Ibn Battuta — "I saw a river in this land that flowed with milk and honey. It was a miraculous …"
I saw a river in this land that flowed with milk and honey. It was a miraculous sight, though I suspect it was a trick of the light.
I saw a river in this land that flowed with milk and honey. It was a miraculous sight, though I suspect it was a trick of the light.
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"The Chinese are infidels, but they are a good people."
"Who lives sees, but who travels sees more."
"The women of this land are very beautiful, but they paint their faces with a white paste that makes them look like ghosts."
"The people of this country are very skilled in archery, and they can shoot an arrow with great accuracy."
"The people of this land believe that if you eat the heart of a lion, you will become brave. I did not try it myself."
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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