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 people of this country are very clean, but they are not religious."
"The women of this country are more beautiful than the men, and they are not veiled."
"The inhabitants of this country are all polytheists, and they worship idols. They have a temple where they perform their rites."
"The Chinese are infidels, but they are a good people."
"I saw a bird that was as large as a camel, and it had a long neck."
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.