Ibn Battuta — "The women of this land dye their teeth black. It is considered beautiful, but I …"
The women of this land dye their teeth black. It is considered beautiful, but I found it quite strange.
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More from Ibn Battuta
"The Chinese are a people who do not have shame, and they do not care about their honor."
"The women of this land are very beautiful, but they paint their faces with a white paste that makes them look like ghosts."
"The women of this land are very beautiful, and they do not cover their faces, even in the presence of men."
"In the Sahara, I saw a man who claimed to be 350 years old. He looked like a dried-up lizard, but the locals believed him."
"The women of this country are more beautiful than the men, and they are not veiled."
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.