Ibn Battuta — "The inhabitants of this country are all polytheists, and they worship idols. The…"
The inhabitants of this country are all polytheists, and they worship idols. They have a temple where they perform their rites.
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More from Ibn Battuta
"I went on board, leaving my companions behind, and saw the Sultan of India, the most generous, courageous, and powerful of men, but without a drop of mercy in his heart."
"The men of this land wear skirts instead of trousers. It is a strange fashion, but they seem comfortable in it."
"In Constantinople, I saw a church so large it could hold ten thousand people. The Christians there worship idols, but their buildings are magnificent."
"The people of this city have a strange custom of burying their dead in trees. It is a very unusual sight."
"The women of this country do not veil themselves, and they are not shy. They are very beautiful."
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.