Ibn Battuta — "I saw in this city many things that are contrary to our religion."
I saw in this city many things that are contrary to our religion.
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More from Ibn Battuta
"I saw a tree that bore fruit that tasted like honey, and it was very delicious."
"The people of this city are very religious. They pray five times a day and fast during the month of Ramadan."
"I was once caught in a sandstorm in this land. The sand was so thick I could not see my hand in front of my face."
"The animals in this land are very wild. I saw a leopard once, and it was so close I could almost touch it."
"Traveling offers you a hundred roads to adventure, and gives your heart wings!"
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.