Better than devouring the tangerine
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This is the sequel to "Travels with a Tangerine", following the journey of Ibn Battutah, a 14th century scholar from Tangier. This book looks at Ibn Battutah’s career in what is now India, and it is not necessary to have read the previous book to enjoy this one. Indeed, I think this is a better book in a number of ways. Mackintosh-Smith’s style is now more confident and more open, less dry than in the earlier account, and whereas he was self-effacing in "Travels with a Tangerine", he and his illustrator Martin Yeoman have more of a presence in this one, which for me gave the book greater accessibility. Mackintosh-Smith is an Oxford-educated Arabist, but unlike many in the Oxbridge mafia that dominates British publishing, he is both erudite and enthralled by his subject. There are some annoyances. He has the linguist’s genetic weakness for an excessive use of puns, and some of the humour is juvenile. I suspect the author went to an English public school, which has consigned him to the sad fate of never really growing up. But these are minor irritations in a book which is generous, humane and gives us a glimpse of one of the world’s great historical travellers. There is a worthy underlying text here too, with Mackintosh-Smith, a long-term resident of Yemen, showing us how respect for a proud and hospitable Arab civilisation can produce an amicable and productive relationship between cultures.
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