The Hall of a Thousand Columns
by Tim Mackintosh-Smith
John Murray, $228
When we last left 14th-century adventurer Ibn Battutah in Travels with a Tangerine, he was at the edge of the old Muslim world. In The Hall of a Thousand Columns, Tim Mackintosh-Smith crosses the Arabian Sea by dhow, headed for Delhi and the court of Muhammad Shah ibn Tughluq, whose empire stretched from the Indus river to the Malabar coast. In part two of his trilogy based on the Tangier-born traveller who visited most of the known world between 1325 and 1355, he follows his hero to Delhi, around the Malabar coast, visits the Maldives and scales Adam's peak in Sri Lanka, checking his progress with Ibn Battutah's book, The Precious Gift for Lookers into the Marvels of Cities and the Wonder of Travel. Mackintosh-Smith's focus switches from the past to the present, finding in modern India echoes of its earlier self. His work is informed by a deep study of Arab history and the philosophy of religion. The Independent says 'it seems that Ibn is just a swish of a robe ahead'. This is quirky intellectual adventure of the best kind.