Travels with a Tangerine

Travels with a Tangerine – Tim Mackintosh-Smith

In 1325, a young man from Tangier named Ibn Battutah set out on a pilgrimage to Mecca. He did not return home for nearly thirty years, during which he traveled across much of the known world, from North Africa and the Middle East to Central Asia, India, China and East Africa, covering a greater distance than Marco Polo. His account of these journeys is one of the great travel books of history.

In Travels with a Tangerine: A Journey in the Footnotes of Ibn Battutah, British writer and Arabist Tim Mackintosh-Smith, who has lived for many years in Yemen, sets out to follow in the footsteps of the medieval traveler, whom he affectionately calls the Tangerine, after his hometown.

Mackintosh-Smith begins in Tangier and travels through Morocco, Egypt, Syria, Turkey, Oman and other countries along Ibn Battutah’s route, searching for traces of the places, people and customs his predecessor described seven centuries earlier. He visits tombs, mosques, markets and ruins, and meets an array of fascinating people, discovering what has changed and what has endured.

Blending history, travel writing and humor, the book brings Ibn Battutah’s world to life while offering vivid portraits of the contemporary Middle East and North Africa. Mackintosh-Smith’s deep knowledge of Arabic language and culture adds richness and insight to his observations.

Witty, erudite and absorbing, Travels with a Tangerine is a delight for lovers of travel writing, history and the Islamic world, and the first part of the author’s journeys in the footsteps of Ibn Battutah.