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 Chinese are infidels, but they are a good people."
"I set out alone finding no companion to cheer the way with friendly intercourse. and no party of travelers with whom to associate."
"I saw a bird in this land that was as big as an ostrich, but it had a long neck like a giraffe. It was a most peculiar creature."
"The people of this country are very fond of chess, and they play it all day long."
"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.