Ibn Battuta — "The people of this country are very ignorant, and they do not know the religion."
The people of this country are very ignorant, and they do not know the religion.
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More from Ibn Battuta
"I was once attacked by a band of robbers in this land. I fought them off with my sword and managed to escape with my life."
"The women here are not veiled, and they are not ashamed to show their beauty."
"They are a people who do not know how to fight, and they are a cowardly people."
"The Sultan of this country has a thousand wives, and he treats them all equally."
"The Chinese are a people who do not have shame, and they do not care about their honor."
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.