Ibn Battuta — "The people here have a strange custom of chewing betel nuts. Their mouths are al…"
The people here have a strange custom of chewing betel nuts. Their mouths are always red, and they spit everywhere. It is not very appealing.
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More from Ibn Battuta
"In this city, I saw a strange thing. The women do not veil themselves, and they do not show any shame for this."
"The people of this land are a bad people, and they are not trustworthy."
"I saw a market in this city where they sold human flesh. It was a most disturbing sight, and I quickly left."
"The people of this city are very skilled in craftsmanship. They make beautiful pottery and intricate textiles."
"I went on board, leaving my companions behind, and saw the Sultan of India, the most generous, courageous, and powerful of men, but without a drop of mercy in his heart."
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.