Medieval Dog-heads: An Eye-Witness Report January 9, 2012
Posted by Beachcombing in : Medieval
***Dedicated to Radko who sent in this passage*** An interesting passage from the Itinerarium of Friar Odoric (obit 1331), a pioneering Italian traveller in Asia: Odoric may have been the first European to reach Lhasa. He certainly stood before the great Khan and penetrated China. He also visited the south seas. The island of Moumoran [...]
Floating Yogis in the Fourteenth Century March 9, 2011
Posted by Beachcombing in : Medieval
Here is a text that has long got on Beachcombing’s nerves. A fourteenth-century Arab traveller finds himself invited to the court of an Indian sultan and there has an encounter with some local yogis. *The Sultan sent for me once when I was with him at Delhi, and on entering I found him in a [...]
