Landfalls: On the Edge of Islam from Zanzibar to the Alhambra
In Travels with a Tangerine (2004) and The Hall of a Thousand Columns (2006), Mackintosh-Smith traced much of the journey of legendary fourteenth-century explorer Ibn Battutah, whose pilgrimage to Mecca became a 30-year journey through the medieval Islamic world and beyond. With his latest selection, Mackintosh-Smith follows �IB,� as he calls the explorer, on the final leg of his journey. Here, we pick up the voyage in a forgotten corner of Zanzibar before departing to the Maldives, where IB became a prominent local jurist and enjoyed as many as 10 wives; then, on to Sri Lanka and Hong Kong before returning to West Africa and, finally, Andalucia. It is, as always, a fascinating voyage. Though the enigmatic, larger-than-life IB only occasionally comes into crisp focus�indeed, the trip seems to raise more questions about him than it answers�the real centerpiece is, in many ways, Mackintosh-Smith himself, whose witty observations and passion for capturing the �fast and tangled flow of raw reality� remind us that travel is about more than just changing one�s location. As the world shrinks and a virtual visit to any of the world�s most exotic places is but a quick tap of a smart phone away, fear not: travel writing is alive and well. --Brendan Driscoll--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.