The hall of a thousand columns : Hindustan to Malabar with Ibn Battutah

Format:

Book

Title:

The hall of a thousand columns : Hindustan to Malabar with Ibn Battutah

Author:

Mackintosh-Smith, Tim, 1961-

ISBN:

9780719562259

9780719567100

Publication Information:

London : John Murray, 2005.

Physical Description:

xi, 333 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

General Note:

Includes index.

Contents:

Dhow time -- Hindustan. A rank above the sun ; Time's daughters ; Hill tales from the plains ; Lost hearts ; As long as sun and moon endure ; The dome of the Sultan's tooth -- Malabar. Like mountains on the sea ; No admission without permission ; Inching to Anjidiv -- Appendix: Sultans of Delhi mentioned in the text.

Summary:

"Travels With A Tangerine, Mackintosh-Smith's first journey 'in IB's footnotes' left us on the eastern borders of the old Islamic lands. In his new chapter of this epic journey, sleuthwork, scholarship and luck lead Mackintosh-Smith through the memories of a man who died ten lifetimes ago. His aim is to sift tangible history from magical reality - and on the way he reveals an India far off the beaten path of Taj and Raj, where a dead Muslim poses as a Hindu deity, Jesus pops up in the pulpit of a mosque, and the rotten tooth of a mad sultan is revered as a saint." "Ibn Battutah left India penniless, stripped to his underpants by pirates; but he took away a treasure of tales. Back home in Tangier they said the treasure was a fake. Mackintosh-Smith proves the sceptics wrong: India was the jewel in the traveller's turban."--Jacket.

Personal Subject:

Mackintosh-Smith, Tim, 1961--Travel-India.

Ibn Batuta, 1304-1377-Travel-India.

Ibn Batuta, 1304-1377 (OCoLC)fst00019800

Mackintosh-Smith, Tim, 1961- (OCoLC)fst00393449

Subject(s):

India -- Description and travel.

India -- Civilization -- 1200-1765.

Geographic Term:

India -- Description and travel.

India -- Civilization -- 1200-1765.

India.

Added Author:

Yeoman, Martin.

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Salem Main Library	915.4 Mackintosh 2005	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

Tim Mackintosh-Smith's Travels with a Tangerine introduced the modern world to Ibn Battutah, 'Prince of Travellers'. Now they take to the road together once more for the next leg of Ibn Battutah's travels -- the great subcontinent of India.

Born in 1304, Ibn Battutah left his native Tangier as a young scholar of law. He returned nearly thirty years later having visited most of the known world between Morocco and China. To many contemporaries his tales were received as Munchausian fantasies -- and it was India that stretched his readers' credulity beyond the limit.

Tim Mackintosh-Smith traces in situ the dizzy ladders and terrifying snakes of Ibn Battutah's Indian career -- as judge and hermit, courtier and prisoner, ambassador and castaway. Over the course of his journey he also finds a dead Muslim posing as a Hindu deity, Jesus popping up in the pulpit of a mosque, and the rotten tooth of a mad sultan being revered as a saint.

Ibn Battutah left India stripped to his underpants by pirates; but he took away a treasure of tales as rich as any in the history of travel. Back home they said the treasure was a fake. What Mackintosh-Smith returns with proves the sceptics wrong: India is the jewel in the Prince of Travellers' turban.

Author Notes

Tim Mackintosh-Smith studied Classical Arabic at Oxford. For the past 17 years, he has lived in the Yemeni capital, San'a. He has also, for Picador, edited the writings of Ibn Battutah.