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 saw a mountain in this land that was made entirely of salt. It was a truly astonishing sight."
"In Mali, I saw a man eat an entire roasted sheep by himself, and then drink a bucket of sour milk. The people there have stomachs like camels."
"The women of the Maldives go about naked from the waist up, and they are the most beautiful women I have ever seen."
"They are a people who do not know how to fight, and they are a cowardly people."
"The people of this city are very fond of music and dancing. They have festivals every night, and the streets are always full of revelry."
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.