Ibn Battuta — "The women here are not veiled, and they are not shy. They speak openly with men."
The women here are not veiled, and they are not shy. They speak openly with men.
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More from Ibn Battuta
"I was once caught in a sandstorm in this land. The sand was so thick I could not see my hand in front of my face."
"I saw in this city a strange custom: the women do not veil themselves, and they are not ashamed of this."
"Their women are not modest, and they do not veil themselves."
"The children in this land run around naked, even in the marketplace. It is a strange sight to behold."
"I was once offered a camel as a gift, but I declined, for I had no place to keep it."
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.