Alhastri

Musa ibn Amir Alhastri (الحستري) (Hastr, 1309 - London, 1370), also known to European authors as Benamirus, was a traveller, encyclopaedist and religious missionary, all combined into one. A large and flamboyant man - more than six and a half feet tall, with a red beard and a booming voice - he roamed throughout Europe, the Middle and Far East and Northern Africa collecting customs, beliefs and scientific knowledge. These data he compiled, until his death, into the unfinished Mirror of the World, a work to show that "the glory of Allah covers all the Earth alike".

He was extremely devout, never failing of his daily prayers, and attracted attention wherever he went. He often returned to his native Xliponia, but died in England of an illness contracted on one of his travels.