Thank you for the research, I was way off! That's quite interesting. Thinking on it some more, I think her information may have come from something ibn Battuta

Thank you for the research, I was way off! That's quite interesting. Thinking on it some more, I think her information may have come from something ibn Battuta had written, which matches your time period, and also explains perhaps why she didn't have much to say about how well it worked. I also think the book was from the late 80's so I wouldn't be surprised if historians have learned much more since then!