Another book that I'm using in my first-year seminar next fall at Ole Miss. This book is a tough read because of the author's extensive vocabulary & penchant for using British expressions (I've had to look up a few words/expressions). But it's a very intriguing look at the contemporary Middle East through the eyes of a classically-trained "Orientalist" scholar who clearly appreciates Arab/Islamic culture, but can also bring a critical perspective. It's also just a hilarious, witty romp.

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Product Description

In 1325, the great Arab traveler Ibn Battutah set out from his native Tangier in North Africa on pilgrimage to Mecca. By the time he returned nearly thirty years later, he had seen most of the known world, covering three times the distance allegedly traveled by the great Venetian explorer Marco Polo—some 75,000 miles in all.

Captivated by Ibn Battutah’s account of his journey, the Arabic scholar and award-winning travel writer Tim Mackintosh-Smith set out to follow in the peripatetic Moroccan’s footsteps. Traversing Egyptian deserts and remote islands in the Arabian Sea, visiting castles in Syria and innumerable souks in medieval Islam’s great cities, Mackintosh-Smith sought clues to Ibn Battutah’s life and times, encountering the ghost of “IB” in everything from place names (in Tangier alone, a hotel, street, airport, and ferry bear IB’s name), to dietary staples to an Arabic online dating service— and introducing us to a world of unimaginable wonders.

By necessity, Mackintosh-Smith’s journey may have cut some corners (“I only wish I had the odd thirty years to spare, and Ibn Battutah’s enviable knack of extracting large amounts of cash, robes and slaves from compliant rulers.”) But in this wry, evocative, and uniquely engaging travelogue, he spares no effort in giving readers an unforgettable glimpse into both the present-day and fourteenth-century Islamic worlds.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #338737 in Books
• Published on: 2004-06-08
• Released on: 2004-06-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780812971644
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
The author (Yemen: The Unknown Arabia), a British Arabist who has lived in Yemen for the past 17 years, traces the footsteps of an extraordinary, but relatively unknown, medieval explorer. Ibn Battutah (1304-1368) grew up in Tangier within an educated family. At the age of 21, he embarked on a pilgrimage to Mecca and spent the next 30 years traveling throughout the Middle and Far East. When Mackintosh-Smith happened on a translated version of Battutah's travels, he was hooked and decided to make the same journey. This volume covers only the first part of Battutah's path, from Tangier to Constantinople, but has enough excitement, exotic details and information to satisfy the most exacting armchair traveler. The author brings his research skills, scholarship and respect for all cultures to bear on Battutah's adventures and his own. Written with humor and style, he describes how Battutah "schmoozed with sultans" in Denizli, Turkey. In Damascus, the author enjoys a brain burger for breakfast before visiting the Umayyad Mosque, a structure Battutah detailed in 10 pages and referred to as "the greatest Mosque on earth." Throughout this narrative, Mackintosh-Smith provides enough anecdotes about Battutah's knowledge of aphrodisiacs, the foods he ate, the hardships he endured, the people he met and, most tellingly, the wonders he beheld to bring this unique daredevil and his times to life. B&w illus.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
In 1325, great Moroccan traveler Ibn Battutah set out on a 29-year pilgrimage from his native Tangiers to Mecca. In this studious and charming account, Arabic scholar Mackintosh-Smith, Thomas Cook Travel Book Award winner for Yemen: Travels in Dictionary Land, attempts to retrace Ibn Battutah's route on the first stage of his legendary journey, cutting a wide swath from Tangiers to Constantinople via Egypt, Syria, Oman, Anatolia, and the Crimea. Mecca, which is verboten to the non-Muslim author, is not included. Mackintosh-Smith writes with a delectable wit, offering a fascinating glimpse into both the present-day and 14th-century Islamic worlds. He makes his experiences intelligible to the Western reader with numerous allusions, e.g., "Ibn Battutah was born not just in a medieval Age of Aquarius, but in its California." This captivating travel narrative may spur readers to tackle the original travels of Ibn Battutah. Recommended for all collections. Ravi Shenoy, Naperville P.L., IL
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
A British expat long resident in Yemen, Mackintosh-Smith wrote Yemen: The Unknown Arabia (2000), appreciated by reviewers for its humor and discernment. He vindicates that reception in this absorbing time-out-of-joint travelogue that stretches from Morocco to Oman to the Crimea. The 1990s jostle the 1320s in this itinerary, for Mackintosh-Smith aims to see places visited centuries ago by Ibn Battutah, who wrote a venerable work of Arabic literature, the Travels. Starting in Battutah's home of Tangiers, the author seeks out the adventurer's tomb but, believing it is a fake, then seeks out a reliable source on Battutah, the most recent editor of his book. This palaver augurs happily for the entire narrative, for everyone the author meets perks up at the mention of Battutah, giving directions of varying accuracy to medieval mosques and tombs surrounded or obliterated by modern construction. The reader finishes wanting more; the good news is, there will be. The author intends to write sequels inspired by Battutah's voyages to India and China. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Customer Reviews

