Ibn Battuta — "I saw a man in this city who had a pet monkey that was trained to steal things f…"
I saw a man in this city who had a pet monkey that was trained to steal things from people's pockets. It was quite amusing to watch.
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More from Ibn Battuta
"I was given a sword as a gift, and it was made of very fine steel."
"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."
"I saw a man in this city who could swallow swords. It was a terrifying but fascinating performance."
"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."
"In this city, I saw a strange thing. The women do not veil themselves, and they do not show any shame for this."
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.