Ibn Battuta — "I saw in this country many things that are contrary to Islam."
I saw in this country many things that are contrary to Islam.
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More from Ibn Battuta
"The inhabitants of this country are all polytheists, and they worship idols. They have a temple where they perform their rites."
"The women of this country do not cover their heads even when they are in the house of the king. They are beautiful, and their bodies are well-proportioned."
"The Chinese are a people who do not have a strong belief in God."
"In the Sahara, I saw a man who claimed to be 350 years old. He looked like a dried-up lizard, but the locals believed him."
"The dogs in this land are very fierce. They bark at strangers and try to bite them. I had to carry a stick to fend them off."
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.