Rating: 
Summary: Interesting and extensive history
Review: 'Travels with a Tangerine' is an excellent travel book and history book that chronicles the adventures of Ibn Battuta, one of the most famous Muslim explorers of the Euroepean 'Middle Ages'. Mackintosh-Smith, a 17-year resident of Yemen, follows "IB's" route from Morocco to Egypt to the Saudi Arabian peninsula to the Crimea and Istanbul, IB's 'Travels' as his main guide. Mackintosh-Smith's adventures are as compelling as IB's, and it is remarkable how much has not changed in the almost 700 years since IB began what was a 25-year journey that took him to China and back. The narrative is both entertaining and informative; however, it was a little dense at times, and I wish I knew more about IB and Muslim history before I started the book. The author gives one of the most balanced accounts of the modern Muslim world that I have ever read, and it's great to read about regular people who respect themselves and others, in contrast to the sensationalistic news reports we are bombarded with every night. A good book and a great adventure.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting and extensive history
Review: 'Travels with a Tangerine' is an excellent travel book and history book that chronicles the adventures of Ibn Battuta, one of the most famous Muslim explorers of the Euroepean 'Middle Ages'. Mackintosh-Smith, a 17-year resident of Yemen, follows "IB's" route from Morocco to Egypt to the Saudi Arabian peninsula to the Crimea and Istanbul, IB's 'Travels' as his main guide. Mackintosh-Smith's adventures are as compelling as IB's, and it is remarkable how much has not changed in the almost 700 years since IB began what was a 25-year journey that took him to China and back. The narrative is both entertaining and informative; however, it was a little dense at times, and I wish I knew more about IB and Muslim history before I started the book. The author gives one of the most balanced accounts of the modern Muslim world that I have ever read, and it's great to read about regular people who respect themselves and others, in contrast to the sensationalistic news reports we are bombarded with every night. A good book and a great adventure.
Rating: 
Summary: Polymath tells all
Review: A retracing of some of the journeys (Morocco, Egypt, Syria, Southern Arabia, the Kuria Muria Islands,Turkey and the Crimea)of the fourteenth century traveller, Ibn Battuta.
The author is a British born and educated Yemen resident, fluent in classical and colloquial Arabic and deeply learned in history and music. The book contains quotations in French, German, Russian (in the Cyrillic alphabet), Turkish and Greek. I thought I'd caught him misquoting Pliny, but then realized he was making a Latin joke. Some of his polyglot puns are outrageous. In The Umayyad mosque in Damascus he found Ismailis and Shiites at prayer, but that the orthodox were keeping the Sunni side up.
The long digressions on obscure Arab writers and religious teachers and the intrusive parade of erudition might put some people off. It's a bit like reading Umberto Ecco where some readers, such as myself, get entranced by the writer's flattering assumption that we are as clever as he is.
He travelled rough and travelled alone. He explains at one point that he cannot marry because he is an "ah, orientalist." He shows much interest in, and sympathy with, the Moslem religion but I got the impression that. like his fellow orientalist, TE Lawrence, he likes Arabs best if they are poor and rural, a faintly patronizing attitude.
Rating:
Summary: Polymath tells all
Review: A retracing of some of the journeys (Morocco, Egypt, Syria, Southern Arabia, the Kuria Muria Islands,Turkey and the Crimea)of the fourteenth century traveller, Ibn Battuta.
The author is a British born and educated Yemen resident, fluent in classical and colloquial Arabic and deeply learned in history and music. The book contains quotations in French, German, Russian (in the Cyrillic alphabet), Turkish and Greek. I thought I'd caught him misquoting Pliny, but then realized he was making a Latin joke. Some of his polyglot puns are outrageous. In The Umayyad mosque in Damascus he found Ismailis and Shiites at prayer, but that the orthodox were keeping the Sunni side up.
The long digressions on obscure Arab writers and religious teachers and the intrusive parade of erudition might put some people off. It's a bit like reading Umberto Ecco where some readers, such as myself, get entranced by the writer's flattering assumption that we are as clever as he is.
He travelled rough and travelled alone. He explains at one point that he cannot marry because he is an "ah, orientalist." He shows much interest in, and sympathy with, the Moslem religion but I got the impression that. like his fellow orientalist, TE Lawrence, he likes Arabs best if they are poor and rural, a faintly patronizing attitude.
Rating:
Summary: Greater than Marco Polo, Ibn Battuta, my 600 year old friend
Review: From a fragment in a Yemeni library retraces the some of the steps of the greatest traveller of the pre-industrial age. What is remarkable about this book is that Tim Mackintosh still encounters all the problems that Ibn Battuta did. In fact Ibn Battuta is a very modern traveller that we can empathise with, he gets a stomach bug, he wonders about getting laid, he gets ripped off by suspect guides and "wimps" out in one part of the story.
This book is not just a great travel book, but in the post 9/11 world it gives you another face to the Islamic World: the hospitality, the cultural diversity and rich culture.
Thank you very much Mr Makintosh-Smith for introducing me to our mutual 600 year old friend Ibn Battuta
Read and enjoy
Rating: 
Summary: How bad can it get ?
