Ibn Battuta — "I saw a man whose body was covered with hair, and he had a tail like a monkey."
I saw a man whose body was covered with hair, and he had a tail like a monkey.
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More from Ibn Battuta
"In this country, the women are beautiful, and they do not wear veils. They are skilled in spinning and weaving."
"The inhabitants of this country are all polytheists, and they worship idols. They have a temple where they perform their rites."
"The dogs in this land are very fierce. They bark at strangers and try to bite them. I had to carry a stick to fend them off."
"The women here are not veiled, and they are not shy. They speak openly with men."
"I was once shipwrecked on an island where the people were cannibals. I managed to escape by pretending to be mad."
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.