Ibn Battuta — "In Constantinople, I saw a church so large it could hold ten thousand people. Th…"
In Constantinople, I saw a church so large it could hold ten thousand people. The Christians there worship idols, but their buildings are magnificent.
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More from Ibn Battuta
"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."
"Traveling gives you home in a thousand strange places, then leaves you a stranger in your own land."
"The people of this country are very ignorant, and they do not know the religion."
"The Sultan of this country has a thousand wives, and he treats them all equally."
"I was given a sword as a gift, and it was made of very fine steel."
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.