Travels with a Tangerine

"Captivated by this inquisitive, indefatigable man, Tim Mackintosh-Smith, in the tradition of earlier Arab authors, set out to write a dhyal to his book - a 'tail', or continuation of the original train of writing. Travels with a Tangerine follows the first stage of the Moroccan's eccentric journey, from Tangier to Constantinople. Destinations include an Islamic Butlin's in the Egyptian desert, Assassin castles in Syria, the Kuria Muria Islands in the Arabian Sea, the shores of the Cimmerian Bosphorus and some of the greatest cities of medieval Islam. Mackintosh-Smith travels both in Ibn Battutah's footsteps and in the footnotes of his text, rooting out memorabilia of the man and his age - buffalo-milk puddings, fishbone houses, a scholar's pen box, an Aleppan pulpit, a Crimean minaret, dancing dervishes and the scions of defunct dynasties. And there are other, unlooked-for discoveries: time suddenly regained.".