Ibn Battuta — "The people of this city are mean and stingy, and they are not generous."
The people of this city are mean and stingy, and they are not generous.
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More from Ibn Battuta
"The children in this land run around naked, even in the marketplace. It is a strange sight to behold."
"The people of this country eat dogs and pigs, and they do not care about cleanliness."
"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 women here are not veiled, and they are not shy. They speak openly with men."
"The people of this city are very hospitable. They invited me into their homes and fed me delicious meals, even though I was a stranger."
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.