Ibn Battuta — "The Chinese are infidels, but they are a good people."
The Chinese are infidels, but they are a good people.
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More from Ibn Battuta
"I was once invited to a feast where they served a dish made of camel hump. It was surprisingly delicious, though I had my reservations at first."
"I saw in this city many things that are forbidden in Islam."
"I saw in this city a strange custom: the women do not veil themselves, and they are not ashamed of this."
"The infidels are many in this land, and they are very strong."
"They eat human flesh, and they consider it a delicacy."
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.