Ibn Battuta — "I saw a mountain in this land that was made entirely of salt. It was a truly ast…"
I saw a mountain in this land that was made entirely of salt. It was a truly astonishing sight.
Get This Quote & Author's Image Illustrated On:
Click any product to generate a realistic preview. Up to 3 at a time.
* Initial load can take up to 90 seconds — revising the preview in another color is nearly instant.
Kitchen
Apparel
Other
More from Ibn Battuta
"The women of this country are very attractive, and they do not cover their faces."
"I saw a tree that bore fruit that tasted like honey, and it was very delicious."
"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."
"I was once attacked by a band of robbers in this land. I fought them off with my sword and managed to escape with my life."
"The people here have a strange custom of chewing betel nuts. Their mouths are always red, and they spit everywhere. It is not very appealing."
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.