Landfalls: On the Edge of Islam with Ibn Battutah

by Tim Mackintosh-Smith

Following on Travels with a Tangerine (a New York Times Notable book) and The Hall of a Thousand Columns , here is the third volume in the author's passionate pursuit of the 14th-century traveler who out-traveled Marco Polo   For Ibn Batuttah of Tangier, being medieval didn’t mean sitting at home waiting for renaissances, enlightenments, and air travel. It meant traveling the known world to its limits. Seven centuries later, Tim Mackintosh-Smith’s fascination takes him to landfalls in remote tropical islands, torrid Indian Ocean ports, and dusty towns on the shores of the Saharan sand-sea. His zigzag itinerary across time and space leads from Zanzibar to the Alhambra (via the Maldives, Sri Lanka, China, Mauritania, and Guinea) and to a climactic conclusion to his quest for the man he calls "IB"—a man who who spent his days with saints and sultans and his nights with an intercontinental string of slave-concubines. Tim’s journey is a search for survivals from IB’s world—material, human, spiritual, edible—however, when your fellow traveler has a 700-year head start, familiar notions don’t always work.

Genres: Travel, History, Nonfiction, Middle East, Islam, Biography

370 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Tim Mackintosh-Smith is an eminent Arabist, translator, and traveler whose previous publications include Travels with a Tangerine and Yemen. He has lived in the Arab world for thirty-five years and is a senior fellow of the Library of Arabic Literature.

Reviews

[Daren · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the final installment of Tim Mackintosh-Smith's epic trilogy following the route of 14th-century traveller Ibn Batuttah of Tangier. It follows Travels with a Tangerine and The Hall of a Thousand Columns and unsurprisingly is "more of the same".

Tim Mackintosh-Smith (TMS) really has lived this project, over ten years retracing the route, spending time in the same places, and tracking down landmarks and the history of the people, but even more the history of Islam at the time. It shows a huge level of motivation to complete a trilogy of this scope especially the Islamic aspect, given TMS is not Muslim.

This time around we commence in Tanzania, then move on to the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong and China. West Africa is next (Mali, Mauritania and Guinea) before closing out in Andalusia (Spain) and Gibraltar. IB travelled much further, making return trips to various places, and even an epic crossing of the desert in Northern Africa to reach Mali. TMS wisely opted for no re-visitations and some air travel.

Having fairly recently re-read the first two books, it wasn't a huge surprise that this was a much slower read than I normally manage. I probably read 20 books in between starting and finishing this one. While TMS has a sense of humour that comes through in his writing quite readily, he delves fairly deeply into details, and into sideline events, often on a tangent, and this added some unnecessary padding. He also falls into a trap about which I have complained before - in assuming his reader has even a basic understanding of French. There are two or three dialogues in the West Africa section of the book which are fairly crucial to what is happening, that are recounted in French. Yes it is my failing, not his, but ultimately if I can't be bothered looking for a translation, it means I disengage from the thread.

It was nice to complete the journey of IB with TMS, accompanied in part again in this book by Martin Yeo, who created most of the sketched illustrations, but as it became such hard work to complete, it fell a star from the previous efforts.

3 stars.

[David Canford · Rating 3 out of 5]

The third in a trilogy where the author travels in the footsteps of Ibn Battutah, who explored the then known world in the fourteenth century. I chose this one as the locations - Zanzibar, Maldives, Sri Lanka, West Africa and Andalucia - appealed to me.
The author deserves five stars for his ambitious travels (especially in Mauritania, Mali and Guinea - where few westerners take the dangerous routes he did), and his detailed knowledge and impressively wide vocabulary; few books have had me looking up so many words new to me.
Sadly, the actual content was something of a disappointment. Somehow it was not really that interesting for a lot of the time, even tedious on occasion.
If you judge a book by whether you’re sorry it’s ended, that wasn’t the case for me with this one so I probably won’t read the first two books in the series. Though would be interested in reading his book about Yemen, a country I know little of.

[Jesse · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yet another astonishment in this trilogy where our intrepid historian/translator/traveler follows 14th-century traveler Ibn Battuta around the fringes of the Muslim world, searching for traces and learning how much Islam really transformed these various cultures. (And, of course, reflecting on his own decade-plus tracing IB's own peregrinations, with TM-S's reflections on IB's reflections on the end of his journey as well as his own.) Vivid, witty stuff, from China and the Indian Ocean over to Spain, with numerous stops on the way. Read the trilogy in order to get the best flavor.

[Dolf van der Haven · Rating 5 out of 5]

A worthy completion of the author's Ibn Battutah trilogy, where he completes his journey following the footsteps of the 14th century traveller. This time he takes us to Zanzibar, Maldives, Sri Lanka, China, Mauritania, Mali, Guinée and Spain.
The writing is back at the level of the first book, Travels with a Tangerine. Tim actually manages to find here quite some contemporary traces of IB and also manages to find himself in many culture-clashing situations. All written in his usual tongue-in-cheek style and with the cute illustrations by Martin Yeoman.

[Ellis Amdur · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes wanders off in less than interesting vignettes, but his writing can be gorgeous . . .the section on the balafon and the dance and people surrounding it is among the most beautiful descriptive writing I’ve ever encountered

[Harry · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had no right to be as appallingly dull as it was. A travelogue around the remote "coasts" of the Islamic world, written by a prominent Arabist, it ought to have been entirely engrossing. It was not. Tim Mackintosh-Smith fails to grasp the most basic tenet of travel writing: that it's writing about travel, not (unless you are a writer of the highest Chatwinian order) about the traveller. Across Zanzibar, Sarandib, Qitong, Mali and Andalusia, we hear a great deal about Mackintosh-Smith and how he feels about things, and relatively little about places and peoples. Dull and solipsistic in the extreme.

[Alan Fricker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Last of the series and a return closer to the form of the first book. Slightly jarring in places in some fairly retro language

[Aseel Almolliyeh · Rating 1 out of 5]

Could not finish. The pretentiously cluttered writing style was insufferable and made the book painfully hard to follow!

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

The travel narrative aspect was terrific, but I found the story a bit bogged down in Islamic detail at times. Moreover, as the author himself admits at one point, I B could be rather sanctimoniously hypocritical, with all his philandering.

I wouldn't quibble with someone else giving the book a fourth star, but this one just couldn't hold my interest consistently. I'd be right keen on reading a new book of Tim's though.

[Tiffany · Rating 2 out of 5]

Others love this author and I wish I did because the subject (Ibn Battutah) is fascinating. But I read all three books in this trilogy and I just wish a more interesting writer had made the same journey so I could have a better appreciation of the Marco Polo of the Arab world.

[Liz Wager · Rating 5 out of 5]

wonderful -- the last of Tim Mackintosh-Smith's delightful trilogy following 14th century traveller Ibn Battutah

[Rahul Singh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tim Mackintosh Smith is great story teller..... Vivid painting of the lands visited by Ibn Battutah..

[James Emmans · Rating 3 out of 5]

Found the read hard going, due to my lack of knowledge on the subject. But learnt a lot.