Ibn Battuta — "The women of this country are very beautiful, and they wear rings on their toes."
The women of this country are very beautiful, and they wear rings on their toes.
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More from Ibn Battuta
"The Chinese are a people who are very skillful, but they are not religious."
"The people of this land believe that if you eat the heart of a lion, you will become brave. I did not try it myself."
"In India, I met a yogi who stood on one leg for twelve years. When I asked why, he said it was to get closer to God. I think he was just mad."
"Among their odious customs is that women do not veil themselves, and they are not ashamed of this. Many of the women I saw were more beautiful than the men."
"I saw a woman who had a beard, and she was very old."
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.