[Muhammed ibn Abdullah ibn Battuta (1303-1369), Moroccan, travelled throughout Asia, including India, Africa, including across the Sahara in West Africa and along the East African coast, the Middle East, and Muslim Spain. Compare with Marco Polo's description, "Reading A"]

The Chinese are infidels. They warship idols and burn their dead as the Indians do. The King is a Tatar of the lineage of Tankiz Khan.

In every city of China is a quarter where the Muslims live separately and have mosques for their Friday prayers and other assemblies. They are highly regarded and treated with respect. The Chinese infidels eat the meat of pigs and dos and sell it in the bazaars. They live comfortably and in affluence but take little care about their food and clothing. You will see an important merchant whose wealth is beyond reckoning wearing a tunic of coarse cotton. All the Chinese pay attention only to gold and silver vessels. Every one of them has a walking stick on which to lean when walking and they call it the third leg.

Silk is extremely plentiful for the worms attach themselves to fruit, eat it and need little care. This is why it is plentiful and the poor and the destitute dress in it. If it were not for the merchants [trading in it] it would have no value. Among them a single robe of cotton is sold for the price of many of silk.

…

p.892,3

It is the custom of the Chinese that when a junk wishes to set sail, the admiral and his secretaries come aboard and record the archers, servants and sailors who will sail; the junk is then free to leave. When it returns they come aboard again and compare what they recorded with the persons [on the junk]. If one of those recorded is missing they question the owner of the junk about him, asking for proof that he is dead, or has escaped, or whatever else it may be has happened to him. If he cannot provide this he is arrested.

When they have done that they order the ship’s master to dictate to them a manifest of all the merchandise in it, whether small or great [in value]. Then every one disembarks and the customs officials sit to inspect what they have with them. If they come upon any article that has been concealed from them the junk and whatever is in it is forfeit to the treasury. This is a kind of extortion I have seen in no country, whether infidel or Muslim, except China. However, there used to be something like it in India, in that anyone detected with an article which had evaded financial dues should be fined eleven times the amount. Then the Sultan suppressed it when he suppressed the dues.

…

p.896,7

… In one part of this city is the town of the Muslims who have there the congregational mosque, the hospice and the bazaar. They have a qadi [Islamic Judge] and a shaikh and in every town in China there is a Shaikh al-Islam to whom all the affairs of the Muslims are referred. There is also a qadi who gives judgements among them. I lodged with Auhad al-Din of Sinjar, a distinguished, important and very wealthy man I stayed with him for fourteen days. Gifts to me from the qadi and the other Muslims came continuously. Every day there was a fresh banquet to which people came in splendid skiffs with singers. There is no city, either of infidels or of Muslims, beyond this city…

p.899

When we arrived the qadi, the shaikh of Islam and the merchants came to meet us with flags, drums, trumpets and bugles and musicians. They brought us horses which we mounted. Except for the qadi and the shaikh they walked in front of us and did not ride with us. The amir of the town and his attendants came out to meet us for the Sultan’s guest is treated by them with the utmost respect. We entered the city, which has four walls. Between the first and second walls live the Sultan’s slaves, both the city guards and the night watchmen. The latter are called baswanan. Between the second and third walls are the cavalry and the amir who governs the town. The Muslims live within the third wall and there we alighted with their shaikh Zahir al-Din al-Aurlani. The Chinese live inside the fourth wall. It is the biggest of the four cities. The distance from each gate to the next is three to four miles. As we have said everyone has his orchard, his house and his field.

p.906

Qan is the designation of whoever governs the kingdom and rules [different] regions, as whoever rules the lands of the Lur is called Atabak. His name is Pashay. The infidels have no kingdom bigger than his on the face of the earth.

His palace is in the middle of the city designated for his residence. It is built mostly of carved wood. It is admirable planned and has seven gates. At the first gate sits the kutwal who is in charge of the gatekeepers. To the right and left of the gate are raised benches on which sit the mamluk pardadariya who guard the palace gate. There are five hundred of them and I was told that in former times there used to be a thousand. At a second gate sit the sepahis, who are the archers and number five hundred. At the third gate sit the nizdaris, who are the spearmen and number five hundred. At the fourth gate sit the tighdaris, who are men with swords and shields. In the fifth gate is the office of the Wazir with many galleries. The Wazir sits in the biggest on an imposing elevated seat with they call the place of the throne. In front of the Wazir is a big gold inkstand. This faces the gallery of the confidential secretary. To the right of this is the gallery of the secretaries for correspondence. To the right of the Wazir’s gallery is that of the secretaries for finances. Opposite these are four other galleries. One of them is called the office of control, in which sits the controller. The second is the office of the mustakhraj. Its director is one of the great amirs. It is concerned with what is payable by the officials and amirs in respect of their fiefs. The third is the office of appeals, in which sits on of the great amirs with jurists and secretaries. Anyone who has suffered an injustice appeals to them. The fourth is the office of the post, in which sits the controller of the reporters of news. At the sixth gate of the palace sit the jandaris and their supreme commander. At the seventh gate sit the eunuchs, who have three galleries, on for the Abyssinians, the second for the Indians, and the third for the Chinese. Each of these corps has a Chinese officer.