Ibn Battuta — "The people of this place are not good, and they are not pious."
The people of this place are not good, and they are not pious.
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More from Ibn Battuta
"The Chinese are skilled in crafts, but they are not a people of religion."
"The women of this country do not veil themselves, and they are not shy. They are very beautiful."
"I was once shipwrecked on an island where the people were cannibals. I managed to escape by pretending to be mad."
"I have indeed seen the Great Bird, Rukh, and it was a marvel to behold. Its wings were like mountains, and its cry was like thunder."
"In this city, I saw a strange thing. The women do not veil themselves, and they do not show any shame for this."
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.