There are some, but they’re pretty rare. These days we medieval historians like to argue that medieval Europe wasn’t really behind the rest of the world in science and technology and philosophy and anything else of interest…but nevertheless, the Muslim world in Europe, Africa, and Asia, and the Byzantine world and anyone else further east, typically did think it was an uninteresting and backwards land of barbarians that was hardly worth visiting.

Muslim perspectives

Medieval Muslims loved to travel, but they mostly only travelled to other parts of the Muslim world. They travelled to the famous centres of learning in Spain, Cairo, Baghdad, Central Asia and India…but rarely ever outside of Muslim territory.

"Western Europe did not have that much to offer to them in terms of intellectual learning, philosophy, medicine, architecture, and the arts” (Classen, pg. 67)

"Western Europe held few attractions to the medieval Muslims; from their perspective their own culture was so obviously more sophisticated and advanced…Muslims knew little and cared less about Europe; it just did not impinge much on their world view." (Hillenbrand, pg. 267-268)

Based on the writings of the 2nd-century Greek geographer Ptolemy, Muslims divided the world into 7 regions. The Middle East and North Africa were at the centre, with the best climate and the best people. Europeans inhabited the most inhospitable climates, which of course affected their appearance and character. They were good at warfare and hunting, but

“…were of melancholic temperament and prone to savagery. They were also filthy and treacherous.” (Hillenbrand, pg. 270)

The 10th century traveller Al-Mas’udi wrote:

"The power of the sun is weak among them because of their distance from it; cold and damp prevail in their regions, and snow and ice follow one another in endless succession. The warm humour is lacking among them; their bodies are large, their natures gross, their manners harsh, their understanding dull, and their tongues heavy. Their color is so excessively white that it passes from white to blue; their skin is thin and their flesh thick. Their eyes are also blue, matching the character of their coloring; their hair is lank and reddish because of the prevalence of damp mists. Their religious beliefs lack solidity, and this is because of the nature of cold and the lack of warmth." (Quoted in Hillenbrand, pg. 270)

Ibn Fadlan visited eastern Europe in the 10th century during a diplomatic mission to the Bulgars living along the Volga river. He also encountered the Scandinavian rulers of Kievan Rus’ (now the Ukraine and Russia). His descriptions of them are maybe a bit unbelievable, possibly meant to amaze and titillate his readers back home. The Rus’ didn’t wear much clothing, men and woman swam and bathed together and bared their genitals in public, and sometimes had sex with slaves right in front of everyone, among other things. In short they had poor manners and morals, something that Muslims observers would frequently complain about when writing about Europeans.

Another traveller was Harun ibn Yahya, who was actually a prisoner captured in Palestine and brought to Rome in the 9th century. When he was released he travelled around Italy, but also wrote about lands as far away as France and Britain, after which “there is no civilization beyond”. But did he actually visit these places himself? Some historians suggest that he may have just been copying from Ptolemy and other Greek authors, to show off his education.

Muslims who actually lived in what we think of as Europe today, in Spain and Sicily, were also still influenced by Ptolemy and earlier Muslim authors. The 12th-century Sicilian geographer al-Idrisi described northern Europe as full of ice and snow, surrounded by the freezing cold sea. Likewise, Ibn Jubayr, who was from Spain, travelled throughout the Muslim world but generally avoided Christians and Christian lands entirely (apart from the crusader states in the Near East, which were unavoidable). He begrudgingly travelled on a boat with Christian pilgrims, but stayed away from them because he found them smelly and unhygienic.

Muslims in the crusader states were familiar with European settlers but were uninterested in learning anything about where they came from. Usama ibn Munqidh, a poet and diplomat from Damascus, befriended a Frankish crusader who offered to take Usama’s son to Europe. Usama couldn’t imagine anything more preposterous!

In the 14th century, Ibn Battuta travelled all over the known world, from west Africa to China - but not to Europe. He visited to Constantinople and Mongol territory north of the Black Sea, but never any further west.

"The idea that Frankish religion, philosophy, science, or literature might be of any interest does not seem to have occurred to anyone at all. It is not until the late fourteenth century, after several centuries of commercial and diplomatic relations, that we first encounter in an Arabic writer the merest hint of the possibility that such things might even exist in Europe." (Lewis, pg.149)

Lewis is referring to Ibn Khaldun’s 14th-century encyclopedia, the Muqaddimah. Even Ibn Khaldun paid very little attention to Europe, but he did add:

"We have heard of late that in the lands of the Franks...the philosophic sciences are thriving, their works reviving, their sessions of study increasing, their assemblies comprehensive, their exponents numerous, and their students abundant." (quoted in Lewis, pg. 149)

But there was no reason to go there. Everything a Muslim could possibly want to see or learn about was within Muslim territory in Africa and Asia. No point visiting the cold northern latitudes, which were probably inhabited by barbarian ice giants, as far as Muslims knew or cared.

Eastern Christian visitors

Byzantine Greeks had a lot of contact with western Europe but they didn’t really seem to like travelling at all. They had basically the same opinion as the Muslims - their own world was the height of culture and learning, so why bother learning about or visiting other places? Byzantium was the Roman Empire, the centre of the Christian world, so there was no use in travelling elsewhere. Other peoples should come visit them. Occasionally diplomats might appear in the west and marriage alliances might be made, but if Byzantines wanted to go on religious pilgrimages or travel for educational purposes, there was nothing of interest for them in western Europe.

In the 10th century, emperor Constantine VII wrote a sort of diplomatic manual, commonly referred to in Latin as De administrando imperio (although it was of course written in Greek). It mentions some information about far away lands like Spain, France, and Italy, as well as closer parts of Europe like Hungary, Bulgaria, Moravia, and Kiev. But the information is mostly historical. There isn’t really any interest in contemporary events.

When westerners came to Constantinople, some Byzantines were interested in them. Anna Komnene wrote about the crusaders who arrived in 1096-1097, their languages, their homelands, their arms and armour, etc…but neither she nor any other Byzantine would have considered actually visiting the west. Westerners were meant to visit them, not the other way around.

Only much later in the 15th century, when the Empire had been reduced to the land immediately surrounding Constantinople, did Byzantines really travel to the west in large numbers. By then they were on the brink of being destroyed and they frequently came to the west to beg for help, which western Europe wasn’t very interested in giving. Even the emperors themselves travelled west. One of them even visited England. But as far as I know, they didn’t record any thoughts about Europe or the people living there.