Interesting and extensive history
'Travels with a Tangerine' is an excellent travel book and history book that chronicles the adventures of Ibn Battuta, one of the most famous Muslim explorers of the Euroepean 'Middle Ages'. Mackintosh-Smith, a 17-year resident of Yemen, follows "IB's" route from Morocco to Egypt to the Saudi Arabian peninsula to the Crimea and Istanbul, IB's 'Travels' as his main guide. Mackintosh-Smith's adventures are as compelling as IB's, and it is remarkable how much has not changed in the almost 700 years since IB began what was a 25-year journey that took him to China and back. The narrative is both entertaining and informative; however, it was a little dense at times, and I wish I knew more about IB and Muslim history before I started the book. The author gives one of the most balanced accounts of the modern Muslim world that I have ever read, and it's great to read about regular people who respect themselves and others, in contrast to the sensationalistic news reports we are bombarded with every night. A good book and a great adventure.

Worth the effort
If you are interested in the genre of travel writing where it merges with history then this book is worth the effort that it takes to read it. It takes a chapter, or two, to get used to the style of writing. Unlike so many other books of this type the editor has permitted the author to keep the quirks of style that allow the reader to acknowledge the presence of the individual rather than the blandness found in so many other books. As a result you gain an insight into the worlds of the author and IB. The fact that Mackintosh-Smith speaks fluent Arabic gives a depth to the book that is rare in similar works.
I read this book slowly and with great interest. Having some knowledge of the history of the region does help but is not a prerequisite. The reader is taken on a slow journey into a region of the world that is all to often portrayed as bordering on permanent chaos. It is not a book for someone who wants to skim or is disinterested in the minutiae of traveling in the footsteps of a long gone traveler. The end result is a satisfying and enjoyable read.

Polymath tells all
A retracing of some of the journeys (Morocco, Egypt, Syria, Southern Arabia, the Kuria Muria Islands,Turkey and the Crimea)of the fourteenth century traveller, Ibn Battuta.
The author is a British born and educated Yemen resident, fluent in classical and colloquial Arabic and deeply learned in history and music. The book contains quotations in French, German, Russian (in the Cyrillic alphabet), Turkish and Greek. I thought I'd caught him misquoting Pliny, but then realized he was making a Latin joke. Some of his polyglot puns are outrageous. In The Umayyad mosque in Damascus he found Ismailis and Shiites at prayer, but that the orthodox were keeping the Sunni side up.
The long digressions on obscure Arab writers and religious teachers and the intrusive parade of erudition might put some people off. It's a bit like reading Umberto Ecco where some readers, such as myself, get entranced by the writer's flattering assumption that we are as clever as he is.
He travelled rough and travelled alone. He explains at one point that he cannot marry because he is an "ah, orientalist." He shows much interest in, and sympathy with, the Moslem religion but I got the impression that. like his fellow orientalist, TE Lawrence, he likes Arabs best if they are poor and rural, a faintly patronizing attitude.