Ibn Battuta — "The Chinese use paper money, which is the strangest thing I have ever seen. A ma…"
The Chinese use paper money, which is the strangest thing I have ever seen. A man can carry around his entire wealth in his sleeve!
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More from Ibn Battuta
"In Anatolia, I met a dervish who could make himself invisible. Or at least, that's what he claimed. I never saw him do it."
"In Mali, I saw a man eat an entire roasted sheep by himself, and then drink a bucket of sour milk. The people there have stomachs like camels."
"The women of this country are very beautiful, and they wear rings on their toes."
"The women of this land are very beautiful, and they do not cover their faces, even in the presence of men."
"The women here are very beautiful, and they do not cover their faces. This is a custom that is not found in other Muslim lands."
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.
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