Unit 1: The Global Tapestry, 1200-1450

"The negroes possess some admirable qualities. They are seldom unjust, and have a greater abhorrence of injustice than any other people.... There is complete security in their country. Neither traveller nor inhabitant in it has anything to fear from

"The city is beyond dispute the finest and the noblest in the world. It has ten principal marketplaces.... Each of these squares is half a mile on each side, and along the main street which runs from end to end of the city, there are houses and great

"When we saw so many cities and villages built in the water and other great towns on dry land, and that straight and level causeway going towards Tenochtitlan, we were amazed and said that it was like the enchantments they tell of in the legend of Am

"The Sultan of India is the most powerful of Muslim rulers, and the most generous. He gives gifts of a value rarely exceeded by any other ruler.... When any traveller arrives at the capital, he must present a gift to the sultan proportionate to his r

"The church presents a most glorious spectacle, extraordinary to those who behold it and altogether incredible to those who are told of it. In height it rises to the very heavens and overtops the neighboring buildings like a ship anchored among them.