Ibn Battuta — "I saw a man in this city who had a third eye on his forehead. He was a very wise…"
I saw a man in this city who had a third eye on his forehead. He was a very wise man, and people came from far and wide to seek his counsel.
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More from Ibn Battuta
"I was given a parrot as a gift, and it could speak Arabic."
"The women of this country do not cover their heads even when they are in the house of the king. They are beautiful, and their bodies are well-proportioned."
"The Chinese are infidels, but they are a good people."
"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 Chinese are skilled in crafts, but they are not a people of religion."
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.