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. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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 --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

NEW YORK TIMES
Mackintosh-Smith seems incapable of writing a dull sentence, and in him the scholar, the linguist and the storyteller swap hats --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review
“A thoughtful work of an intensely curious scholar who can write better than most novelists.”
—The New York Times Book Review

“Learned, smartly observant, and very readable . . . An admirable rarity.”
—The New Republic

“Intoxicating, dazzlingly erudite, yet full of gentle wit and informed by its author’s profound knowledge of Muslim society, this book is a breathtaking achievement.”
—Sunday Times (London)

KIRKUS REVIEWS
A literate journey into exotic territory by a traveler with an unusual depth of knowledge . . . A vigorous, humorous debut that --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Book 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.

About the Author
TIM MACKINTOSH-SMITH was studying Arabic at Oxford when he first visited Yemen and became obsessed with the place and its language. He has lived there since 1982. His first book, YEMEN: THE UNKNOWN ARABIA, won the Thomas Cook/Daily Telegraph Travel Book Award and was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year in 2000. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.