Talk:Ibn Battuta
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I would like to voice thanks for this article. When I saw it, I thought I know that name, but I have forgotten where I read it!. On reading the article, I recalled that it was a hilarious parody of reviewers' comments within the framework of Ozymandias treated as a scientific research report.
The opening line:
- I met a traveller from an antique land...
was greeted with:
- As the report appears to be based on field observations by another geologist, we suggest that joint authorship would be appropriate.
In the rewritten version Shelley's co-author was given as Ibn Battuta. At long last I now get the joke.
I would share more of the original but I believe that the above marks the boundaries of fair use for copyright purposes. --Alan Peakall 17:46 Oct 23, 2002 (UTC)
Is this page intended to be read by native English speakers who are not Muslims? If so, this sentence is pretty foolish: "...Ibn Battuta went on a hajj -- a pilgrimage to Makkah." If someone does not know what the hajj is, there's about zero chance that he/she/it will ever have heard of Makkah, and just about a dead certainty that "pilgrimage to Mecca" would have been understood instantly. Of course, they can follow the link to find out what Makkah is; but then, they could follow the link to hajj, couldn't they? Why give the non-explanation here?
To insist on the use of a name not used by major English-language news media or reference works (cf. http://www.encyclopedia.com/html/x/x-m1akka.asp ), and not known to about 90% of native speakers of the language, is to insist on politics in place of communication. Dandrake 01:33, Jan 20, 2004 (UTC)