fled."
"I saw in this city many things that are contrary to our religion."
"The women of this country do not cover their heads even when they are in the house of the king. They are beautiful, and their bodies are well-proportioned."
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.