Ibn Battuta — "I once rode an elephant in this land. It was a bumpy ride, and I was afraid I wo…"
I once rode an elephant in this land. It was a bumpy ride, and I was afraid I would fall off.
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More from Ibn Battuta
"I was once shipwrecked on an island where the people were cannibals. I managed to escape by pretending to be mad."
"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."
"In India, I met a yogi who stood on one leg for twelve years. When I asked why, he said it was to get closer to God. I think he was just mad."
"The people of this country are not good, and they are not hospitable."
"I was greatly astonished at these people, and their women, who do not observe any modesty towards men."
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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