Ibn Batuta in Kalikut, India
We then came to the city of Fattan (Pattan), the greater part of the inhabitants of which are Brahmin class, who are held in great estimation among the Hindous. In this place there was not one Mohammedan. Without them there was a mosque, to which the Mohammedan strangers resort. It is said to have been built by certain merchants, and afterwards to have been destroyed by one of the Brahmins, who had removed the roof of it to his own house. On the following night, however, this house was entirely burnt, and in it the Brahmin, his followers, and all his children. They then restored the mosque, and in future abstained from injuring it; whence it became the resort of the Mohammedan strangers.
Next we came to the city of Fandaraina, a beautiful and large place, abounding with gardens and markets. In this the Mohammedans have three districts, in each of which is a mosque, with a judge and preacher.
We next came to Kalikut, one of the great ports of the district of Malabar, and in which merchants from all parts are found. The king of this place is an infidel, who shaves his chin just as the Haidari Fakeers of Room do. When we approached this place, the people came out to meet us, and with a large concourse brought us into the port. The greatest part of the Mohammedan merchants of this place are so wealthy, that one of them can purchase the whole freightage of such vessels as put in here; and fit out others like them.
Here we waited three months for the season to set sail for China: for there is only one season in the year in which the sea of China is navigable. Nor then is the voyage undertaken, except in vessels of the three descriptions following: the greatest is called a junk, the middling sized a zaw, the least a kakam. The sails of these vessels are made of cane-reeds, woven together like a mat; which, when they put into port, they leave standing in the wind. In some of these vessels there will be employed a thousand men, six hundred of these sailors, and four hundred soldiers. Each of the larger ships is followed by three others, a middle-sized, a third-, and a fourth-sized. These vessels are nowhere made except in the city of El Zaitun in China, or in Sin Kilan, which is Sin El Sin. They row in these ships with large oars, which may be compared to great masts, over some of which five and twenty men will be stationed, who work standing. The commander of each vessel is a great Emir. In the large ships too they sow garden herbs and ginger, which they cultivate in cisterns (made for that purpose and) placed on the sides of them. In these also are houses constructed of wood, in which the higher officers reside with their wives: but these they do not hire out to the merchants. Every vessel, therefore, is like an independent city. Of such ships as these, Chinese individuals will sometimes have large numbers: and, generally, the Chinese are the richest people in the world.
Translation from: The Arabic
IBN BATUTA [ 1304- 1377]