Ibn Battuta — "I was once offered a camel as a gift, but I declined, for I had no place to keep…"
I was once offered a camel as a gift, but I declined, for I had no place to keep it.
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More from Ibn Battuta
"The food in this land is very spicy. My mouth was on fire after every meal, but I still enjoyed it."
"In Mali, I saw a man eat an entire roasted sheep by himself, and then drink a bucket of sour milk. The people there have stomachs like camels."
"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."
"The men of this land wear skirts instead of trousers. It is a strange fashion, but they seem comfortable in it."
"The people of this city are very hospitable. They invited me into their homes and fed me delicious meals, even though I was a stranger."
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.
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