Review: I am very literate, educated and well traveled.I have read over 40,000 pages a year for twenty years, and have written a book. I never made it past page 85 of this messy manuscript. The overuse of prentious words was amazing, and the whole book, which could have been intresting was boring beyond belief. Give it a skip!
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful exploration and dispelling of Orientalism
Review: I purchased my copy of the book while visiting London. The title of the British publication is: Travels with a Tangerine: A Journey in the Footnotes of Ibn Battutah. Leave it to the US to change it to include Islam in its subtitle, a timely and opportunistic alteration while it continues its imperial Crusade in that region. Nevertheless, the book is great. Americans do need to understand that British and American English are different and one needs to have an understanding of that difference to truly enjoy the greatness of this book.
What I enjoyed most was the matter-of-fact manner in which MacIntosh-Smith maintains such great respect for the people of the Middle East and North Africa; he speaks from a level playing field, something often missing in American international travel writing. American author Paul Theroux comes close but there's still a sense of arrogance or superiority in his writings. But with MacKintosh-Smith, I felt my guide was a true humanitarian, seeing each person as a jewel, rather than a spectacle of a stereotyped "foreigner" we in the US have come to believe about anyone who isn't "American." But he IS the foreigner after all, isn't he? That's where the respect comes in; he recognizes he is the guest and should behave as such, and he does naturally.
There is certainly plenty of humor in the book though, despite he doesn't have to do it by poking fun at people for who they are; instead he chooses to poke fun at each individual incident. Very appealing for those of us who don't need humiliation of a different culture to lift us up to that superior post we think we hold, but who prefer recollections of incidental human follies and frailties that occur amongst all of us.
I don't want to write too much on the content; that's for you to read and enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Surprisingly interesting, even handed view of modern Arabia
Review: I was drawn to this book after realizing that, having done my share of low budget travel in Asia, I would comprehend more from a travel narrative about Arabia then the hyperbolie in the Press and the flood of books proclaiming insights into Islam. I was not disappointed, and in fact was pleasantly surprised at how well Mackintosh-Smith tells his story. His premise, to retrace the route of the famous 14th century Morroccan traveler Ibn Battutah, allows the book to easily offer up comparisons of life in the hey day of Islamic civilization versus our own modern day time of war. This is one of its strengths and delights. You can readily see that people in many ways have not changed much. I found it refreshing to read of MacKintosh-Smith's many encounters with everyday devote Muslims as they visited the tombs of saints and in true hospitality took him under their care. I was also delighted to learn so much about the southern coast of Oman, a place that looks totally deserted on maps of the Arabian Peninsula, but which turns out to be home to (mostly) very friendly people. It reminded me in some ways of travelogues from rural towns and the midwestern United States where life is slower and people pay more attention to travelers. And like the midwest, instead of raving fundamentalist Muslim fanatics, time after time MacKintosh-Smith encounters educated, polite people who try to help him in his quest even if it seems a bit bookish and impractical to them. (Several people try to tell him, " That was 700 years ago, things are different today!") The book is not perfect of course - it does have it's slow moments. These seem to come chiefly when MacKintosh-Smith gets caught up in describing his own state of mind rather than keeping to his formidable powers of describing the scene around him. There is a certain awkwardness when he tries to reveal some of his own more private encounters but then at the last minute drops it and leaves you hanging. And things can get slow when due to the ravages of time he can find no connection between where he is and what was there in Battutah's day. Lastly, the book does not cover all of Battutah's travels, just the first third. Oh well - small price to pay for what is overall a very pleasurable and informative read. Through MacKintosh-Smiths's eyes I have gained a sense of how an ordinary Muslim citizen in the Middle East lives. I look foward to reading more should MacKintosh-Smith continue the journey and publish another volume.
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty dry for a travel book
Review: I'm a huge fan of travel books plus a Moroccophile, so I thought this book would be just the ticket. Unfortunately the author's style is quite dry. He spends a great deal of time visiting tombs and non-existent shrines to saints. Really, it's quite boring. What about the food? The people? How the author (completely fluent in Arabic) manages to travel through such an interesting part of the world and not have daily random travel adventures is beyond me. I've had more adventure walking down the street to the produce shop.
I wouldn't recommend it to anyone unless they were really into shrines or liked Arabic poetry.
If you're looking for some great travel writing, try Bill Bryson's "In a Sunburned Country", Anthony Bourdain's "A Cook's Tour", or any of the short travel story collection books by Lonely Planet.
Rating:
Summary: A Little Slow
Review: I've traveled in Turkey, Egypt, Morocco, and southern Spain, so I have a great interest in Arab and Muslim history and culture. Despite this, I found this book almost painful to read. The author spends most of his time visiting the hardly noteworthy tombs of historically unimportant saints while managing to have few even remotely interesting or enlightening experiences along the way. I just don't understand the point of this. If you want to learn a little about this part of the world, I would recommend "Call to Prayer: My Travels in Spain, Portugal and Morocco," which is a much quicker and more fun read.
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